The Thorn of Emberlain

Gentleman Bastard #4

by Scott Lynch

Locke Lamora, thief, con-man, pirate, political deceiver is back, and now he must become a soldier.

A new chapter for Locke and Jean and finally the war that has been brewing in the Kingdom of the Marrows flares up and threatens to capture all in its flames.

And all the while Locke must try to deal with the disturbing rumours about his past revealed in The Republic of Thieves. Fighting a war when you don't know the truth of right and wrong is one thing. Fighting a war when you don't know the truth of yourself is quite another. Particularly when you've never been that good with a sword anyway...

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, High Fantasy, Epic Fantasy, Adult, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adventure

608 pages, Paperback

About the author

I was born in St. Paul, Minnesota on April 2, 1978, the first of three brothers. I've lived in the Minneapolis/St. Paul area my entire life; currently, just across the border in Wisconsin, about half an hour east of the Twin Cities.

The Lies of Locke Lamora, my first novel, was bought by Simon Spanton at Orion Books in August, 2004. Prior to that I had just about every job you usually see in this sort of author bio-- dishwasher, busboy, waiter, web designer, office manager, prep cook, and freelance writer. I trained in basic firefighting at Anoka Technical College in 2005, and became a volunteer firefighter in June of that year.

In 2007 The Lies of Locke Lamora was a World Fantasy Award finalist.

In 2008 I received the Sydney J. Bounds Best Newcomer Award from the British Fantasy Society.

In 2010, I lost a marriage but gained a cat, a charming ball of ego and fuzz known as Muse (Musicus Maximus Butthead Rex I).

My partner, the lovely and critically acclaimed SF/F writer Elizabeth Bear, lives in Massachusetts.

Reviews

[Adina]

OMG! Scott Lynch announced Today he finished the draft. I thought this moment will never come.

[Wealhtheow]

I just finished The Republic of Thieves and am desperate for the next installment of the Gentleman Bastard series. These books are insanely smart, absurdly funny, and have so many plot twists and HOLY SHIT moments that they're basically adrenaline in novel form.

[❄️BooksofRadiance❄️]

Take your time, Scott. As dreadful as waiting is, I’d much rather a good book that you put your heart and soul into than a rushed one.


I’ll learn to deal with my impatience... 😔

[Anka]

AT THIS POINT I WOULD READ THIS MAN'S GROCERY LIST IF HE PUBLISHED IT

——————————————————————————
But really, I hope this book recaptures the magic that Lies of Locke Lamora had for me.

As much as I enjoyed books 2 and 3, they’re not ones that I can go back and re-read and enjoy as much as the first time, ya know? Book 1 is like one of my all-time favorite books, no matter how many times I go back I’m always like YEAH BOI FUCK THE LAW OF DIMINISHING MARGINAL UTILITY

[Henni (hshouldbereading)]

Why do I always read (and love) fantasy book series where the authors take like ages for the next book to publish ???? ... I'm already waiting for years for The Doors of Stone, Winds of Winter, Oathbringer and now The Thorn of Emberlain ... but they are all books I would wait 10+ years for, because I know they'll be great and good books take time. Still. I hate waiting.

Edit Oct 2023 So, Winds of Winter is nowhere near in sight, The Doors of Stone will probably never be published, The Thorn of Emberlain probably neither...but in Sanderson we trust! The four secret novels are out and The Stormlight Archives is continuously progressing.
Edit April 2022 Brando Sando is writing like CRAZY!! He is upholding the fantasy genre for me personally. He wrote 4 secret novels during the pandemic. What did Scott Lynch, Patrick Rothfuss or GRRM do? smh
Edit August 3rd 2017 At least Oathbringer is coming out soon!
Edit December 20th 2021 At least Brandon Sanderson is steadily coming out with new books, although I wish some other mentioned authors here would also publish their next books soon.
I started reading all these series (ASoIaF, Gentleman Bastards, Kingkiller Chronicles) in middle school/high school, now I am studying and graduating soon??? I´ll probably have a phd before these books get published..

