It is worth noting that the story starts off with a somewhat slow pace, allowing the reader to become acquainted with the intricately designed world and its inhabitants. However, once the narrative gains momentum around a third of the way through, it becomes a veritable rollercoaster of events that will leave you breathless.

Although I'm a fast reader, I slowed down when reading this, because there were no sections that dragged - the author spent plenty of time and detail on the parts that are intriguing and interesting, and almost none on the bits that are irrelevant to the story. I found that I wanted to read and consider every word. The world that he built is truly fascinating, and the time and obvious care that he took in describing it are well worth savoring.

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I recommend this book to all fantasy lovers and also people who like Mafia books with a twist. I think this book would be a great introduction for anyone wanting to start reading fantasy. Aside from those minor quibbles, it was a very good book and my favorite (of the 4 I’ve finished) so far this year. If you like stories about criminals with hearts of gold, of brotherhood forged by shared experiences rather than blood, and fantasy that doesn’t rely on dragons and insta-love to drive its story, give this one a try. It does a good job of maintaining suspense, with a few minor exceptions. Three was one part where we spent paragraphs describing the neighboring lands and their types of government—not really pertinent to this novel, but I suspect they were groundwork for future novels in the series. Still, they made the story sag a little. And then there was the BIG REVEAL which wasn’t, because I had it figured out long in advance. Oops, sorry, it looks like the Fairness Police just caught me in the act again (see how they stop me the slow-mo way? That just goes to show how faithful they are to the author's style).

Bug sighed. "I make the signal when Salvara's on his way out of the Temple of Fortunate Waters. I keep an eye out for anyone else trying to walk past the alley, especially the city watch. If anybody tries it, I jump down from the temple roof with a longsword and cut their bloody heads off where they stand." I also usually hate 'obvious mysteries'. By this, I mean a mystery that other characters know about but that the reader is never brought into fully. This book has one, and I actually liked it a fair bit. The key element here is that it really has no bearing on the book itself, but meshes VERY well with how groups of people act and talk in the real world. Close groups who have someone who's left the group, often talk about them or remember them even if they've been gone for awhile, and this is basically the 'obvious mystery' in this book even though you never meet the individual they refer to. Just one more touch that I like. My original color version of the map of Camorr, circa 2004. This map is mostly accurate; a few things had to be moved for the final version. And I had to remember to add a canal, so the poor people of Camorr wouldn't be forced to send cargo barges up a six-story waterfall. This book starts off great - the main character is interesting and has all the makings of a good hero. We learn about his development and growth, his mistakes and his flaws, which is the seed of any great story. The writing is very good with interesting stylistic choices. I appreciate how the author uses modern English idiom, which makes sense because we can safely assume these people are not speaking English anyway, and he might as well get his point across, and presumably whatever language they are speaking has similar idioms. I thought that the epigrams from our reality were apropos and it was an interesting stylistic choice to include them. The book is also pretty funny. However as others have said the book gets extremely dark about halfway through. The author killed off some characters who still had a lot of potential, turning what had been a fairly lighthearted tale into more of a horror story. In a way, I appreciate this because I was not expecting it, and I have to give the author some credit for subverting my expectations, but I believe it came at the expense of overall enjoyment of the story. Also, while I do not demand “representation“ from fiction, I didn’t feel that the book would have benefited from a romantic subplot. It hints at one regarding two different characters, one of whom - somewhat surprisingly - is referred to, but never actually appears on the scene, as if the author introduced her but forgot to work her in to the story. The other possible love interest is a potentially very interesting character, but, without spoiling anything, I can say that the relationship is not developed.My Patrons: Alfred, Alya, Annabeth, Devin, Diana, Hamad, Jimmy Nutts, Joie, Michelle, Mike, Miracle, Nicholas, Zoe. Special thanks to my Patrons on Patreon for giving me extra support towards my passion for reading and reviewing!

Hello to you as well, Bug! I knew we could count on you to take pity on your elders and let them rest in the sun while you do the hard work with the pole." Well, it’s not just that. I want to see Camorr brought to life. And then the Sinspire. And then Karthain. As much as I love Lynch’s characters, themes, plots, and dialogue, the setting remains my favorite facet of his work. While essentially a caper story, those expecting a gritty fantasy epic will find many familiar fantasy tropes as well, with enough flavor and originality to keep it relatively interesting. There is the old wise man in the form of Chains, who teaches the boys to thieve. There is the beautiful mysterious woman who once upon a time broke the protagonist’s heart. The fencing master who teaches the young boy to fight is present also, in a training environment that is interesting if not very well thought out.

Maps of Tal Verrar and the Sea of Brass

its darkly humorous - oh my gosh. the banter! the jokes! the quips! the characters are so well-written and their interactions are always memorable. I wanted to read it for ages but never had the time and now that I did my monthly blog meme I have no other choice than to go through with it – Which, truth be told, is awesome! *lol* It's not really fair to compare the two books. They're different styles. Different subjects. Different worlds. It isn’t necessarily about the money but more about the challenge and excitement of the con itself. This is one reason why I had a good time in this story.