It’s fun to revisit stuff you enjoyed a lot in your teens/early twenties and they don’t disappoint. It’s still a breath of fresh air consuming a fantasy book that isn’t medieval Europe or similar. And then to have a pretty intricate setting put down in highly descriptive language, to the point of interludes codifying worldbuilding little short stories peppering the text. Plus, a gang of understandable but unlikable characters engaging in the fleecing of the rich in convoluted ways in tandem with Locke’s past essentially priming the skills and attributes of the gang members and pacing stuff out so that all the action doesn’t happen all at once.

It’s a good time if you’re into those highly specific things. Fantasy authors that love the world they make and want to tell you about can be exasperating, if you’re not also interested in the world. Thankfully, I am. Not the least of which because one of my favourite tabletop games Blades in the Dark, borrows heavily from how this story functions. I am predisposed to liking pretty much every aspect of it because I have consumed and played many hours of the game, which emulates this.

But even so I think it’s a pretty unique and interesting take on each genre, mashed up here. The beginning has a slower start only due to the orphan kids being written in a very adolescent way. Lots of boring cussing and talking about women and all that. But that’s a short phase. Once through things get immediately better, and it is sustained.