The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1) in Building a SciFi/Fantasy Library

Mar 25, 2007 Kristen rated it it was amazing

Shelves: favorites

Full review here: http://fantasycafe.blogspot.com/2007/...

I finally got around to reading The Lies of Locke Lamora after hearing a lot of good things about this debut novel by Scott Lynch. At first, I was afraid it wasn't going to live up to all the good things I had heard about it since I found it a little hard to get into in the beginning, but I ended up absolutely loving this book.

This is definitely not a book to read if you are looking to read something thought-provoking and insightful. Howe Full review here: http://fantasycafe.blogspot.com/2007/...

I finally got around to reading The Lies of Locke Lamora after hearing a lot of good things about this debut novel by Scott Lynch. At first, I was afraid it wasn't going to live up to all the good things I had heard about it since I found it a little hard to get into in the beginning, but I ended up absolutely loving this book.

This is definitely not a book to read if you are looking to read something thought-provoking and insightful. However, it is something to read if you are looking for something entertaining. It's a very dialogue heavy book, and a lot of the dialogue is clever and witty. Toward the beginning of the book, I thought it seemed like the dialogue was a bit forced and the author was trying too hard to make it seem clever, but it got better as the book went on.

One thing that some may find annoying is that the entire book switches back and forth between the past and the present. It isn't confusing since the past parts are referred to as interludes (with the exception of the prologue, which goes between the past and further past without as much warning as to when it's changed times). After the prologue, it smoothed out and I ended up enjoying the brief looks into the past.

The characters are wonderful. If you're tired of goody-two-shoes characters who can do no wrong, this might be the book for you. The main character Locke Lamora is a priest of the Benefactor, a god of thievery, and a master of disguise. He and his friends in the priesthood are con men who make schemes to take some money of the hands of the rich noblemen in the city of Camorr, which seems to be modeled after an Italian city. Locke isn't really an evil character, but he's certainly not good either. If you're familiar with D&D alignments, I'd call him some sort of neutral (but definitely not lawful neutral). Also, he's actually a fantasy book main character who is not good at fighting at all - he's much better at using his brain. (And, just to be clear, he's not a mage of any sort either - just a clever rogue.)

I could not put this book down, and I thought it was a fairly unique fantasy book. It did have it's flaws early on and it's not what I'd call a masterpiece of literature, but I had so much fun with it and found it different enough from normal fantasy literature that I have to give it a pretty good score. It was the most entertaining book I'd read in quite a while. ...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Joshua rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: sci-fi-and-fantasy

This is a pretty god-awful cover- looking like some colorful, shiny mess of a romance novel cover. Like the old adage goes, "never judge a book by its cover." Well, I generally do judge a book by its cover... at least for authors I have never heard of. I am drawn to brilliantly drawn book covers, even buying books I already own if the new cover release intrigues me. Luckily, I had heard so many great things about this book that I still bought it (putting it back down twice because I couldn't get ...more

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Sep 11, 2007 Tani rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, male-author, favorites, five-stars

I started out a little lukewarm on this book; I was interested, but not enough to put down anything else I was reading to devote my attention just to this. The story of how Locke initially came to become a Gentleman Bastard was engaging, but didn't grab my attention the way that later parts of the story did. It was only once Locke was well and truly a Gentleman Bastard that I really was drawn into this.

I adored the relationship between all the Gentleman Bastards. It was what really made the sto ...more

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Nov 22, 2013 Wendy rated it liked it

Shelves: sf-fantasy

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Jul 15, 2019 James rated it it was ok · review of another edition

It was ok.

I started this book knowing nothing of what it was about and was intrigued by the setting and the story. Unfortunately the execution did not quite live up to the premise. The characters are just not very interesting and not quite believable. Their skills and personalities seem to shift depending on what the plot calls for rather than the other way around.
Some of my dislike for the book stems from the fact that I did not care about Locke Lamora. I think I would have preferred to follow ...more

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