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calissaThe Lies of Locke Lamora is the first book in the Gentlemen Bastard Sequence. It is a secondary world fantasy set in Camorr--a Renaissance-esque city that seems like a cross between London and Venice. The Gentlemen Bastards are a small group of orphans-turned-thieves and brothers of the heart. They are lead by Locke Lamora, a young con-man with the skills to match his ambition. Together, they trick the rich out of their fortunes and keep their success hidden from Capa Barsavi--crime boss of the city. Of course, things get complicated.
There was so much to love about this book. I am a sucker for a number of things in a story--adventure and intrigue being two of them. This book has those in spades. We get to take a ride with Locke as he invents new personae, impersonates other characters and (as the title might indicate) straight-up lies through his teeth. There are muggings, heists, power struggles, quests for vengeance, gladiatorial battles and battles of wit. So much fun.
I also loved the structure of this book and the way it played with time. The story is not told in a precisely linear fashion. Instead, it manages to deliver Locke's backstory (and certain other important bits of information) mostly by way of 'interludes' at the end of each chapter. This never felt like infodumping to me, being as richly embellished as the rest of the story. It was also a good way to build suspense by taking us away from the action of the present day. The pacing was excellently handled and really hooked me in--often by starting in the middle of the action and then backtracking somewhat to explain how the situation came about.
The setting is alive with detail, the description almost meandering but never boring. Lynch takes his time to paint us a clear picture and the result is a vibrant world.
However, I had some trouble with the representation of gender. On the surface, it gave me an impression of being a fairly equal society. There are women represented among the gangs of orphaned thieves, the lower classes, the merchants. The Don and Dona that Locke sets out to rob are represented as having a reasonably equal partnership--if anything, the Dona has more brains than her husband.
Nevertheless, there is an inconsistency between the apparent equality of the sexes and treatment of individual characters. Though there is nominally a female member of the Gentlemen Bastards, we never once see her on stage and she has managed to break Locke's heart before the action takes place (thus striking her from the good graces of the reader). I can only think that mentioning her was some way of setting up for a future book because there is otherwise no reason for including her.
There are no females with overt power. The only one who looks likely to gain overt power is killed off. Even the one woman in covert power ended up being fairly toothless and her disguise relies on the fact that no one would ever consider it possible for a woman to occupy her position.
It was also interesting to note that the whores were all, without exception, female.
The villains were also somewhat disappointing. With intrigue and disguise being at the heart of this story, I had rather expected the Grey King's identity to turn out to be someone the reader stood a reasonable chance of guessing--especially with the whole "Capa Barsavi knows my face" angle. My bet was that the Grey King would turn out to be a woman, with the gendered pseudonym being used to mislead. How disappointing to discover this was not, in fact, the case.
It was also disappointing that although the Grey King had some very personal motivations for his actions they had nothing at all to do with Locke, despite the fact that he very particularly targets Locke. In that sense, the Grey King's sidekick--a kind of magician known as a Bondmage--made a much better villain. There is a real battle of egos between Locke and the Bondmage, leading to palpable sense of hatred between them. A shame, therefore, that the Bondmage's own stupidity ends up being his undoing rather than any cleverness on Locke's part.
Being somewhat a fan of anime, I am well familiar with the Japanese Spirit and the Underdogs Never Lose tropes. I'm not sure I liked their use at the climax of this story. It seemed heavy handed and deprived one of the other main characters of his share of the glory.
Overall, I found it to be a very engaging book and an excellent adventure, albeit one with flaws.
Four stars out of five.
There was so much to love about this book. I am a sucker for a number of things in a story--adventure and intrigue being two of them. This book has those in spades. We get to take a ride with Locke as he invents new personae, impersonates other characters and (as the title might indicate) straight-up lies through his teeth. There are muggings, heists, power struggles, quests for vengeance, gladiatorial battles and battles of wit. So much fun.
I also loved the structure of this book and the way it played with time. The story is not told in a precisely linear fashion. Instead, it manages to deliver Locke's backstory (and certain other important bits of information) mostly by way of 'interludes' at the end of each chapter. This never felt like infodumping to me, being as richly embellished as the rest of the story. It was also a good way to build suspense by taking us away from the action of the present day. The pacing was excellently handled and really hooked me in--often by starting in the middle of the action and then backtracking somewhat to explain how the situation came about.
The setting is alive with detail, the description almost meandering but never boring. Lynch takes his time to paint us a clear picture and the result is a vibrant world.
However, I had some trouble with the representation of gender. On the surface, it gave me an impression of being a fairly equal society. There are women represented among the gangs of orphaned thieves, the lower classes, the merchants. The Don and Dona that Locke sets out to rob are represented as having a reasonably equal partnership--if anything, the Dona has more brains than her husband.
Nevertheless, there is an inconsistency between the apparent equality of the sexes and treatment of individual characters. Though there is nominally a female member of the Gentlemen Bastards, we never once see her on stage and she has managed to break Locke's heart before the action takes place (thus striking her from the good graces of the reader). I can only think that mentioning her was some way of setting up for a future book because there is otherwise no reason for including her.
There are no females with overt power. The only one who looks likely to gain overt power is killed off. Even the one woman in covert power ended up being fairly toothless and her disguise relies on the fact that no one would ever consider it possible for a woman to occupy her position.
It was also interesting to note that the whores were all, without exception, female.
The villains were also somewhat disappointing. With intrigue and disguise being at the heart of this story, I had rather expected the Grey King's identity to turn out to be someone the reader stood a reasonable chance of guessing--especially with the whole "Capa Barsavi knows my face" angle. My bet was that the Grey King would turn out to be a woman, with the gendered pseudonym being used to mislead. How disappointing to discover this was not, in fact, the case.
It was also disappointing that although the Grey King had some very personal motivations for his actions they had nothing at all to do with Locke, despite the fact that he very particularly targets Locke. In that sense, the Grey King's sidekick--a kind of magician known as a Bondmage--made a much better villain. There is a real battle of egos between Locke and the Bondmage, leading to palpable sense of hatred between them. A shame, therefore, that the Bondmage's own stupidity ends up being his undoing rather than any cleverness on Locke's part.
Being somewhat a fan of anime, I am well familiar with the Japanese Spirit and the Underdogs Never Lose tropes. I'm not sure I liked their use at the climax of this story. It seemed heavy handed and deprived one of the other main characters of his share of the glory.
Overall, I found it to be a very engaging book and an excellent adventure, albeit one with flaws.
Four stars out of five.
