I doubt the Sinspire/Archon stuff could have sustained the book alone. But that doesn't change the fact (just finished) that the early portions of the book were much more entertaining than much of the sea diversion and definitely moreso than the abbreviated ending. I did eventually get into the piracy elements, but it took a while. And my interest waned during the initial sea excursion enough to set the book down for a bit.

The hilarious dialogue and sharp one liners were out in full force. I'd definately say that Lynch has a gift for this and I'd often find myself skimming more descriptive passages until I got to the next exchange of banter. Not because his description or action is poor by any means, but because his dialogue is so fun.

Some definite plausibility issues in this one. The main marks (Archon and casino owner) are portrayed as intelligent, competent people yet they accept increasingly more absurd Locke explanations with little more than repetitive verbal complaints. I can buy the archon. He was confident he had them by the nuts with the poison and the bondsmagi 'resume' of the pair fully informed him of their capabilities, making his 'give me a war' plan a bit less absurd. (not that the 'create an enemy' idea is absurd, but expecting two con-men to have any realistic chance of pulling it off is a stretch. Unless you're convinced of their absolute brilliance, which he would have been).

But Requin (sp) was buying way too much bullshit and someone as supposedly smart as he was would know better. And Locke doesn't offer much. 'I'll be your floorboss' just isn't of significant enough value to take a risk on such a scheme, nor is a sincere desire to 'settle down' and 'go straight' really that believable. (and really shouldn't have been from Requin's perspective) Locke/Kosta already showed his ability to scam thousands of Solari in a few months, who in their right mind would take an ENORMOUS paycut to be a high ranking errand boy as an alternative? It was stretch after stretch of believability. And once we got to the eccentric locksmithe, shit was threatening to devolve to the outright silly. Who is gonna accept the 'gift' of an admitted scammer who you barely trust into your private chambers?

The Priory (sp) was undeveloped as mentioned by others. Some names we never heard of before popping up at the end and deus exing the boys to relative victory. Definitely felt rushed. The prologue was as cheap as any cheesey, contrived wannabe cliff-hanger I've ever seen in a bad soap opera. And that about settles it for the bad.

Lynch's books are still immensely fun to read. And excluding a few lulls, always swiftly paced and entertaining. The story definately drifted a bit and had some liabitilies, but it usually tended to recover. I actually liked when the characters ventured onto larger ideals and ambitions. (Archon's alchemical/bondsmagi/engineering speech. Pirate's 'lost cause') And actually found myself sympathetic to the archon in those moments. Hell, neither of the main antagonists were particularly villainous. And given the loyalty (outside of double-agents), efficiency, and apparent devotion of the Archon's men, i was almost pulling for him to remain in power. He and many of his people seemed firmly convinced that he was serving a long term greater good. One that I as a reader find much more admirable than the immediate greed of squabbling merchant guilds, casino owners (though I did like that he's essentially set himself up as the new dictator...depose one and another rises up), or safe-cracking con men. I'd much rather see the fruition of the archon's eventual 'vision' than Locke and Jean receiving their personal vengeance. Rather selfish and all.

Beyond that, too many women too good at too many physically demanding tasks. Sure its fantasy, but how many 'front line quality' females could there really have been in a semi-medieval world? Even if pricey and unstable, great balls of infinitely burning fire would have to be pretty damned standard for most land and probably most naval warfare. Since it singlehandedly took down the greatest pirate ship in the seas, its too valuable of a weapon to not be used beyond deus ex purposes. (A rather swift, way too easy, and out of nowhere means to end the battle) And that's about it.

I did feel a similar thing about the nobles the GBs try to scam in the first book (can't remember their names right now) - they are described as being intelligent and the Spider seems to respect them both enough to recruit them at the end, but they do fall for Locke's scam a bit too easily. Although it is a clever scam (particularly when Locke and Jean show up as the Midnighters) that sort of convoluted 'too good to be true' money-making opportunity that requires a lot of money to be invested up front should have made them more suspicious, I think. If the Don and Dona hadn't been described as being so intelligent (and not noticeably naive) I wouldn't have had a problem with it, but it did seem slightly implausible. Similarly, I agree that Requin shouldn't have been taken in so easily. It seems more in character that he would have killed them straight away if he was only a bit suspicious.

Definately agree to an extent william, and I think that's largely the fatal flaw of any conman story. If you don't portray the marks as intelligent, the game is too easy. And if you do, its hard to make any set of lies that the reader actually believes the smart mark would fall victim to. I think the ones in the first book were easier to buy largely because they're simpler. Its not hard to google a story of otherwise intelligent, competent people (though its usually moderately wealthy, old, dumb people) falling prey to 'get rich quick' scams that any armchair reader could see were too good to be true. Hell, the entire country of Nigeria would be out of work if there weren't still some saps with a bit of money lying around out there, ready and wanting to believe the unbelievable for the faint promise of wealth. (And this still after so much information is out there calling that particular con bullshit)

But the Requin one was tougher for me because it just tried to be too bold and offered little. He walked in, said 'hi, I'm a conman, liar, and thief. I've been cheating your uncheatable casino and had planned to crack your safe. But ya know...even though I just made myself a millionaire equivilent in a few months, I want to settle down and work for an honest (aka, pitiful and tiny) paycheck and betray my co-worker and employer for you' He doesn't really offer anything either. At least the 'LoLL' nobles had that chance of immense wealth beyond their current means, you can understand someone buying that against their better judgment. Here we have a casino that's near impossible to cheat and Locke merely offers to make it slightly harder to do that. The gain isn't even remotely worth the risk. Not at the beginning and definately not once the cover stories started getting even more convoluted.

And maybe its the authoritarian fantasy lover in me, but I was still cheering for the Archon probably more than any other character.

As I mentioned before, I also heavily sympathized with the Archon. His observations about the present and visions for the future were compelling and interesting. His long term goal of throwing off the 'bondage' (pun intended) of the Bondsmagi was a hell of alot more worthy than more Jean and Locke scheming. He was a scheming authoritarian who had the apparent (almost) absolute loyalty of his men with the long term best interests of the city, and the known world for that matter, in mind. The man wanted to spawn a (comparatively) egalitarian renaissance. And he ends the books worse off than anyone? Fuck that.

I like Jean and Locke, but I think I might be more interested in a series on the Archon at this point.

QUOTE (Errant Bard @ Jul 24 2007, 09.22)

It lacked some ornaments things LLL had, notably the cooking and brewing, the unusual scenes showing the heroes being themselves, so to speak. Something like the bit with the cats, but expanded.

I regret that I was not able to add more of the bizarre drinks and cuisine featured in the first book, and which I hope to maintain as a thread throughout the series. Look for more cookin' and drinkin' in book three.

Wow...Scott shows up and I don't even have my 'SAVE THE ARCHON!' sign ready. Shit.