[Armina]

COVER REVEAL!!! And it was on March 4th! A WHOLE week ago. Some fan I am .....!!! How could I've missed this? And how could you, guys?!!! Yes, you(you know who you are)! Credits go to Vippi because I did see the news in her feed! Thanks, ragazza!



Also, there are rumors for a "firm"(that's a tricky term when speaking of Scott Lynch) release date of the book(don't trust the July publication date posted here in GR; it's all bullocks, but read more details below):

http://www.tor.com/blogs/2015/03/bff-...

http://gentlemenbastards.com/thorn-of...

You know what that means?! That I'm gonna re-read all three previous books before this one comes out because I do love them. And I suspect a bunch of friends will join too(the usual suspects). We already have the series in the nomination thread in our awesome Sanctum of Fentasy group(private group; PM me if you want in or speak directly to the mods: Athena and/or Markus). Join and we will discuss details for the re-read/read there!

I'm soooooo excite!!!

[DarkChaplain · Rating 1 out of 5]

At this point I am feeling really apathetic about this series. The many delays really turned me off. It boggles my mind that this one has nearly 1300 ratings at a 4.31 average rating, when it may as well take another year to reach store shelves if its history is any indication...

I can't be alone with that frustration, right?

Update, December 2019:
I give up. My interest in this series has evaporated. It's been another two years of back and forth, and nothing for over half a year despite the draft being supposedly done (again). Well, at least he's got enough time to go on regular Twitter tirades. He's writing, just not the stuff I want to read.

So that's it for me. I've got no more patience for this kind of nonsense, especially not in a series that was supposed to be seven novels long, where we haven't even reached the midway point yet and an elusive anthology keeps being bumped down the Amazon schedule.

The Thorn of Emberlain is now listed on Amazon for release in August 2021(!). Whatever goodwill I had left for Lynch, based on the excellent first book and still pretty great follow-ups, either him or me will be dead before this series is finished, at the rate we're going, so this does not feel worth it anymore.

[Charlotte May]

Due to publish October 2021?
What amazing news - my heart can’t wait 😁

I love Locke and Jean and their ruffian bullshit.

[Kalibaatje]

Really hope this one has more schemes & thieving... and less girls. Or at least less troubled and illogical girls.
Book 3 was okay, but I really hope 4 picks up the pace again.

[Mashara]

Let's hope it takes less than six years. That is all I need to be happy.

EDIT: As we all know by now, it has not.
BUT, and I did not know this until just now, but the manuscript was delivered about a year ago, 23rd of May 2019. So, the book EXISTS.
It will eventually get to us.

[Sasha]

*looks longingly out a window, a tear slowly falling down my freckled cheek* when will this book be published?

[Sean Barrs]

I’ve only just finished The Republic of Thieves but I am so pumped to read this right now. It's such a great series, I can't wait to see where it goes in the future. I guess it’s another one to add to my highly anticipated fantasy longlist.

[Mayim de Vries]

I was just about to read it when...

WHAT DO YOU MEAN NOT RELEASED YET?!

Just kidding. Take all the time you need Mr Lynch, but give me a masterpiece.
--
My review of The Lies of Locke Lamora.
My review of Red Seas Under Red Skies.
My review of Republic of Thieves.

[David]

Ladies and gentlemen, he's pulled a Rothfuss. At what point do they become "former author"?

[✨Julie✨]

I am SO invested in the drama surrounding this books release (or lack thereof). The first tentative release date was in 2014 but it’s been delayed MANY times since then. It was set to be released yesterday and surprise surprise, it wasn’t. 😅 Now the internet says it will be released in Europe in November and you can actually preorder it, but I still have my doubts. I honestly don’t even want to read it but I am going to be checking up on it anyway. 😂 Not sure what it says about me, but this is peak entertainment for me. 🍿🍿🍿

[Ken Mandap]

Every time I look for its publication date on Goodreads and find nothing, I die a little.

[Gunnhild]

This was posted on reddit 2 months ago.

