Speculative Fiction Junkie

Scott Lynch

The Lies of Locke Lamora is one of those books that everyone who pays any attention to speculative fiction has heard about quite a bit during the past few years.

Initial Skepticism

I was initially really skeptical about this book for several reasons. First of all, the story centers around a group of thieves who steal from the nobility. Now, don't get me wrong: I have no problem getting into a story told from the perspective of the bad guys. It's just that another story about savvy thieves stealing from dumb nobles didn't seem that interesting. While everyone constantly bemoans the neverending stream of fantasy novels that ape Tolkien's "band of adventurers on vitally important quest" model, a quest at least provides a motive for the protagonists' actions and serves to propel the story along. People stealing from other people just doesn't sound like the stuff great stories are made of.

The second reason I was reluctant to give this book a chance was a superficial one: the cover of the paperback edition (seen on the left) just looks extraordinarily trashy. This screenshot doesn't do it justice. When you pick this book up in the store, you'll see that the towers in the background and the man sitting down are raised up and coated in a sheen of shiny material. Again, you have to actually have the book in your hand to know what I'm talking about, but take my word for it: this book looks like something you would expect to see on sale for a dollar in a run down grocery store.

The final reason for my reluctance was similarly shallow: the blurb on the back of the book suggests that the chintzy cover was not an accident and bolstered my suspicion that this would be a trashy read, at best. Particularly disturbing was the generic assurance that "here is a story of adventure, loyalty, and survival" followed by the damning indictment that this book "is one part 'Robin Hood,' one part Ocean's Eleven, and entirely enthralling...." Yuk. Ocean's Eleven? Are they serious? I'm sure I don't speak for all readers of the genre, but I have to ask: who reads fantasy novels because they want to read a story like Ocean's Eleven?

Oh well. I eventually gave into the pressure of everyone's high opinion of this book and purchased a copy.

Plot Summary

The Lies of Locke Lamora is the story of the exploits of the Gentlemen Bastards, a group of orphans molded into thieves by the master thief Chains, who is a priest of the Crooked Warden, god of thieves. They operate out of a hidden cellar of a temple to another god and act as though they serve this other god. Chains ensures that the orphans are taught all of the arts necessary to their profession of robbing the wealthy by outsmarting them.

The book vacillates between chapters in the present and interludes from the past that reveal how the protagonists became who they are. In the process, the elaborate setting of the city of Camorr is slowly revealed.

The main story opens years after Chains took the orphans in, with the Gentlemen Bastards plotting to swindle a noble and his wife out of their fortune. Their aspirations are quickly complicated when a mysterious man known as the Gray King starts brutally killing off members of Camorr's criminal elite. Camorr's terrorized criminal boss then enlists the help of the Gentlemen Bastards in dealing with the rogue killer. Before long, the Bastards are in way over their heads as the various plot threads start to overlap and threaten to catastrophically collide.

First Impressions

Several things immediately impressed me about this book. First of all, contrary to my initial fears, Lynch is a very good writer. At its worst, the writing in this book is merely good. And every now and then Lynch would come out of nowhere with a sentence or paragraph that was nothing short of brilliant. Having said that, however, Lynch's capable ability as a writer of prose takes a back seat to his powers as a first rate storyteller, something he shares with George R.R. Martin.

The second thing that struck me was the picture Lynch paints of the city of Camorr. As others have pointed out, the closest analog to the city of Camorr is Venice during the Renaissance. But this comparison serves only as a backdrop for the fantastic citybuilding that Lynch achieves. The city is comprised of a number of islands separated by canals and each of them has their own distinct history and culture. Furthermore, the entire city is sprinkled with oddities and wonders that make for a truly unique setting. For example, the five towers on the north side of the city, which are made of a special substance crafted by a long vanished predecessor civilization, glow for a period after sunset called Falselight. The way Lynch describes it I could actually envision the eeriness of this glow. Another example is the shifting market, in which merchants ply their wares on constantly moving boats. These and countless other examples really flesh out the city of Camorr.

Despite these pleasant surprises, the first hundred plus pages left me wondering where Lynch was taking me. It seemed at this point that the main story itself was to be little more than a study on cleverness, at the end of which I would say "wow, those Bastards were clever" and that was about all.

Later Impressions

As the story went on, I found myself more and more drawn in. It seems that in prematurely concluding that this would be an only marginally interesting story about thieves cleverly outsmarting their victims I had underestimated Lynch's abilities. As things progressed, he added layer upon layer of other people acting cleverly to outsmart the Gentlemen Bastards. The result was an intricate fugue of plotting and intrigue. And while most good stories share this quality to some degree, I've rarely seen it done as well as Lynch does it in this book. While initially we don't really see much concerning the consequences of Locke's schemes on others, this changes once Locke and his companions themselves become the victims of the plotting of others. This in turn humanizes and fleshes out Locke and his gang. I was shocked when I realized all of a sudden that I cared about the unsympathetic thieves from the early part of the novel.

Lynch also does a wonderful job with the use of the interludes. In my opinion, breaking the flow of a story to go back in time is almost always a mistake, and even those who can skillfully do it usually do so sparingly. Lynch, by contrast, uses interludes throughout the entire span of the book. Not only did it work well, I think these interludes really augmented the main story. What's more, Lynch seemed to be perfectly in tune with how the reader would feel about an interruption at any given point: when the main story was slow, there were longer interludes; when the action was in high gear, Lynch would only take us away for a page or two.

Score: 9/10

The True First

I had a difficult time trying to figure out which edition was the true first of this book. The book was first published in the U.K. by Gollancz and in the U.S. by Bantam Spectra. I've seen June 27, 2006 listed as the date of publication for both versions, but I've also read that the U.K. version was released weeks before the U.S. edition. If true, this would make the Gollancz version the true first. Unfortunately for yours truly, I purchased the U.S. first before realizing this :(


[This review was not based on a review copy]