Nadine K

After a my unfortunate run of unimpressive reads, this finally felt like coming home. I've put off reading this book for a while because I loved the first book so much I didn't want to ruin my memories of it, but those worries were proven to be unfounded. The second instalment to the Gentleman Bastards series is just as fantastic as the first.

A heist story in a fantasy setting done RIGHT.

How Scott Lynch balances intrigue, suspense, drama, and humour so masterfully is beyond me.

The structure, the writing, is all meticulous and effective, but somehow also never fails to be exciting and entertaining (EVERY. SINGLE. LINE.).

Not a second of it was boring. It knew when to be light, when to be heavy, and when to be both.

The dialogue is truly the star of the show, the way these characters swear should be considered an art-form. It's almost poetry.

Word of warning: this man has a way of making you fall in love with characters just to murder them in the most brutal ways. I learned that in the first book and this one just served as an unfriendly reminder.

Creepy, a bit disturbing, with beautiful art. Great atmosphere, great panelling, compelling characters. 4.5 start, will continue reading.

Great characters and lovely romance. Sadly could see the ending a mile away.

Charming like a fairytale if you can let go of the anachronisms that come with Sanderson's world-building. (Personally, I just roll with it.)

Hoid is not nearly as clever or charming a narrator as he believes himself to be and that took me out of the story at some points. Also I hated the character illustrations so much.

I must admit, Sanderson is not the best writer technically speaking, but he is exceedingly good at one-liners. His work feels like the Marvel Studios of the fantasy world, not necessarily a diss. He's enjoyable and fun where it counts.

That is to say it was a good simple read and exactly that I needed to take my mind off THAT book.

Shouldve read this one before network effect but still good.

Not as good as Network Effect which is apparently my barometer now. Still fun, still love Murderbot. Interesting development! It's definitely becoming more human (poor thing).