Book Review: The Lies of Locke Lamora

Title: The Lies of Locke Lamora 

Author: Scott Lynch 

Published: 2006

Genre: Fantasy

Blurb: The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a friend to the poor, a ghost that walks through walls. 

Slightly built and barely competent with a sword  Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny. All of Locke's gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves; The Gentlemen Bastards.

The capricious, colourful underworld of the ancient city of Camorr is the only home they've ever known. But now a clandestine war is threatening to tear it apart. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends are suddenly struggling just to say alive...

Plot 

Within the first few chapters, this book reminded me of an Oliver Twist/Robin Hood Mash Up. Locke Lamora who is orphaned as a child finds himself under the care and tutorship of Father Chains who takes on a small number of orphans who have a particular set of skills for tricks and thievery. Locke eventually grows up to becomes the leader of this gang and they use their skills to create great elaborate schemes to steal from the rich. 

The story opens at the beginning of their latest extravagant heist which gives off the impression that this heist is going to be the main fixture that the plot will revolve around, but unbeknownst to both the characters and the reader, this is merely paving the way for Locke and his crew being caught up in trouble and danger far beyond their imaginations. 

The plot is very well thought out and is incredibly unpredictable, for a debut novel I would say it is one of the better debuts I've ever read. Scott Lynch is an incredible story-teller and you can just tell that he has a love for world building. However, I've got to admit that if anything I actually found the world building a little bit overpowering for the rest of the plot. Don't get me wrong as I say, you can tell this is Lynch's skill in writing. I got the sense that he may be a fan of games that require detailed world-building and I have a lot of admiration as world-building is not one of my personal strong points when writing. But I just felt there were SO many different names being thrown out there of buildings, districts, cities and different terms for the times of day, the seasons etc that I found it hard to keep track of them all and occasionally found myself getting lost. I really would have loved to have had a map at the beginning of the book just to help visualise the city better as the city of Camorr itself does sound so exciting. 

Characters

My favourite aspect of this book has to be the characters. Locke Lamora is my perfect type of MC. He's quick witted, brave, funny and cocky. But he's also refreshingly unskillful and sensitive  in certain areas that you would expect a protagonist to be strong. As the blurb suggests, he is terrible a fighting and weilding a sword. He relies on his Gentleman Bastard brother Jean Tannen to provide the muscle in their schemes. But where Jean is the fighter, Locke is the brains. He's the quick-thinking, smart talking, scheming genius, and that makes it's really exciting as you know when he's in the thick of trouble, he won't be able to predictably get himself out of it through his physicality. The other Gentlemen Bastards each bring their own unique characteristics to the gang and are all relevant to the plot in their own way. 

Writing Style

As I say, I found it hard to keep my focus with what was going on in some scene due to the intense and huge amount of description that went into this very detailed underworld. The other thing I didn't really enjoy was that there was an interlude every few chapters which - although relevant in some way to the main plot - I really just found distracting and annoying as it pulled me away from the main action. I think some of the interlude information could have been fed to the reader within the main plot and some of it could maybe have been left out all together. 

Book Cover:

I absolutely love the book cover! The silhouette of the Thorn of Camorr set against a background of a dark and murky city instantly tells the reader than this book is going to full of secrets, adventure and mystery. 

Overall Conclusion:

I wish I could give this one a better rating. I think it's a great debut and a brilliant intro into the works of Scott Lynch and if you are interested in fantasy books with intricate new worlds, clever heists, pirates and more then I really would recommend giving this one a try. I'm not sure I'm going to rush to read the next one in this series but I'm really pleased I gave this one a go. 

Review Summary: 

Plot  ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Characters ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Writing Style ⭐⭐⭐

Book Cover: ⭐⭐⭐⭐

Overall Rating:  ⭐⭐⭐  1/2   (3.5 Stars)