There’s no freedom quite like the freedom of being constantly underestimated
I loved the Ocean’s movies, but this novel is so much better! I wish I had found The Gentleman Bastards novels much earlier, because they are so much fun.
Book Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Rating:
Title & Author: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Genre: Fantasy, Adventure
Release Date: June 27 2006
Series: The Gentleman Bastards
Publisher: Gollancz
Synopsis
An orphan’s life is harsh — and often short — in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains — a man who is neither blind nor a priest.
A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected “family” of orphans — a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting.
Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld’s most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful — and more ambitious — than Locke has yet imagined.
Known as the Gray King, he is slowly killing Capa Barsavi’s most trusted men — and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr’s underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the Gray King at his own brutal game — or die trying…
I give The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch five out of five hearts. This novel is just amazing! The twists and lies that Scott takes you on are great and you never know what to expect around the bent.
No idea why I have never heard of The Lies of Locke Lamora before. But I found it in the bookstore in London last January and was looking forward to reading it and I finally did.
The story balances on the con the Gentleman Bastards are playing on a don and his wife. I loved the way they were portrayed and did not suspect anything. Even when they got conned again they do not even think the characters that came to warn them could be the same people as those who are conning them in the first place! I laught so much while reading the novel and then the characters!
Locke is funny and smart. He goes from being a kid that does the only thing he know too well, he steals. But he steals too much and from the wrong people and you see him grow into the man he is by the end. A man full of honor and loyalty.
I was sad to hear the garrista Father Chains dies from old age somewhere between the pieces in the past and the current time in the novel. I thought the man was a interesting character and would have liked to see how Locke became the garrista of the Gentleman Bastards.
Jean Tannen, Locke’s best friend surprised me when we got to learn about his background. Because all the children under Father Chains care were already busy in unsavory business, but Jean wasn’t and is described as chubby or fat. Which is not a bodytype I would have expected for a Gentleman Bastard. Nonetheless I loved him and was sad to see him get so hurt at the end of the novel.
All the different Gentlemen have their own strengths and weaknesses, they are great characters and they all grow throughout the novel even though it only spend a couple of weeks, maybe months. I think Scott Lynch wrote a great cast of characters
In the beginning I was a bit confused because the novel goes from a young Locke to an older Locke and then to sometime in between. But later this becomes more clear and you start to recognise where you go back in time for a bit. These pieces are usually not very long and tell you a little bit of background information about a character you have to know about the coming part. I thought this was a great way of telling the story, because the parts weren’t too long and take you away from the rest of the story. And only the pieces of info you need are told and not too much bullshit around it, even though I suspect Scott Lynch has that information lying around somewhere for whenever someone asks him a question he did not answer in the novel.
Let me know what you thought of this book!
If you have any requests for which book I should talk about next, please let me know in the comments down below.
For now, let books enrich your life!