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Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure (2007)

by Michael Chabon

Other authors: See the other authors section.

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations / Mentions
2,9041404,787 (3.47)1 / 276
Fantasy. Fiction. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:#1 SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“A picaresque, swashbuckling adventure.”—The Washington Post Book World
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 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. But when they are dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire, they soon find themselves the half-willing generals in a full-scale revolution—on a road paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of.
Praise for Gentlemen of the Road
“Within a few pages I was happily tangled in [Chabon’s] net of finely filigreed language, seduced by an old-school-style swashbuckling quest . . . laced with surprises and humor.”San Francisco Chronicle

“[Chabon] is probably the premiere prose stylist—the Updike—of his generation.”Time

“The action is intricate and exuberant. . . . It’s hard to resist its gathering momentum, not to mention the sheer headlong pleasure of Chabon’s language.”The New York Times Book Review

“[A] wild, wild adventure . . . abounds with lush language . . . This book roars to be read aloud.”Chicago Sun-Times.
… (more)
  1. 50
    The First Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (Runkst)
  2. 30
    The Second Book of Lankhmar by Fritz Leiber (LamontCranston)
    LamontCranston: Amram and Zelikman are clearly based on Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser, the story the sort of adventure they might have got up to.
  3. 00
    City of Thieves by David Benioff (2810michael)
  4. 00
    Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (PghDragonMan)
  5. 11
    Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson (MarkYoung)
    MarkYoung: Similar humour, in this intelligent historical novel.
  6. 00
    The Sad Tale of the Brothers Grossbart by Jesse Bullington (nessreader)
  7. 00
    The Abyssinian by Jean-Christophe Rufin (Limelite)
    Limelite: Same formula of the picaqresque mold: hero with sidekick, The Girl, and high adventure, deception, and danger in an exotic setting and in historical times. And a humorous romp, too.
  8. 00
    The Oathbound by Mercedes Lackey (MarthaJeanne)
    MarthaJeanne: Two unlikely partners who come in and save the day due to knowledge and intelligence more than swordmanship, although they have that too.
  9. 13
    Anathem by Neal Stephenson (MarkYoung)
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» See also 276 mentions

English (134)  French (2)  Danish (2)  German (1)  Dutch (1)  All languages (140)
Showing 1-5 of 134 (next | show all)
This is the first book written by Chabon that I've read. ( )
  jimMauk | Feb 24, 2024 |
love this book. ( )
  blueskygreentrees | Jul 30, 2023 |
Wonderful. Chabon channels Robert E. Howard and others of his ilk beautifully. ( )
  veewren | Jul 12, 2023 |
I like a lot of the trappings but wasn't as caught up in the action as the writer appeared to be. I don't begrudge it, I hope he had a wonderful time. Jews with Swords is a wonderful working title. ( )
  Je9 | Aug 10, 2021 |
(Note: This review originally appeared as part of a series of capsule reviews of illustrated novels, hence the focus on the art)

Gentlemen of the Road is, like Susanna Clarke’s work (Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell) , a bit of a throwback to an
earlier literary style: A rollicking homage to the adventure novels of authors such
as Michael Moorcock and Fritz Lang, this novel was originally serialized in the
New York Times. Interestingly, the installments were accompanied not by Gary
Gianni’s intricately cross-hatched black and white vignettes (Gianni, like Charles Vess, is
an expert mimic of the illustrative style of past masters, such as Hal Foster), but
by semi-abstracted, almost childish color paintings by Laura Carlin, an
idiosyncratic and brave choice by an art director, which seems to have been to
experimental by half for the final publication of the work in book form. The Del
Rey edition suffers from poor design overall; the dust jacket in particular is an
ugly, workaday design which captures little of the panache of the prose or the
illustrations. ( )
  francoisvigneault | May 17, 2021 |
Showing 1-5 of 134 (next | show all)
The plot and voice of “Gentlemen of the Road” recall the stories found in 19th-century dime novels and the fantastic escapades invented by Edgar Rice Burroughs and H. Rider Haggard. Gary Gianni’s drawings highlight particularly thrilling moments, and with chapter titles like “On the Observance of the Fourth Commandment Among Horse Thieves” and “On Swimming to the Library at the Heart of the World,” Chabon works old-fashioned niceties into a postmodern pastiche.
 

» Add other authors (6 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Chabon, Michaelprimary authorall editionsconfirmed
Gianni, GaryIllustratorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Philippe, Isabelle-DTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
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Epigraph
Despising all my glory, abandoning my high estate, leaving my family, I would go over mountains and hills, through seas and lands, till I should arrive at the place where my Lord the King resides, that i might see not only his glory and magnificence, and that of his servants and ministers, but also the tranquility of the Israelites. On beholding this my eyes would brighten, my reins would exult, my lips would pour forth praises to God, who has not withdrawn his favor from his afflicted ones.
—letter of Hasdai Ibn Shaprut,
minister of the Caliph of Spain, to Joseph,
ruler of Khazaria, circa 960
From now on, I'll describe the cities to you," the Khan had said, "in your journeys you will see if they exist."
—Italo Calvino, Invisible Cities
Dedication
Information from the French Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
Ă€ Michael Moorcock
First words
For numberless years a myna had astounded travelers to the caravansary with its ability to spew indecencies in ten languages, and before the fight broke out everyone assumed the old blue-tongued devil on its perch by the fireplace was the one who maligned the giant African with such foulness and verve.
Quotations
On that plain of mud and grass and staring faces, along the battlements and bartizans of the walls of Atil barbed with pikemen and archers, from the Black Sea to the Sea of Khazar, from the Urals to the Caucasus, there was no sound but the wind in the grass, the clop of a sidestepping horse, the broken breathing of the Little Elephant, Filaq, with whom they had marched and slept and shivered, the son, the prince they had raised up on their sholders to rule them as their bek, the revenger of the rape of their sisters and teh burning of their houses and the pillage of their goods. All Zelikman's disdain, all his resentment toward the foul-mouthed spoiled stripling who had plagued him since the rescue at the carvansary vanished with the double shock of the elephant's slaughter and the revelation. In their place he felt only pity for a white thing flecked with mud, a motherless girl, drooping in the grip of the soldier like a captured flag.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
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Information from the Dutch Common Knowledge. Edit to localize it to your language.
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Wikipedia in English (1)

Fantasy. Fiction. Thriller. Historical Fiction. HTML:#1 SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE BESTSELLER • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE CHICAGO TRIBUNE

“A picaresque, swashbuckling adventure.”—The Washington Post Book World
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 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. But when they are dragooned into service as escorts and defenders to a prince of the Khazar Empire, they soon find themselves the half-willing generals in a full-scale revolution—on a road paved with warriors and whores, evil emperors and extraordinary elephants, secrets, swordplay, and such stuff as the grandest adventures are made of.
Praise for Gentlemen of the Road
“Within a few pages I was happily tangled in [Chabon’s] net of finely filigreed language, seduced by an old-school-style swashbuckling quest . . . laced with surprises and humor.”San Francisco Chronicle

“[Chabon] is probably the premiere prose stylist—the Updike—of his generation.”Time

“The action is intricate and exuberant. . . . It’s hard to resist its gathering momentum, not to mention the sheer headlong pleasure of Chabon’s language.”The New York Times Book Review

“[A] wild, wild adventure . . . abounds with lush language . . . This book roars to be read aloud.”Chicago Sun-Times.

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Tom Petty in the Don't Around Here No More video and Michael Clark Duncan's dad are Jewish cut-throats/anti-heroes in 900 AD.
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