The Lies of Locke Lamora, Audio Edition

The Lies of Locke Lamora (2009) Scott Lynch narrated by Michael Page (Gentleman Bastards)

I read this in 2007, about a year after it was published. It’s dark, which is one of the reasons why I never got around to reading the sequels (the primary reason being because I only had them in hardback).

Locke Lamora is an orphan who, after causing trouble under the Thiefmaster is sold to the Eyeless Priest at the Temple of Perelandro, who turns out to be an even bigger scoundrel.

The story alternates between Locke’s past, and the heist the Gentleman Bastards are currently trying to pull off.

Although it is a heist story, parts of it are extremely dark. Main characters are murdered. Side characters are murdered in especially horrible ways. Main characters have to go through horrible experiences.

There is also a scene which I remembered from when I read the book, that I actually had to skip when listening. The scene in question is on page 160 in the kindle version, and is 33% into the book. Locke’s thoughts about some of the deaths as he sees the aftermath are hard, but this is on-the-page torture and I just couldn’t listen to it.

This is actually the first time this has happened, and I’ve listened to Mike Carey’s Felix Castor series. Which makes me wonder if I would be able to listen to an audio book of the Thieves’ World series, which I love and have reread countless times, but does have some specific bits that are awful.

So I enjoyed the story, but the audio might have been a bit too much.

Publisher: Random House Audio

Rating: 8/10

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