Scott Lynch update on his Gentleman Bastards series
At the recent WorldCon in Glasgow, I had the pleasure of briefly speaking with both Scott Lynch and his editor at Gollancz. This coincided with Scott publishing a comprehensive update on his website.

The salient points from both these sources:

Scott has completed three novellas set in the Gentleman Bastard world that will serve as a bridging story arc from the end of The Republic of Thieves to The Thorn of Emberlain. These novellas are collectively known as The Road to Emberlain.

The Road to Emberlain consists of More Than Fools Fill Graves, The Mad Baron's Mechanical Attic and The Choir of Knives.

Each of the three novellas is complete, is around 40,000 words long and will be published by Subterranean Press as limited editions, probably starting in 2025 but they need to make that determination.

Gollancz (and presumably Bantam) will reprint the novellas after SubPress's initial release. Apparently it's up in the air if they'll be published individually or collected into a chunky 120,000-word omnibus, roughly equal in size to any of the previous books.

The Thorn of Emberlain has a completed draft (which we knew some years ago) and edits, rewrites etc are continuing apace. There will not be a release date announced until everyone, but most notably Scott, are 100% happy with where it's at. I asked if they would coordinate the release with or after the novellas and that's not been fully determined yet, except that the novellas are 100% unnecessary to read and enjoy Thorn. Gollancz and Bantam (who handle the mass market US reprint) are bigger publishers who need way more lead time, so if Scott and his editors declared themselves 100% happy with Thorn tomorrow, there may be some overlap with the book coming out and the novellas' release schedule.

Scott also attended several panels, one in a double-act with Joe Abercrombie, and seemed on absolute top form, which was good to see.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comm...

[Kate]

Welp. Here we are, three years later. Still no release date. Seriously. What the actual hell is going on? An update from the actual publisher would be nice.

**************************

Maybe not in 2019, but....SOON. Mr. Lynch has announced it is DONE and going to editing. My skin is clearing and my crops are flourishing...

See an ACTUAL picture here.

**************************

New, new update: Book Depository is listing a release date in September 2019. Dare we hope that this could be true, and not a fluke of book selling sites, as previous release dates have been? Dare we? *wheeze*

**************************

New update: This book will not be available in September. As of now, there is no release date available. You can check out Mr. Lynch's post on the issues extending the wait for this book here.

*goes quietly into a corner to sob*

**************************

Update: The Thorn of Emberlain WILL come out September 2016. Scott Lynch has confirmed it himself here.

I'm so freaking excited I think I quit breathing.

**********************

Please Please please don't let this get pushed back again. I wants it. I NEEDS it.

[Pedro Silva · Rating 1 out of 5]

Patience turns to apathy, as a once enthralling and passionate source of Joy in my youth turns into a bitter cyst, bloated with arrogance that it should keep an open and permanent space in my mind for its unwarrented sense of self-importance.

Can one review that which does not exist?
Yes. You can and I might say in fact the non-existing book has been a lesson that in of itself is the only thing one can review objectively.

First of all, it is rude: The existence of this book invites the implication that a reader at this point is fine with being expected to rerun through its door stoppers as form of homework or preparation for its possible eventual hypothetical release (that totally wont get dellayed another 4 years you guys). That form of entertainment may arouse an audience but to me, its just bad story telling: Like a joke you promise you'll finish next week: Then 3 years later still havent. That is energy that would have been better spent on something way more fun, like your taxes.

I would add it is in fact abusive of your audience, to manipulate its own code of ethics against itself, shielding behind the best things about itself the shambling corpse of a formerly esteemed production; shielding that which yet sells and yields profit enough to excuse any need for labout, shielding them from having to have the courage to fail. Like a vampire sucking the limited resources of people who could have spent that money on better books. Is this a good experience? No.
But there is a realtionship between reader and author, there is a product between them, material or not, lettered or not.

Consider that all books exists into the world as expectation, if nothing else. Scott Lynch is not completly innocent of expectation.
If you bought the Republic of Thieves, he charged you money to sell you paper with words on it that were in fact a promise of delivery for the Thorn of Emberlain when you consented to part with that which was your property.
So he has to answer for expectation.

