The Lies of Locke Lamora - Review

Published: February 1, 2007

Author: Scott Lynch

Series: Gentlemen Bastards #1

The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a ghost that walks through walls. Half the city believes him to be a legendary champion of the poor. The other half believe him to be a foolish myth. Nobody has it quite right. Slightly built, unlucky in love, and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. He certainly didn't invite the rumors that swirl around his exploits, which are actually confidence games of the most intricate sort. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else, pray tell, would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny of it. All of Locke's gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves, the Gentlemen Bastards.

I finally picked this guy up.  Which now that I've read it something I shouldn't have waited to do!  I absolutely loved this book.  In fact I had a hard time putting it down, and because of that my paperback version got a bit beat up from being shoved in my bag everywhere I went.  All week I've been raving about it to my co-workers that read.  In fact one of them has already stolen it away from me to read next.

Okay, so since there was very few things I didn't so much enjoy about The Lies of Locke Lamora, I will start there.  I will say I almost didn't make it through the first few chapters of the pages. The reason for that is the character called the Thiefmaker, he does exactly has his name suggests.  He turns kids into thieves.  For the get go I didn't like him.  He was pretentious, self-righteous, and I wanted someone to stab him.  He made it hard for me to read because I just hated him and didn't care really much about what he had to say. 

Thankfully his part was small, and Father Chains makes up for him.  I really did adore Father Chains and the all the background chapters that included him.  

Of course the other thing I didn't enjoy about the book is a spoiler, but I'm not real happy about the deaths that appeared in this book.  In fact I may have slammed by book shut and tossed it back in the house so I could sulk about it for a minute.  Only to retrieve it later so I could make sure said deaths were avenged.  But I didn't enjoy it!

Now, the good!

My favorite part of this book is that it's set up like one big heist.  I also enjoyed that Scott Lynch throws the reader straight into the start of it.  No background jumbling, but straight into the action of it all.  Lynch did a wonderful of job of piecing everything together.  A few times I didn't catch on until the next chapter with the reveal.  I also like that it wasn't just one heist set in The Lies of Locke Lamora.  There was sort of a game inside of the game.  Which sort of came together in the last few chapters and I was at least left needing to know how it would all go down.

Despite all the different threads happening at once Scott Lynch was a master of weaving them together, and never once did it feel like he dropped a single one to wrap up another one.  Everything sort of came to head at the end and Locke Lamora didn't disappoint.  I wasn't mad at the ending.  In fact it felt kind of right.  Thankfully deaths were avenged.  Brutally and without mercy.

The world of Camorr was amazing built as well.  I loved that it was sort of inspired by Venice with the waters ways, and the idea of Falselight.  Alchemy plays a role in these books a little, and not in a mad scientist sort of way.  Which I thought was cool.  I think my favorite part about the book was the contrarequilla and the Teeth Show.  In fact the whole scene around Idler's Day was pretty rad.  The architecture of the Five Towers because of an alien race that left the world to the humans was interesting.  It's also something I'm curious to see if it appears in the rest of the series.

I felt like the characters were also very well written.  Scott Lynch does Interlude chapters between scenes that allows readers a past glimpse into the characters lives. All of which are important later one.  Plus it's nice to see how each character became how they are, and why their bond is so strong and trusting.

Honestly I loved the book!  I adore Locke and all of his flaws (and he has many).  I loved Jean for his heart and the Wicked Sisters.  Capa Raza was a brilliant villain, and the Bondmage was wonderful creation that I thought worked wonderfully against Locke.  The ending left me satisfied that everything had been tied up and taken care of, but left me excited to see what the Gentlemen Bastards were going to steal next.

I will warn that Lies of Locke Lamora isn't a book for kids.  The violence is brutal and gory, the language is strong, and the Sanza Twins for naughty!  

Buy, Borrow, or Skip: Definitely run out and buy this one! It's one I'll want to read again, because I'm sure there parts I missed the first time around!