Books › Gentlemen of the road
Gentlemen of the road
263 pages
A swashbuckling, erudite buddy-comedy wrapped in a dusty historical epic.
What it feels like
Reading this book feels like unearthing a lost pulp-adventure serial that has been miraculously rewritten by a master prose stylist. It is a boisterous, dust-choked romp through the tenth-century Caucasus, propelled by the razor-sharp banter of two cynical vagabonds who are far more honorable than they pretend to be. The pace is brisk and cinematic, leaping from one cliffhanger to the next, yet the sentences themselves are dense, acrobatic, and dripping with archaic vocabulary. Beneath the swashbuckling swordplay and clever cons lies a surprisingly tender exploration of brotherhood, exile, and the burdens of history. It will thoroughly delight readers who crave the rollicking energy of classic sword-and-sorcery tales but want them delivered with high-literary flair and a deeply affectionate, wry sense of humor.
- Mood
- dust-choked
- boisterous
- cinematic
- adventurous
- Tone
- wry
- swashbuckling
- erudite
- playful
- affectionate
- Pace
- brisk
- Themes
- unlikely brotherhood · the weight of exile · honor among thieves · mythologizing history
- The writing
- Exuberant and heavily stylized, packed with acrobatic syntax and a rich, archaic vocabulary.
- The arc
- The journey moves from cynical self-preservation to reluctant heroism and a deepening, unspoken loyalty.
- Who it's for
- Readers who love classic pulp adventures and buddy comedies but crave high-literary prose and witty banter.
Content notes
- historical violence
- anti-Semitism
- warfare
About the book
Michael Chabon's bestseller, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay, sprang from an early passion for the derring-do and larger-than-life heroes of classic comic books. Now, once more mining the rich past, Chabon summons the rollicking spirit of legendary adventures--from The Arabian Nights to Alexandre Dumas to Fritz Leiber's Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser stories--in a wonderful new novel brimming with breathless action, raucous humor, cliff-hanging suspense, and a cast of colorful characters worthy of Scheherazade's most tantalizing tales.They're an odd pair, to be sure: pale, rail-thin, black-clad Zelikman, a moody, itinerant physician fond of jaunty headgear, and ex-soldier Amram, a gray-haired giant of a man as quick with a razor-tongued witticism as he is with a sharpened battle-ax. Brothers under the skin, comrades in arms, they make their rootless way through the Caucasus Mountains, circa A.D. 950, living as they please and surviving however they can--as blades and thieves for hire and as practiced bamboozlers, cheerfully separating the gullible from their money. No strangers to tight scrapes and close shaves, they've left many a fist shaking in their dust, tasted their share of enemy steel, and made good any number of hasty exits under hostile circumstances.None of which has necessarily prepared them to be dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire. Usurped by his brutal uncle, the callow and decidedly ill-tempered young royal burns to reclaim his rightful throne. But doing so will demand wicked cunning, outrageous daring, and foolhardy bravado... not to mention an army. Zelikman and Amram can at least supply the former. But are these gentlemen of the road prepared to become generals in a full-scale revolution? The only certainty is that getting there--along a path paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of--will be much more than half the fun.From the Hardcover edition.
Description from Open Library.
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