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Review - The Lies of Locke Lamora
Oct. 20th, 2008 07:06 pmI loved The Lies of Locke Lamora (by Scott Lynch). It ripped my heart out in places, and it's full of incredibly rich world-building. I'd happily recommend it to anyone who enjoys fantasy. There's thievery, magic, an amazing amount of historical background sat around not (yet) doing anything, really frickin' clever thievery, so many characters to love... and it's the first book of a series.
I loved the dual timeline, although it also annoyed me somewhat: we're told the story of Locke Lamora's childhood alongside the story of his adulthood, which would appear to be the main story. I love the story of his childhood and coming of age, but I'd probably rather have had it in a single book -- have the story of his childhood as the first book, and keep having things linearly from there on. Nonetheless, it doesn't work badly; it might be interesting to people because of the non-conventional timeline.
It's pretty ambitious, for the first novel of a series by a new writer. I love that: I think it paid off. I was surprised at how much I cared about certain of the deaths, given how little time the characters had to be built up in, and I loved the way you had to be on the ball to keep up with what Locke was doing (e.g. I was reading in a hurry, because I should totally be doing schoolwork tonight, and I didn't really realise what Locke was doing when he made the death sacrifice).
I do think that in some places Lynch tried to pack too much into the novel -- too much of the world-building. It's amazing and I appreciated it, but I think some people would probably class it as going over the top, as it isn't all directly relevant to the plot of this book. Personally, I hold out in hopes of it all becoming very important in the later books.
I also liked the realism of this novel. -- Yeah, I know, realism in a fantasy novel, what? But it's not so much the plot or anything that's realistic as the setting, and not so much that as the dirt. The city the whole book is based in is a rich city -- in parts. It also has its mucky underside.
I'm glad I have the second book in the series out of the library too, and I'm contemplating getting my own copies. I'm certainly buying some people The Lies of Locke Lamora for Christmas.
I loved the dual timeline, although it also annoyed me somewhat: we're told the story of Locke Lamora's childhood alongside the story of his adulthood, which would appear to be the main story. I love the story of his childhood and coming of age, but I'd probably rather have had it in a single book -- have the story of his childhood as the first book, and keep having things linearly from there on. Nonetheless, it doesn't work badly; it might be interesting to people because of the non-conventional timeline.
It's pretty ambitious, for the first novel of a series by a new writer. I love that: I think it paid off. I was surprised at how much I cared about certain of the deaths, given how little time the characters had to be built up in, and I loved the way you had to be on the ball to keep up with what Locke was doing (e.g. I was reading in a hurry, because I should totally be doing schoolwork tonight, and I didn't really realise what Locke was doing when he made the death sacrifice).
I do think that in some places Lynch tried to pack too much into the novel -- too much of the world-building. It's amazing and I appreciated it, but I think some people would probably class it as going over the top, as it isn't all directly relevant to the plot of this book. Personally, I hold out in hopes of it all becoming very important in the later books.
I also liked the realism of this novel. -- Yeah, I know, realism in a fantasy novel, what? But it's not so much the plot or anything that's realistic as the setting, and not so much that as the dirt. The city the whole book is based in is a rich city -- in parts. It also has its mucky underside.
I'm glad I have the second book in the series out of the library too, and I'm contemplating getting my own copies. I'm certainly buying some people The Lies of Locke Lamora for Christmas.
