Lies
of Locke Lamora is a con artist novel set in a rich an exciting fantasy world.
WOW, it sounds like I ripped that line directly from the back of the book. It’s
an apt description, we follow Locke Lamora a con artist, also a priest, who robs
the rich nobility for fun. Locke was a boy genius who has turned into an
ultra-successful conman in the city of Camorr. Lies of Locke Lamora is a good
book, but it left me wanting more, and not in a good way. I expected more out
of the character Locke Lamora. He seemed
to stumble through the last act of the book. I’m in the vast minority for not loving
this book. I just liked it, just didn’t love it.
The
book starts off a little slowly. It then splits into two different time frames.
We have a present day storyline, and also see how Locke grew up, and became a
successful con-man. For the first part of the book, I wanted to stay with the
young Locke storyline. It was the more interesting of the two. I wanted to find
out more about the brilliant schemes the young Locke hatched. Lynch writes
Locke to be a con-man Mozart. A natural and gifted liar, at an extremely young
age, who can hatch schemes to steal anyone blind. The present day storyline did
not interest me much. The scheme they were hatching against a noble was not
very interesting. It didn’t have any thrilling elements or cool twists, but
then all of sudden Lynch sprang a turn I wasn’t expecting in the first scheme.
After this the present day storyline became more entertaining and intriguing.
The
middle part of the book had me hooked. I wanted to find out how Locke and his
friends wiggled out of their predicament. I liked the tough situation Lynch put
the characters in. The flashbacks or “interludes”
added to how the characters where able to escape from the present day
situations. I also like the setting and world Lynch created. It’s has renaissance
feel to it, but with magic and interesting alchemical concoctions. The religion
is another interesting aspect. Our main characters our priests in the church of
the benefactor, or the god of thieves. It is a secret God, the thirteenth in
the pantheon. The characters deeply believe in their religion, taking time to practice
rituals and pray to it on many occasions. This seems to pay off, because our
characters had very little to do with their actual survival.
Maybe
I was expecting too much. Most of the reviews I have read compare the book to a
fantasy Ocean’s Eleven. I think this is a horrible comparison. SPOILER, but I
think you need to read on if you have read the other reviews. Locke does not pull of a big heist to end the
book. It just isn’t there. It is a thrilling conclusion to the book, but Locke
has a little to actually do with the outcome. He doesn’t plan for anything. He actually
goes against his strengths and plays to his weaknesses. Without some luck, or the help of his God, he
shouldn’t survive his trials at the end. From what I had read about the book,
and from the interludes, I was expecting Locke to come up with a brilliant
scheme to get him and his friends out of their predicament. Instead he just
keeps getting beat at his own game. I like
my hero’s to have challengers, but at some point they have to be the hero. Maybe
this is Lynch’s writing style, and I enjoyed other aspects just not this part.
Lynch
does a great job with the action sequences to end the book. They are clear and well-paced.
I didn’t want to put the book down at the end to see what happened. Just
because it wasn’t the ending I wanted, didn’t mean I didn’t enjoy the payoff.
Lynch has a brutal and gritty style. We get some excellent torture sequences,
which made me want to gag while reading. They are great and extremely descriptive.
If you have a weak stomach I would stay away from these parts of the book.
There aren’t very abundant, but they stick with you.
I enjoyed Lynch’s style and
the world he created for the Locke to live in. You can tell he put a ton of
time in creating his world. There is a mountain of history and backstory that
we just scratch the service of in his first novel. I just didn’t care for Locke at the end of the
novel. If I can’t get behind a hero or main character there isn’t much need for
me to continue the series. Others have greatly enjoyed this novel and the
others in the series. If Lynch starts another book series I would consider
picking it up. Maybe I’ll give the gentlemen
bastards another chance in a few years, but for now I liked the book, but not
enough to continue
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