Thieves, Assassins, and Wizards

A Dance of Ghosts, by David Daglish. Book five of the Shadowdance series.

First off, I have to say that the tagline for this book is excellent. “The underworld trembles at the rise of the Sun…” The dual meaning between exposing dark deeds in the light of day, and the ascension of a new thieves guild known as the Sun resonates through the whole book. Well played indeed.

That said, this series continues to confuse me. The writing style that Daglish employs gives me the feeling of a book aimed at older children; heroes have impossibly cool fighting styles and improbable skills, characters are almost always optimistic and witty. Even when the protagonist are at their lowest, they’re still markedly better than everyone else. On the other hand, on of the viewpoint characters (and my favourite in this book) is introduced having been tortured constantly for four years, the book opens with dozens of men being burned alive, and atrocities abound throughout. And yet, somehow, it still feels lighter than it should.

The setting is your standard fantasy realm, with a focus on the city of Veldaren. In terms of setting the standard for the setting, the later books have been far better at reminding the reader that elves and orcs exist, and that magic is more likely to consist of fireballs and lightning bolts than subtle manipulation. In fact, my other favourite character is Tarlak the wizard, probably because he’s both a genuinely good person and also the source of all the flashy magic.

All that said, what about the plot? Well, it continues following up on leads provided at the end of the previous book, but I can’t help feeling that the story of the main character is over and he should bow out in favour of some of the secondary characters. Alternatively, it would certainly be interesting to see him descend to the level of the bad guys and end up as the eventual villain. That’s a possibility that this book raises (albeit quietly).

One final thing I should mention is that each book in this series has ended with a note from the author. Many books do this, but what I especially like about Daglish’s ones is that he discusses the decisions that went into writing the book and points out which parts were hardest to write and why. Very interesting.

So overall? If you’ve read the previous books in the series and enjoyed them then you won’t be disappointed with this one. If you haven’t read them, well, there’s nothing here that makes me want to force you to start, but they’re not bad. Pick up A Dance of Cloaks and see what you think.

Next time… oh man, I don’t know. Maybe wizards? Most of the books on my reading pile have wizards in them, so that’s a fair bet.

Gentlemen.

The Republic of Thieves, by Scott Lynch. Book three of the Gentleman Bastard sequence.

Throughout this book are enormous spoilers for the previous two books in the series. They are so big I’ve put this warning at the start of the review rather than the end. I’ll do my best not to spoil anything specific, but if you’re planning on reading this series (and you should be), you might want to stop reading this review in case it allows you to infer things that should be a surprise. Start with book one, The Lies of Locke Lamora.

Right, now that I’ve seen off the three people who read this blog, I can get to the review.

This series follows a gang of thieves who call themselves the Gentleman Bastards. Masters of sleight of hand, misdirection, and the long con, they live by a simple mantra: Thieves prosper; the rich remember. This book is, overall, a little lighter than the previous two in the series. There’s not as much sense of physical danger throughout it, but the emotional and political risks make up for it.

One thing I really like about this series is the fact that each book is split into two separate stories. There’s the story that’s mentioned (and possibly spoiled) on the blurb, and there’s the story of the Bastards’ past, as children learning the arts of thievery. Both share a common theme, though the plots of both are mostly unrelated. In this case, the common theme is Sabetha, Locke’s love interest. She’s been notably absent from the previous books, having left the Bastards for an undisclosed reason some time before the start of the first book, and the historical sections have thus far taken place while she’s been away. Her introduction (in both past and present) does not disappoint.

I have to say, I enjoyed both stories about equally, while in the previous books the story in the present has been much more relevant and entertaining. Maybe it’s because there’s more of a narrative to the past section this time, rather than a series of related events.

It’s especially nice to have a viewpoint character who’s actually a bit rubbish in a fight. Locke can hold his own if he has to, but that’s about the limit of it. He usually relies on smooth words and quick thinking to solve problems.

This book does have a slight feel of being a placeholder, marking the transition to the next stage of the story. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it does mean that this book stands on its own less well than the previous two. There are more plot hooks left hanging this time too, so I expect the series could get very interesting very quickly.

In conclusion, go read this series. It’s great.

Next up, more rogues and the like. Normally I try to vary the style of book I’m reading, bu this time I was constrained by luggage capacity. I can’t help but feel I’m going to be disappointed…