Hmmm...just didn't grip me. 3-4 stars
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After reading all the 5 star reviews on here, I felt it was only fair to give my point of view as it differs somewhat! Usually I buy a book off Amazon and agree with the norm, ie if the majority says 5 stars, I usually find myself agreeing. Not this time!
First of all, let me start by saying that yes, this is a good book. Exciting things happen. There are bad guys, there are good guys....both get hurt (frequently and in various ways), and it isn't easy for the 'right' thing to come about: people have to plan and slog and work at it to get what they want and right some wrongs. In that sense, it is a good book; well written, and you can tell the author has taken time to build his world before he started writing it.
HOWEVER, (and it is a big however)....there is something wrong with this book that I just can't put my finger on! Again, let me explain something...I am an avid reader. I LOVE books; once I've found a good one, nothing can tear me away! I love to find a new world and get lost in it, falling in love with new characters, crying as old one die, you name it. In fact, if the book/series/world the author has created grabs me enough, I will hunt don any extra information surrounding the book/books, eg extracts on websites, short stories, interviews etc. I love reading and I love to love new books!
Anyway: I bought this book for a holiday read, because I thought the front cover was good and it sounded familier enough not to be too challenging, but different enough to be exciting. Instead, I found myself...bored. I put the book down, many times. I even read other books whilest on one of my 'breaks' from The Lies of Locke Lamora. This almost never happens to me! I found that I almost had to force myself to pick it back up to find out what happened at the end, even though to be honest I just didn't care about most of the characters and what happened to them...
Another big signal that all is not quite right with this book is the fact that for 3 minutes or so when I first came across it on Amazon, I couldn't not remember why the name seemed familier....because I'd forgotten that I'd already read this book!...my holiday was in Easter. Of this year. Enough said!
Yes, this is still a good read, and maybe if im bored and really desperate, I'll get the sequals out from the library (one reviewer mentioned that there is meant to be 7 books in this series). The plot does twist and turn and take you on a ride, hence the 4 stars I've given it. I'm sorry though, it just doesn't do it for me....
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Excellent
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I find that I take a long time to get through Scott Lynch's books. I suspect this is because there is so much happening in them. There's no excess description here, not a word wasted. Every single character is a work of art, and the plot is complex but carefully structured. There's a very realistic feel to this beautifully described world, so much so that I am surprised to emerge from the novel and find myself living in a world without elderglass towers shark-filled canals.
This novel is character-driven and very emotional, and I dare you not to get sucked in from page one.
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superb book
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Locke Lamora leads a gang of legendeary confidence tricksters (the Gentleman Bastards), in Camorr, a souped-up Renaissance Venice where the lagoons are populated with killer fish and botany is all about creating elaborate poisons or cornering the wine market.
The Lies of Locke Lamora is a dark and glittering gem of a book, written with a delightfully ironic, foul-mouthed tone. It's entirely gripping and I can't wait to read the sequel.
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Brilliant
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I bought this book on impulse when away from home for a couple of days. What a lucky choice! It's a great read with some fantastic characters and ideas. Read this book.
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You have to perservere
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Lynch has obviously spent a lot of time 'inhabiting' the world he so lovingly creates in this book. In some ways this is a plus because it means that this is a very full and rich fantasy world with no gaping holes to annoy sticklers for detail like me. In other ways this makes it very difficult to get into, because you spend at least the first hundred pages going; 'Who?' 'What?' and 'UH?' because it's like being dropped in the middle of Milton Keynes with a blindfold on and being expected to navigate around immediately. It is tough going and it took me a long time to warm to this book.
It concerns the doings of a group of thieves, 'The Gentlemen Bastards', who rather like Robin Hood, steal from the rich. Although they don't always give their money to the poor, they do have an honour code and a gentlemanly dignity to their activities. This code is shattered when a new thief; 'The Grey King' comes to town, and starts messing with their patch, whereupon things escalate to involve the underworld and eventually overworld of the whole city. In a nutshell it's a bit like Hustle, set on a fantasy world which is a bit like Venice, with a bit of Robin Hood thrown in for good measure.
It's bloodthirsty, sweary, long and complex. The author uses flashbacks and what he terms as 'interlude' passages to add suspense to a narrative which continually ratchets up the pressure as it evolves. It's quite good, quite funny and quite clever, but I think it could have done with some judicious editing and maybe a map.
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