The Lies of Locke Lamora

This was bloody brilliant. It's 3am and I have to get up in 6hrs but I also needed to inhale the final 3rd of this before I could sleep.

The first book by a new author is usually promising but shaky. This book is pure genius.

The characters are well rounded, the dialogue is natural, the world is detailed and realistic, the plot is layered and fearless.

I could not put it down.

The only thing I don't like about this book is the title, and the author has already done a lot better with the title of the sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies

I just couldn't get into it. The first bit, when Locke was a child was promising. But it quickly moved onto adulthood and just dragged. I don't mind books taking their time if something is added to the experience by the extra pages, but this just felt like padding.  Maybe things would improve eventually, as suggested by the positive reviews, but I've got to the point where I'm making excuses not to read it. 

Gave up at 17%.

I know I'm able to enjoy books (Rowling proved that to me again just this month

This book enthralled me as much as it enraged. You come to love the characters and then Scott Lynch just throws one punishment after another after another at them.

I adore this book. Each and every character feels alive and individual, constantly exceeding the reader's expectation. Lynch describes a world so full of life you can see it breath and move between chapters. No twist or turn in the story felt impossible to predict but somehow the reader is just as a victim of the con as the targets.

An under-appreciated part of the novel though is the world building. It definitely takes a back drop to Locke's schemes that it's almost forgettable, but that is just what makes it so amazing. The world is so seamlessly explored and described that, every instance of something magical and fantastical slots into place is perfectly normal when reading the book. It's integrated so well into the story you never realised you are exploring this insane blend of sci-fi and fantasy.

5/5, 10/10, 100/100

Temporarily on hiatus, unfortunately. I put it aside to read other things and now I feel that I should start over and give it my full attention because it's definitely amazing.

DNF

I can finally turn off airplane mode on my kindle. What an unfortunately upsetting book of morally gray characters.

Mix Oliver Twist and Fagin in with an adolescent crew from Ocean's Eleven and put them into a canal city like pre-medieval Venice and have them set up a series of sophisticated heists. Pepper the story with the most imaginative swearing and cursing, black humour as they wound and main their enemies, and hide it all under the guise of a temple priest with his altar boys taking donations with which to help the poor and needy.

I've only recently heard of this twenty year old novel. It's a hoot and so well told that the author took me into places in my head that meant there were days I needed recovery time.

Locke starts out as a five year old waif in a den of child thieves. Two years later he's so good at planning heists that his master has to sell him on as he can't keep him under control. With his new master he learns to be a 'Gentleman Bastard', a surprisingly well educated con artist, and alongside his three companions they take aim at relieving the gentry of their wealth. But a new name is heard in the city as a powerful adversary slowly emerges from secrecy and many crime families fall to his will.

Locke and his friends are faced with impossible choices as disaster falls upon their shared lives. The new enemy rises and old alliances fall, but it's not until Locke finds out what this enemy has planned that he realises the danger he is in.

Took me a little bit to get into this until around halfway then I LOVED it. It's basically a Michael J Sullivan book but a whole lot better. Idk of any way I can describe this book without spoiling it but I'm probably the only person who hasn't read this anyway. I liked how this could kind be read as a standalone if you want with the only cliffhangers being very minor. The way it ended it at least made it to where there's not a huge rush to read the next one before you forget anything.

I enjoy fantasy that includes cool creatures or at least creatures that aren't overdone like humanoid beasts or dragons. This one included giant spiders which is terrifying for me and sharks! This is a book worth bypassing your TBR for sure

LOVED THIS. It's been a while since I've given a 5-star review. One quote on the back of my copy includes the word "swashbuckling," and YES. Yes it is! I read the first few hundred pages in fits and starts, not because I wasn't interested, but because I managed to correctly intuit that once I hit the climax, I'd be tearing through and would be sad if I rushed too much. So much to love here - dialogue that is Princess Bride-y (I'm not sure anything has ever met that bar for me before), and something I was just thinking about: tremendous world-building that somehow never slows down the plot. Already ordered the next one.

In the spirit of sprawling tales like Lord of the Rings, this has strong dialogue and creates a whole new world for the reader.  At the same time, it can also be tough to understand new words, phrases, and terminology specific to the stage being set and it can make it a slow read, at times.  The  swashbuckling vibe mixed with a con artist/thief dynamic worked very well, especially with extremely well written, cinematic action scenes that never pulled any punches. 

Heist story with slick turns set in a magical world where our heroes don't do magic.

I loved the banter between our crew and dark humor spread throughout the book. I loved how the humor (by everyone, not just the heoros) hide the grimdark setting until you get reminded of it every so often by casual brutality. I also liked the religions, especially of the Crooked Warden, who will advocate for the thieves in the afterlife, stealthily tipping the scales while their souls are being weighed.

Based on the first 200 pages 3/5. After a specific scene at abt page 202 it changes the whole plot and it either pulls you in or it doesn't. Until that moment I was about to drop the book as somewhat boring. But for me after that it got quite enjoyable and I wanted to know what happens in the story.

And from that scene until the end I think it's a nice 4/5 with interesting moments and plot moving forward with rather captivating scenes. I wasn't a fan of all the interludes, but they were workable.

Overall I think the package is still 3/5, despite being good book from that specific scene onwards. Needs editing, the bloat factor is fairly high which brings the overall rank down.

4.5 stars

A rip roaring, entertaining read. I loved the complete lack of focus on worldbuilding, nothing of the wider world is fleshed out, or plays a part in the story, instead it's all just a cool setting for a fun heist and revenge tale.

