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Copy/paste the text below into your blog. <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/587638.Gentlemen_of_the_Road_A_Tale_of_Adventure?utm_medium=api&amp;utm_source=blog_review" style="float: left; padding-right: 20px"><img alt="Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure" border="0" src="http://s3.amazonaws.com/photo.goodreads.com/books/1189135103m/587638.jpg" /></a> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/587638.Gentlemen_of_the_Road_A_Tale_of_Adventure?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">Gentlemen of the Road: A Tale of Adventure</a> by <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2715.Michael_Chabon">Michael Chabon</a><br/><br/> <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/12021091?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review"><h3>My review</h3></a> rating: 3 of 5 stars<br/>Khazaria, it seems, is quite en vogue all of a sudden. You may recall that I last wandered through this ancient kingdom in "The Khazar Dictionary." Surely, I thought, Khazaria is a made-up land, somewhere to the left of Neverland, or a long plane ride from Faulkner's Yokanampausdfpoijawerp County (or what have you). But no, it really did exist, its borders stretching from Kiev to the Aral Sea. If you're like me, though, you never figured out the difference between the Aral, Caspian and Black seas, so that won't be much help. Go check out a map. <br/> <br/>Back so soon? Good. "Gentleman" (or, as he refers to it, "Jews with Swords") is Chabon's attempt at a swashbuckling tale of adventure. Two seasoned road warriors--in all sense of the term--get entangled in fights, assissinations, a prince who is not what he seems, a battle for the kingdom, horse thievary, narrow escapes, and (of course) trysts. All neatly composed in a 200 page book, complete with illustrations. <br/> <br/>First of all: illustrations! Fantastic! Long ago, you used to look forward to illustrations in your books. They broke up the text. They were exciting! So they fit perfectly in this new take on old stories. As an interesting sidenote, they were drawn by the same guy who does the "Prince Valiant" comics in your local newspaper. <br/> <br/>If you've ever read Chabon, you know he's a masterful stylist. And he shows it off here to great extent. You can tell he was channeling "ye olde adventure story" style. The plot moves quickly (sometimes too quickly, I got lost with all the twists and turns, but you figure it out soon enough). The characters have the potential to be good. And few love a tale of adventure more than me. So why the mediocre rating? <br/> <br/>I'm not exactly sure. The main characters had the right mix of nonchalance and heart. The story had all the right elements and twists. The style was spot on. Maybe it's because Chabon had everything down too perfectly. But I suspect it's simply a lack of joy, or soul. He doesn't really believe this ever could have happened: he knows it's only made-up nonsense. You definitely feel like he hasn't really enjoyed many of his own adventures. I admire him for taking up adventure, but I hope he has more fun the next go round. <br/><br/><a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/list/253624?utm_medium=api&utm_source=blog_review">View all my reviews.</a>