The Lies of Locke Lamora

And the same goes for this book. I could say I read it, because of preasure from the fantasy community (people just can’t stop talking about these freaking books). I could say I read it because it is extremely inovational and cutting edge or that I want to support lesser known authors (I guess that’s no longer true for Scott Lynch, after the success this series received), but those would be lies. I read it because it’s heaps of fucking fun.

„The Lies of Locke Lamora“ is the first entry in the „Gentleman Bastards“ series, currently projected for seven books, with the script for the fourth one having been finished last year. It follows Locke Lamora, Jean Tannet and their ragtag group of thieves – the Gentleman Bastards.

I have to say, I just love thief stories. I find that their protagonists ussualy have nicely developed personalities and it allows the author to put them in difficult situations without it feeling forced. Many of those stories and characters can feel very similar, but I’m just a sucker for this anti-hero, Robin Hood-like archetype.

And „The Lies of Locke Lamora“ has some of the best examples of this trope I’ve ever read (aside from maybe Kelsier from the „Mistborn“ trylogy) in our central duo Locke and Jean. They’re both very deep multilayered characters with a perfect friend dynamic. I feel like they really only work in tandem though. I probably wouldn’t be interested in a book only about one of them (Locke would have a chance, but still probably not), because their strong friendship gives the book so much higher stakes.

That’s another large plus. The stakes are rooted in the characters, not in some outside danger, making the story very human and relatable. I enjoyed reading a fantasy story, without a world – ending threat looming over the horizon, without a dark lord about to conquer the world and without a chosen one to stop him. Don’t get me wrong, I liked and enjoyed many stories like that, but the tropes are so overdone (especially now, when I’m halfway through „The Wheel of Time“), that I was very thankful for this breath of fresh air.

Scott Lynch has a very weird writing style. The story isn’t told chronologically. Instead we have our main story constantly being interrupted with flashbacks ussualy relating to what’s happening in the main story. I thought I was prepared for this, but now I don’t think I could have been. At the beggining it was really jarring to be interrupted in the middle of action with a seemingly random flashback, especially before I got to know the world and the characters. Once you get used to it, it allows the author to deliver some genuinely genius narrative twists, leading us to believe something and than flashing back to show us, what’s actually happening. The flashbacks also deliver majority of the world building to us just when we need to know it. Lynch’s prose however, I have to commend. It’s lively and gripping, making the book very easy to read. He does a great deal of world building very quickly, without being overly descriptive and his world and characters just bleed off the page, because they’re so full of personality. I especially enjoyed his handling of combat scenes. His brutal and precise descriptions along with very inventive choreographies will have you on the edge of your seat, turning one page after another. He doesn’t stop himself from including a few corny jokes here and there, but when the rest is this good, I can hardly blame him for it.

And that’s „Gentleman Bastards: book one“ for you. Bit hard to get into, but once you do, amazingly fun and thrilling. I can’t wait to read the second one.