I will say the playful tone left me unprepared for the violence when it arrived, and there is no way that halfway through the book I would've expected the body count to reach what it does by the end. This tone discrepancy robs the dramatic moments of some of their emotional heft but it definitely keeps things thoroughly engaging.

If you're looking for a good old fashioned fun time with a book, this is a great option.

A lot of fantasy books are written with tons of ambition. It’s a genre that very much lends itself to it, as there aren’t really any limits within the genre itself. The only barriers are created by the author themselves. However i do think that some authors would be served well by tempering their ambitions, and Lynch is one of them. With that said I enjoyed most of my experience reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. It has a fun premise, the main characters have a lot of charm and the basic narrative is very satisfying to follow up until the final act. I think this book is a ton of fun when it’s only focusing on the adventures of Locke and the rest of the Gentlemen Bastards. Where this book loses me is when it tries to expand its scope. One minute you’re reading about Locke coming up with a scheme, the next you’re reading about the economic system of the entire city. One moment you’re reading a cool action sequence, the next you’re reading about some random diplomatic relationships. It takes a very skilled writer to blend the micro with the macro and unfortunately I just don’t think Lynch is quite at that level. I don’t want to come across as too harsh on Lynch as I do like a lot of the ideas he has here and I think the core story of this book is a really good one. But not every fantasy book needs multiple countries, nor does it need to be over 700 pages. A version of this book that trims down some of the excess worldbuilding would probably land around 500 pages and I would be singing its praises. Alas, I am not reviewing that version, I am reviewing this one and this one is a flawed book with some great sections.

Picked up this book at a friend's recommendation years ago but put it down because it seemed grimdark. It isn't! It's not always totally light but it's a lot more intrigue and adventure and heist kind of stuff once you get past the intro. Great fun overall. Did not know where the book was taking me until it was over, but in this case that wasn't a bad thing. It wrapped up (mostly) well.

3.5⭐️ this was very fun but definitely did not NEED to be 530 pages. But I enjoyed it!

Really did not like Lamora as a character, too annoying for my taste. Somehow most of the other characters are even less likable. I really liked it when Tannen beat the crap out of him lol, I guess Tannen is pretty cool.

Characters: ★★★★★ Atmosphere: ★★★★★ Writing Style: ★★★★★ Plot: ★★★★★ Intrigue: ★★★★★ Relationships: ★★★★★ Enjoyment: ★★★★★Overall Rating: ★★★★★A brilliant tale following expert con artist Locke Lamora and his crew as they venture out of out of their depth.First of all, I'm a sucker for a good heist story, especially in a medieval setting. Secondly, Lynch has a gift for crafting imperfect characters that you want to root for. His prose is so pleasant to read, and he somehow has a way of making crude language blend in flawlessly with the rest of his writing. It's astonishing that this is Lynch's debut.I loved the flashback chapters where we learned more about Locke and Jean's transformative upbringing and relationship growth. It really sets up a lot for the latter half of the story, and I'm sure will deeply play into the following books. The twists and turns, revelations and surprises within the plot made for an immersive and gripping story that you never wanted to end.In conclusion, this is one of the best bromances I've read in a while (but not quite on the level of Royce and Hadrian in Riyria) and I'm excited to read the rest in the series!

3.5 stars, Metaphorosis reviews

Summary
Locke Lamora is a professional thief, raised from childhood to be so. But he and his crew don't follow the rules of the Secret Peace that governs the city's underworld. And they'll pay a price for that.

Review
I've been hearing about this book for a very long time, but somehow nothing specific enough to trigger a purchase. When I saw it on sale, I decided to finally go ahead and pick it up.

The blurb on the cover says, “fresh, original”. I have to say that it isn't really either of those. Pretty much all the foreground elements are things we've seen many times before. And much of the storytelling seems more driven by heist movies than by fantasy tropes; I began to feel worn out by the sheer number of ‘but he wasn't really dead'-type twists. It's exacerbated by the slow introduction and the endless time-hopping. There are any number of fairly sizable plot holes that are papered over or simply ignored. One of the big reveals – the identity of the villain – is very disappointing, while another that is often hinted at never comes up at all, and will presumably provide a climax for the series.

Oddly, it's the background worldbuilding that's most interesting about the book. Lynch has clearly spent some time on this – to the extent that he's constantly introducing more scenery, giving the feeling that, most of the way through a fairly large book, he's still introducing the city it takes place in. While I liked the world, I got the feeling that he'd done so much work on it that he insisted on cramming it all in, even when it slows or complicates the plot. Maybe it's all essential to the later books, but I have my doubts.

All that said, and to give Lynch credit, the characters are engaging (if somewhat stock), the plot itself moves along quickly (ignoring the constant flashbacks), and the whole setup is intriguing enough to make the book a fun, reasonably quick read (despite the frustrating plot holes). I could see picking up and enjoying later books in the series (but don't really feel driven to buy them).

So, fresh and original this is not, but it is a reasonably fun and solid fantasy read, with caveats.

I tried to read this a couple of years ago when I was in a reading slump and it was a dnf. I'm participating in a readathon this month and one of the prompts is to give an author a second chance so I picked this one. I'm so glad I did! I can finally understand why this book gets so much love.
I thought it started a bit slow, but it just got better and better. I will definitely continue on with the series.

7/10

It was pretty good. The thing that turned me off the most was probably the last chapter in which each character sternly says, “I will never believe you ever again” ten seconds before running face first into another Lie of Locke Lamora.

The world is growing on me, and the epilogue sets up the next entry so I am looking forward to more.