This review has been a long time coming. I made my first The Republic of Thieves post in October 2024, stating what I hoped to see in the book when I finally got to reading and completing it. Well, almost three and a half months later I have done it. I have read Scott Lynch’s The Republic of Thieves, and oh boy, what a wild ride it has been. I have been immersed, engrossed, and gripping the book for dear life during the whole reading process.

Spoiler warning!

This review talks about the final book in The Gentleman Bastard Sequence. It will mention details and call backs to the other books in the trilogy, The Lies of Locke Lamora and Red Seas Under Red Skies. If you are in the process of reading either book please do not continue reading this review. Come back to it once you have read The Republic of Thieves. The following paragraph is Goodreads’ blurb for The Republic of Thieves which will contain spoilers for the previous books. Please read at your our caution.

With what should have been the greatest heist of their career gone spectacularly sour, Locke and his trusted partner, Jean, have barely escaped with their lives. Or at least Jean has. Locke is slowly succumbing to a deadly poison that no alchemist or physiker can cure. Yet just as the end is near, a mysterious Bondsmage offers Locke an opportunity that will either save him or finish him off once and for all. Magi political elections are imminent, and the factions are in need of a pawn. If Locke agrees to play the role, sorcery will be used to purge the venom from his body – though the process will be so excruciating he may well wish for death. Locke is opposed, but two factors cause his will to crumble: Jean’s imploring – and the Bondsmage’s mention of a woman from Locke’s past: Sabetha. She is the love of his life, his equal in skill and wit, and now, his greatest rival. Locke was smitten with Sabetha from his first glimpse of her as a young fellow orphan and thief-in-training, but after a tumultuous courtship, Sabetha broke away. Now they will reunite in yet another clash of wills. For faced with his one and only match in both love and trickery, Locke must choose whether to fight Sabetha or to woo her. It is a decision on which both their lives may depend.

The plot is thrilling, dropping the reader in the deep end from the very beginning. The tension is still sky-high from the conclusion of Red Seas Under Red Skies, putting a strain on the whole operation. Jean is beside himself, Locke is slowly succumbing to this poison, and it seems the end is near – very near. Then we get thrown a lifeline, and that lifeline is full of snakes, shadows, and precarious deals that could put Locke and Jean in as much trouble as ever. But who could say no when Sabetha – yes, the Sabetha – is involved. Locke certainly cannot. The tension and political machinations make the plot a riveting, high-stakes narrative hooking in your every wisp of attention. The flashbacks also give an incredibly entertaining and engaging story to follow, linking past and present to support the actions and emotions of the characters. I will say the ending was a little light for me, but the epilogue carried so much weight and has be so excited to get my hands on The Thorn of Emberlain.

I will give another little spoiler regarding Locke and Sabetha – yes, Locke is still in love with her. Madly so. It was genuinely so refreshing to see such ardent love in an adult fantasy teeming with detailed violence, cunning characters, political intrigue, and intense ploys for power and riches. Locke is one of the most masculine characters I have read and he is beyond gone when it come to Sabetha. Having come off Red Seas Under Red Skies, and given the constant references to Sabetha, this is something I have been waiting to see for a very long time and I was pleasantly surprised by how strong his love is.

I was expecting a little more violence or perhaps at least scuffles in this one, but I am not disappointed by what was given. Considering the vivid detail and description of some pretty gnarly and awesome dark fantasy elements in The Lies of Locke Lamora, the trajectory of Red Seas Under Red Skies, and the prevalence of the Bondsmagi in The Republic of Thieves, I was expecting some more intense, life-on-the-line action and banter between characters and the Bondsmagi. I was anticipating a little bit of pushback, but I suppose that pushback came through in a different way and the subsequent punishment was wrought on those involved.

Overall, I love this book, the trilogy, and the characters across the three books. Locke Lamora is one of my favourite fantasy characters to ever exist, Jean and Sabetha are incredible in their own rights, Calo, Galdo, and Bug are iconic, and the story world is immense, awespiring, and still full of so much potential. I cannot wait for The Thorn of Emberlain.