Scott Lynch’s novel The Lies of Locke Lamora was one of the most celebrated fantasy debuts of the past decade. A sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies, was released the following year, but then five long years passed with no new books. During that time Lynch spoke openly about his divorce and his battles with depression and writer’s block. The past few years have been challenging for him, but now things seem to be looking up. He’s being treated for his depression, is in a relationship with fellow fantasy author Elizabeth Bear, and recently released the long-awaited third volume in his Gentlemen Bastards series, The Republic of Thieves.

“The Republic of Thieves was a distinctly different animal when I began writing it than it is now,” says Scott Lynch in this week’s episode of the Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy podcast. “My view of some things in the world has shifted significantly, and I think it makes for a better book.”

Indeed, The Republic of Thieves has all the colorful action, witty repartee, and devious scheming that fans of the series have come to expect, but goes deeper into the emotional lives of the characters, particularly when it comes to Locke’s complicated relationship with the girl that got away, the red-haired, iron-willed thief Sabetha. Their relationship develops against the backdrop of two parallel storylines. In the present Locke must engineer a winning election strategy, while in flashback chapters he and his friends must put on a play under high-stakes circumstances. Such escapades might seem somewhat outside the expertise of a thief and con artist, but Lynch feels these new adventures fall squarely within Locke’s purview.

“There are obvious metaphorical parallels to the life of crime and the life of false-facing that the protagonists tend to lead,” says Lynch. “It’s in some respects totally congruent with both politics and with acting.”

Listen to our complete interview with Scott Lynch in Episode 95 of Geek’s Guide to the Galaxy (above). Then stick around after the interview as guest geeks Douglas Cohen and Rajan Khanna join hosts John Joseph Adams and David Barr Kirtley to discuss epic fantasy book series.

Scott Lynch on writing teen romance:

“Locke and Sabetha have a lifelong relationship starting when she was perhaps seven or eight and he was about six or seven. But they’re teenagers together, and when you’re a teenager you’ve grown no protective coverings on your nerve endings yet. You are a bundle of nerves and hormones, and everything is felt so deeply and so hard, and everything is so new, and everything is more difficult than it needs to be. And in our culture — not just in fantasy, not just in literature, but in general, I mean, listen to pop music, or at least cheesy pop music — we fictionalize this version of carefree teenage years and easy teenage romance, and isn’t it easy to be young and in love, and everything is just effortless. And those of us that actually remember [being] a teenager remember that, I mean, yeah, everything was wonderful, these sensations are wonderful, they’re exciting the first time, but goddamn it’s difficult … It’s not an idyllic summer of nonsense, as adults would have it, and I really wanted to translate that into Locke and Sabetha’s situation.”

Scott Lynch on obnoxious emails:

“I hadn’t even written Red Seas Under Red Skies at that point. All I had were a few scattered scenes, so I posted one as a preview, and it happened to be that little bit with Zamira Drakasha, and it’s made very clear in the text that Zamira is black. And so I got an email from this complete tool … It was the evangelical ‘Hey dude, let me rescue you from yourself. You’re a prisoner of political correctness. You don’t have to put black people in your fiction.’ You know, like I’d been brainwashed or forced to do it … So I just snapped. It’s fucking offensive to me. I live in the 21st century, and if you want to sulk and pretend that we don’t, that’s your own business, but don’t tell me to participate in your bullshit … And it was that whole ‘Well, now I’m not going to tell my friends to buy your book.’ You know, fine, don’t tell your racist fuckhead friends to buy my book. I’m happier with the sales of the hundreds of people who wrote in appreciation of me telling him to get bent.”

Rajan Khanna on loyalty to book series:

“My little brother loved the Raymond Feist books when he was a kid, and he picked up every single one of them that came along — you know, the Riftwar Saga. And there have probably been more than 20 at this point in time, and he keeps writing more, and my brother will say to me, ‘Yeah, they’re not what they used to be,’ but he’ll continue to pick them up. And I think it’s this idea that it mattered to you at a certain point in time, and you just kind of want to check in and see what is he doing with this world now? And even though I might not really like or agree with what he’s doing, it’s his world. It’s like checking in with an old friend, and them saying, ‘Oh, I decided to become a stripper.’ And you might be like, oh, that’s a bad thing, but you still want to check in with your friend.”

David Barr Kirtley on metaphysical mysteries:

“I think that what’s intriguing for me about the metaphysical aspects is that that’s the distinctively fantastical part of a fantasy. Every kind of story features characters who fall in love, or backstab and die, or end up in power or fall, whatever. And if it’s like, who’s going to end up on the throne, or is this character going to live or die, the different possibilities are more or less known. I don’t know which of those possibilities is going to come true, but I more or less understand what the possibilities are. Whereas for me a metaphysical mystery always holds out this promise that it’s going to be some mind-blowing, profound truth that’s beyond anything I could have imagined … All my favorite series are examples of that, like Book of the New Sun, and Amber in particular. In Amber every book or so you find out that what you thought was the underlying nature of reality is actually something completely different than what you thought. It’s just constantly peeling away layers of the onion, and I think that’s why that’s my favorite series, because it goes farthest down the rabbit hole of anything I’ve ever read in that respect.”