I managed my expectation, and evaluate my experience with the Thorn of Emberlain as that of shit.

If, be it any saint (or most likely at this point, an inexplicable Peter Pan syndrome-ridden sycophant of the series) chooses to manage them otherwise, I do not begrudge them for it; but I know for an objective that I have now taken into my own hands to produce a better review than Lynch has a novel, if by nothing else, the virtue that I did it. I enjoy coming back to it as the years drone by, polishing it here and there. It draws a contrast that is now of greater value to me than Thorn of Emberlain has given to anyone.

Maybe, had the man taken the time of his life to the keystrokes required for his vapid prolific tweeting into a manuscript instead, perhaps he neednt merit such insult; but he chose not to.

All authors are liars, all stories are read, open your eyes and read the wind of nothing put in front of you, judge the clothes the king is not wearing, and state that they are missing, for quantity is indeed a quality of its own and there is a point where if quatity is deeply enough into the 0, then quality is too judged.

You, dear reader, will hopefully choose better.

[Serenity]

Release tentatively set for Fall 2014!

http://aidanmoher.com/blog/2013/12/as...

[Vippi]

08/17

2016. Delayed again...
I can't see the light at the end of the tunnel...




07/02

September 17th???!





05/05

Cover released!!! :D



We have to wait till July, though.

[Diane]

Delayed again. it's fine. I'm fine.

[Sarah]

Was it as good as, say, The Way of Kings?



Probably not. Yes, it was a very clever book. It wasn't boring and the pacing was great.

But the thing is - I didn't like Locke or his crew all that much.
I'm judging from the entire series now as it's been too long for me to make subtle distinctions but I know that I'm unlikely to pick up this next instalment.

By the end of the third book I was feeling a little angry with Locke for being so star struck and pathetic around his love interest.
I must say - I felt similarly about Kvothe (Rothfuss) and Alina (Bardugo) at times. It's a personal thing. My favourite character from this series will always be Requin (the antagonist from #2) which is a testament to how unattached I was to the main crew.

It's a good way to pass time, if you are, like I was, on a gap year or (maybe less likely) caught in a war, have nowhere to be and no electricity.

[Veeral]

Which one will come out first? The Thorn of Emberlain or The Winds of Winter? Meanwhile, I have my money on Brandon Sanderson publishing 10 new books.

[Kris]

09/04/2022 - How bold of this human to name 9 books in this series. Is this a dare to the Gods to see if they will keep him alive long enough for him to finish it?

[Kirk Ingram · Rating 1 out of 5]

I'm desperate to read the Gentleman Bastard series but I refuse to begin until I know there will actually be a conclusion. Like so many others, I've been burned by Rothfuss and Martin and don't want to make the same mistake here. I know the situation with Scott is somewhat more complicated but the fact remains that there's been a huge gap since the last book and constant delays with the fourth. Since I have deliberately not started the series, I live in hope that Mr. Lynch will complete it so I can comfortably get stuck right in!

[Hot Mess Sommelière ~ Caro]

The release date has my approval, the cover does not. Who are those armored goons? And will we witness Locke making fun of them?

WAAAAAAAAAAAH I'M SO EXCITED FOR THE THORN OF EMBERLAIN! I LOVE YOU, LOCKE!

[Fiona]

November? This November? *soft whimper*

[Alex]

We believe in you Scott, you can do it!

[Gabrielle · Rating 1 out of 5]

When this book was first announced, I was just beginning my PhD program. I was seriously worried whether I will get any schoolwork done, as I knew that I would just blaze through the pages and would not do anything else.

Alas, dear readers, I finished my PhD last year and I am nearly done with my first year of my postdoctoral training. If Scott cannot edit (repeat, EDIT) a manuscript in the time period where someone who has depression and anxiety manages to start off a research project, publish it, and write a 240 page dissertation on it, then my guess is that he never really had a good, solid plotline for this book to begin with. Remember, he claimed that he had the manuscript all written up and that it was in the editing stages.