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Recently, my sister bought me Scott Lynch's "Lies of Locke Lamora" - a swashbuckling urban fantasy set in the sprawling Venice-like city of Camorr. There's a thieves guild there ran by guy named Vancarlo Barsavi who rules the city's underground from a derelict ship and throws his victims to sharks through a trap door.
In "Curse of the Crimson Throne" we have a thieves guild ran by guy named Barvasi who rules his thugs from a derelict ship and throws his victims to giant spiders through a trap door.
Suspicious! :-D
But seriously, I wholeheartedly recommend this novel to anyone who liked CotCT or plans to run it. It's chokeful of inspiring bits and pieces about fantasy city heavily modeled after 17th century Venice. There are gang wars, water markets, thieves guilds, secret police, corrupted city guard, intrigues, merchants, plague ships, con artists and wizards. There are also numerous remains from ancient, incredibly advanced civilization upon which the new city was built throughout the centuries.
In parts, "Lies of Locek Lamora" almost sounds like "Curse of the Crimson Throne" novelisation which, personally, I found very cool. It is also supposed to be a first in the series of seven self-contained novel. Apparently, in the second book - "Red Sails under Red Skies", main heroes try to rob a casino in a pirate city-state. Golden Goblin in Riddleport, maybe? :-D
I noticed the similarities, too. These are great books. The second part, "Red seas under red skies" is recommended reading for everyone who DMs pirate adventures (such as the Savage Tide).