book review--The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

[pennie_dreadful]

 

This book!  I can safely say that this is my first favorite of 2009, (2008's being Breath and Bone and Flesh and Spirit by Carol Berg).  Locke Lamora is an orphan, likely a bastard too, in the city of Camorr.  He's taken in by the Thiefmaker, an old thief to rickety to support himself, so he formed a band of orphans to thieve for him.  They all live together in a cemetary, until Locke proves to be too clever for his own good, and is sold by the Thiefmaker to another gang leader, Father Chains.  Father Chains is another thief, but of a different sort.  He poses as a blind priest so pious he chained himself to his temple.  Father Chains has his own band of orphaned thieves, called The Gentlemen Bastards, and he senses he can make something of Locke, who is far too intelligent for just petty breaking and entering and picking pockets.  He teaches Locke about Capa Barsavi, the crime boss that every thief, whore, assasin and gang in Camorr pay homage to (and a percent of their take, as well); he teaches Locke about the Secret Peace, the unwritten law that the nobles of Camorr are inviolate. 

The funny thing is, Father Chains really is a priest, in a fashion.  The Camorri pantheon has twelve gods, and Chains claims to represent the Unnamed Thirteenth, Father of Neccessary Pretexts, god of thieves; basically a sort of black sheep younger brother of the other gods.  He claims that priests of the Unnamed Thirteenth can pose as priests of other gods and not be punished for it, because of some sort of "lingering affection for his merry brand of fuckery".  Oddly enough, Chains, and later Locke and the rest of his gang seem to be truly pious.

Locke grows up, and eventually takes control of the little gang.  He learned well from Chains, and his main source of income is pulling brilliant and complicated scams on the nobility of Camorr--breaking the Secret Peace.  It means Locke's death and the death of his gang if they are ever found out, but it's worth it to him.  He's probably richer than some of the minor nobles they fleece, but instead of living high and mighty they just pile it up, in secret.  Eventually though, things become very unstable in the slums of Camorr, when an unknown assailant starts targeting gang leaders.  Capa Barsavi is on edge, and Locke is about to get wrapped up in a complicated plot.

As I mentioned before, Lynch has a flair for profanity: "--and fifty of Barsavi's men piled into the room with crossbows, and shot those poor idiots so full of holes that a porcupine in heat would have taken any one of them home and fucked him."  That is--it's artful, is what it is.

I also love how The Gentleman Bastards cook!  Real food--creative dishes, not the ubiquitous stew or slices of bread and cheese (a quick glance at Lynch's homepage revealed he was a line cook, no wonder).  Not to mention he created a guild of professional chefs, who practice the Eight Beautiful Arts, One being Seafood and Five being desserts (what are the others, I want to know!)  Ah, the way to my heart.  <3

One final thing--it's amusing to me, how many publishers get authors to say things like "New, fresh, thoroughly unique!" on the covers of fantasy novels.  Fantasy, one of the most cliched genres, except for maybe romance, around!  There is no fresh and original; there is however engrossing and gorgeously realized.  In fact I can see a lot of similarities between The Lies of Locke Lamora and Stalking Darkness, at least as far as the plot goes.  But they were written in different ways so I can apprecaite and enjoy both books on their own merits.

The one thing I didn't like quite so much was the way Lynch would stop the story and start telling another, seemingly unrelated story, in order to make a point about a character.  However I think he handled moving back and forth in Locke's life, from when he was first picked up by chains to the present, very skillfully.  Ordinarily it's irritating, but young Locke and adult Locke are equally engaging, so the switching between story lines didn't bother me.

In short, I love this book.  I am leaving now to go dive into the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies. 

Cross posted to epicfantasy .

Comments

[aurillia.livejournal.com]

Oh goodie! [Unknown site tag] recommended it to me ages ago (and I bought it ages ago) but haven't read it yet - glad you liked it, I'll try to get onto it soon. (I didn't read all of your review cause I'd already decided to read it and, y'know, like to know nothing about a book if possible.)

[kat-nic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I hate knowing what happens next too.