{"id":336,"date":"2007-01-02T18:22:33","date_gmt":"2007-01-03T01:22:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/?p=336"},"modified":"2021-05-31T07:56:13","modified_gmt":"2021-05-31T11:56:13","slug":"the-lies-of-locke-lamora","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/336","title":{"rendered":"The Lies of Locke Lamora"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Lies of Locke Lamora<\/a><\/em> (2006) Scott Lynch<\/a><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>It’s somewhat difficult to classify The Lies of Locke Lamora<\/em>. It’s definitely fantasy, but I haven’t come across a lot of fantasy like it. The closet comparison I can think of is Thieves’ World<\/em>; the main characters are scoundrels and thieves, and no one is up to any good. <\/p>\n

Locke Lamora is a thief–and a prodigy at that. The young boy has moved beyond the Thiefmaker’s ability to control, so the Thiefmaker has sold him to the Eyeless Priest. There he meets the boys who are to becomes his brothers and fellow conspirators–the Gentleman Bastards.<\/p>\n

The story moves back and forth between two arcs, the story of Locke’s childhood, and his adulthood and his current scam. The timing of the cuts is good–both story arcs are excellent. Even when one arc stopped at a cliffhanger moment, I couldn’t help but want to go back to the past and learn more about Locke’s past.<\/p>\n

I really<\/em> liked this book. Once the story got started I had a hard time putting The Lies of Locke Lamora<\/em> down–luckily it’s the last day of my vacation, so I didn’t have anything else to do except finish the book.<\/p>\n

The world building is also very good. There is as much left unexplained about Camorr as there is explained, which made the land as fascinating as the characters.<\/p>\n

The one caveat I have about this book is that there is unlike other fantasy books, Scott Lynch uses regular American cursing instead of using made-up words, which was a bit of a shock at first–I’m just not used to seeing the f-word used liberally in non-urban fantasy. I have to say that the use of the word made sense, consider the sort of people that Locke and his friends were. They’re thieves and scoundrels and men of ill-repute, of course they’d use rough language when talking with each other. However, I have to say that it was in some of these passages, where Locke and the other Gentleman Bastards are talking that I found the dialog to be most stilted. Mind you, there were only a few passages like this, but I did find them jarring, especially since I found most of the other dialog to be excellent.<\/p>\n

If you’re looking for a strong fantasy, with irascible scoundrels, then you must definitely read this book. I’d say it’s one of the best books I’ve read this year, but as it’s only January 2nd, that probably isn’t very impressive. So I’ll say instead that as long you don’t mind strong language, you should definitely pick up The Lies of Locke Lamora<\/em>.
\nRating: 9\/10<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) Scott Lynch It’s somewhat difficult to classify The Lies of Locke Lamora. It’s definitely fantasy, but I haven’t come across a lot of fantasy like it. The closet comparison I can think of is Thieves’ World; the main characters are scoundrels and thieves, and no one is up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":true,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[13,2,291],"tags":[300],"class_list":["post-336","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-10","category-fantasy","category-paper","tag-scott-lynch"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/piQkW-5q","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":21774,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/21774","url_meta":{"origin":336,"position":0},"title":"The Lies of Locke Lamora, Audio Edition","author":"Michelle","date":"March 26, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"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\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"The Lies of Locke Lamora","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/04\/The-Lies-of-Locke-Lamora-2.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":2983,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/2983","url_meta":{"origin":336,"position":1},"title":"The Lies of Locke Lamora","author":"Michelle","date":"June 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006) Scott Lynch This is a re-read. I remembered enjoying this book when I read it, and I bought the sequel, but both are in hardback, and I just dislike reading hardback book. So I broke down and bought both for the Kindle. 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As an orphan plucked off the streets she was glad to have food to eat and a safe place to sleep, but she wants to learn magic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "8.5\/10"","block_context":{"text":"8.5\/10","link":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/category\/8-5-10"},"img":{"alt_text":"One Good Turn","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/One-Good-Turn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/One-Good-Turn.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/klishis.com\/reading\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/One-Good-Turn.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":27448,"url":"https:\/\/klishis.com\/reading\/archives\/27448","url_meta":{"origin":336,"position":4},"title":"Dear Bartleby","author":"Michelle","date":"August 30, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Dear Bartleby (2023) Sarah Wallace (Meddle & Mend #4) Seb, youngest sibling of Gavin and Gerry has been sent down for Oxford for one too many pranks. 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