/lit/ - Literature

You motherfuckers. You TRICKED me. When I last asked for a recommendation, I specifically said "no pirate stuff". So what do you cheeky bastards do? Recommend a book where the first in the series is normal enough, but then the second book IS ALL PIRATE SHIT.

God.

One of you said there's some "pathetic simpy shit". And while there was a bit of that, it wasn't so bad. A bit of romance never hurt anything. It was just kind of cheesy. But what really grinded my gears was that all of the romantic stuff HAPPENED ON A PIRATE BOAT. FOR FUCK'S SAKE, I'M SICK OF PIRATES.

And you know what? It was so hamfisted. The book starts out meticulously setting up this elaborate scenario involving these two warring factions, and how Locke and Jean planned to dupe both sides to pull off this ultimate heist. So the setup was what you expected from a book about thieves. Elaborate lies, wacky plots, duping a bunch of people, etc. Good fun.
The plot even goes a little sideways, in a good way, and suddenly gives Locke this experience that kindles a burning desire to be MORE than a mere thief. And you think "alright, Locke is evolving. He's becoming something greater. This is great."

But then somewhere halfway into the book, the author gets bored with his own plot, and contrives to put Locke on a pirate ship, so he can go on gay ass pirate adventure. Suddenly we're hearing the terms "larboard" "crap lines" a thousand fucking times. The whole pirate plot feels disconnected from everything else. You have to learn a whole new cast of characters. They mention the old characters often, but it's all conversational stuff. Like, the new cast doesn't interact with the old cast. So it just feels like a new story referencing the old unfinished story.

Locke and Jean are pretty much helpless out in the water. None of their thief skills are useful. So you don't get to see them actually do anything proactively. It's all just them trying to survive. They just do whatever they're told for chapters, and chapters...

The pirate adventure goes on for nearly half the whole book. Only then deciding to come back to the main story in the last few chapters. Where Locke and Jean can act like thieves again. And the book expects you to remember all the complex lies that were told in the first half of the story. Plus a new set of lies they concoct to contrive the conclusion of the heist.

I swear to god, the author wrote two shorter stories, and then glued them together. I still have one more chapter to read before I'm actually done. But I'm already "done" with this book. I'm so not invested in the heist, because all the wind was taken out of my sails with the overly long pirate bullshit.

You might think I hate the book after reading all that. But I still actually kind of enjoyed it after all. It wasn't badly written. Just poorly structured. But if you enjoy pirates, then you'll probably enjoy it a lot more than I did.