#lynchmob This has been a blast reading TLOLL and RSURS along with other bloggers and making new friends as well! The final questions for RSURS have been provided by Lynn at Lynn’s Book Blog. Thanks to everyone who worked hard to organize these readalongs. I hope to see everyone back together when THE REPUBLIC OF THIEVES comes out!

1.       Oh my god, such a lot going on I thought the showdown between the Poison Orchid and the Sovereign was brilliantly written and they were holding their own until Utgar and his nasty device turned up.  Well a lot of you had kind of predicted it, and I suppose we’d been let off too easy so far in terms of deaths of well-liked characters  – but come on,  did you expect something like that?  And how on earth will Jean ever recover?

So many people predicted Ezri’s death. I was hoping it wouldn’t happen, but what a way to go! That was certainly something new. This will haunt Jean forever because he was never taken with someone before like he was with Ezri.

2.       The deceit, the betrayal, first Rodanov and then Colvard.  Even now I’m not entirely sure I understand Colvard – Rodanov was never keen on the oath but Colvard seemed okay with it all and yet in this final deceit she was more devious than Rodanov – what do you think was her motive?

I’m pretty sure Jacquelaine Colvard just wants to protect the Ghostwinds area from repercussions that Tal Verrar might bring for pirates terrorizing their waters.  

3.       Merrain – such a puzzle, no real answer, the mysterious tattoo, the determination to kill everyone to keep her identity and that of her master a secret.  Does anybody have any ideas where she’s from and what she’s up to exactly and who the hell is she working for??

We’ll have to wait for the next book to find out these answers. I was so confident her real identity and motives would be revealed in RSURS! Dang! Guess the whole guard slaying wasn’t as big a deal as we thought it would be when Stragos found out about it. Although he did bring it up, there were other more immediate distractions at that meeting! I still can’t figure out what she’s doing and why.

4.       Finally we get to the point of the GB’s latest scheme, all that elaborate planning for two years, fancy chairs, gambling, dust covered cards, abseiling lessons – all for one gigantic bluff. I loved the diversionary tactic here but having finally reached the end of the story and, more to the point, the end result – do you think the GB’s are as clever as they think they are?

Not hardly! They have been fooled almost as much as they have fooled others, which makes for a good story as you never really know what’s going to happen next!

 5.       I must admit that I liked Requin and Selendri – particularly at the end – I don’t think Requin will go after Locke and Jean, he was even sort of cool and composed about it all, in fact he came across as a bit pleased with himself because he had the last laugh.  Plenty of good characters this time which did you enjoy reading most about this time?

Regal the cat. Just kidding. Jean was really interesting this time. I loved when he stopped and stole the book from the library of Cordo! I’m sad that Jean is sad now. There isn’t much anyone can do about it except give him support and time to heal. And then to top it all off – he has to deal with Locke giving him the antidote for the slow poison! I understood his anger at not being able to be part of the decision there.

6.       Finally, a triple barrel question, I know I shouldn’t ask this BUT, on reflection do you have a favourite between LoLL or RSURS??  And why?  Are you going to pick up Republic of Thieves?  And, where do you think Lynch will take us to next??

For me, LOLL edges out RSURS by just a wee bit because in the end of that book they did something that was really great by saving the Amberglass Tower and all of the people in it. In RSURS I don’t feel that they did anything that terrific. On the contrary, they were played more than in LOLL. It seemed they just couldn’t win in RSURS. I’ll definitely read REPUBLIC OF THIEVES (do we have to call it ROT?!) when it comes out. So glad I read these books now instead of when they first came out. The waiting between books would have been intolerable! J As for what will happen in the next book, obviously Sabetha will have to finally appear. Maybe she and Locke will discover their break-up was all over a misunderstanding and they will reconcile and live happily ever after! Maybe Locke and Jean will decide they’re too old to continue what they’re doing and settle down and teach a new group of GB just like Chains did. My hope is that they end up back in Camorr when they do decide to slow down. That’s my favorite place!