The Lies of Locke Lamora

by Scott Lynch

Hardcover, 512 pages

English language

Published June 27, 2006 by Spectra.

ISBN:: 978-0-553-80467-6
OCLC Number:: 65302306

(186 reviews)

In this stunning debut, author Scott Lynch delivers the wonderfully thrilling tale of an audacious criminal and his band of confidence tricksters. Set in a fantastic city pulsing with the lives of decadent nobles and daring thieves, here is a story of adventure, loyalty, and survival that is one part Robin Hood, one part Ocean's Eleven, and entirely enthralling....An orphan's life is harsh--and often short--in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains--a man who is neither blind nor a priest. A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected "family" of orphans--a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting.Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld's most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful--and more ambitious--than Locke has yet imagined.Known as the Gray King, he is slowly killing Capa Barsavi's most trusted men--and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr's underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the Gray King at his own brutal game--or die trying....From the Hardcover edition.

6 editions

B. Zelkovich reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards, #1)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Honestly? The last book I read that captured me this much was "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss. But, even then, Rothfuss's poetic tale didn't make me feel as much. I was caught up in its whimsy, not the brunt force of its emotions.

The last 100 pages of "The Lies of Locke Lamora" held me captive. I had no choice but to sit at the bar, ignoring all external stimulus, until I could close the paperback. I'm in love with these characters. With Locke and Jean, The Spider of Camorr, and Captain Reynart. All these people, on opposite sides of the coin, but interwoven. Lynch has written a masterful mix of epic world-building, poetic prose, and a downright magical use of the gritty and vulgar language of the street.

All characters are fully realized, even those who don't have large roles to play (so far). And those that you truly get to know? Well, you cheer at their successes, morn their losses, and feel nauseous right along with them when they have to attempt some death-defying feat just to escape from an even worse fate.

Numerous times.

This book had me all kinds of nervous. I'm lucky I have any fingernails left.

Please, if you like fantasy, if you appreciate richly developed worlds and characters, if mysterious magics and alchemy coupled with thievery and the slightest hint of piracy intrigues you, read this book!

Alex Moonshine reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Говоря о книгах, на которые я не морщась могу навесить ярлык "фэнтези", отныне я вынужден буду вспоминать "Ложь Локи Ламоры" (да, я знаю, зато "ЛЛЛ"!) в числе тех нескольких, которые приходят на ум в первую очередь. "Одинадцать друзей Оушена" + "Крестный отец" (нагло украл сравнение, но оно действительно хорошее) в блестящем сеттинге альтернативно-фантастической Венеции с легкой примесью Испании (водная коррида с акулами вместо быков). Были бы твердые 4 звезды (5 я обычно берегу для чего-то эпохального), но Скотт Линч неимоверно талантливо пишет, вплоть до того, что местами у меня было странное (и, скорее всего, несправедивое) ощущение несоответствия качества и красоты его слога и общей литературной ценности книги.

Vedang Manerikar reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

A fine addition to the SFF genre. Perfect weekend reading. Nothing deep or philosophical about this, just a good story.

Molly Foust reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Clever, engaging, and funny, I never really fell in love with this book but it was a satisfying, well-done series of adventures with a delightfully mischievous hero.

Sid Mitra reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Clearly one of the best books i've read this year. It has a very similar feel to Kingkiller Chronicles, but i liked Scott's writing style much better. Every chapter in this book was just bloody perfect for me. But mind you, this isn't a usual hero, good versus evil fantasy tale. Lock Lamora, is as unlikely a hero as you'd find. He regularly gets outwitted, beaten up, and has no special powers and isn't the most intelligent person out there, isn't a samurai. What he does have is his charm, his loyalty, his strange sort of luck, and ofcourse his lies.

unicorndeburgh reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards, #1)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

This is a rollicking good read. I did have to skim lightly over some of the violence, but I was riveted by the suspense, loved the characters. He writes great dialogue, and his women are wonderful.

RxBrad reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Didn't think I'd like this book when I started reading it, but it got really, really good at about the halfway point once the Grey King storyline was introduced. Took me a bit of time to get used to how all of the chapters were chronologically out of order. The book is kind of like "Oceans Eleven" set in a Renaissance Italy-esque city (except the city is built on top of the ruins of an extinct alien city, though this is mostly unimportant to the story).

Eoghann Mill Irving reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

This is the most entertaining fantasy I've read this year and probably the best from a writer new to me that I've read in years.

Locke Lamora is a scam artist. An expert con-man. He and his band of Gentleman Bastards prey on the rich in the city of Camorr (clearly styled after Venice). The stakes however soon grow higher and their plots spin out of control when they get tangled up in the schemes of the Grey King.

Lynch has a great balance between character, plot and background. The fantasy world feels solid even though very little of it is really detailed and the background we do get springs naturally from the story and while the plot starts slowly it is put to good effect in establishing the closeness of the family that the Gentleman Bastards have formed amongst themselves.

Lynch is not sentimental with his characters. They suffer …

Minotaur reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

No rating

Didn't finish

Geekess reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gentlemen Bastards, #1)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I raced through this book in very little time, considering that I listened to it while working. The fact that it took me only 2 days, says something about the quality.
First the good:
The audiobook is very well narrated by Michael Page. He really voiceacts and has a good pleasant voice/accent (to my ears). His voice reminded me of Johnny Depp. It is just perfect for this book. Publishers undervalue the importance of a good voice for an audiobook, often they are low quality and boring.

The plot is nice, but not surprising.
As I said in the in between updates: the world reminds me of the book Cyrion (compilation of stories by Tanith Lee). However, Cyrion made more of an impression on me as a "brilliant" thief/conman. The tone of Lies is light and tasty. Easy to digest. Intriguing enough to want to keep reading. It got me hooked from the first 'page' (audiobook again). That's a big plus.

The character of Locke is mysterious and captivating, and we don't get to know much about him in this first book. Not enough for my taste. There are large gaps in his history. He is charming, clever and a loyal friend. The dialog between the characters is snappy and full of catching one-liners.

The bad.
Now, I'm reading a lot of rave reviews on this book here on Good Reads. It certainly is a good book, but I don't think it deserves the 4 and a bit star rating. All through the book you read how brilliant Locke is, but frankly, he isn't. The "twists" are not that clever, I don't even get a real 'con-men' feel of his crew. They are thieves, clever thieves, but nothing special. Telling readers over and over that something is very clever of even brilliant doesn't make it so. I expected to be suprised, and I unfortunately wasn't.
Maybe I'm spoiled in my taste. I'm an avid fan of the tv-series "Hustle", "Sherlock" or "Coupling". Those are tvseries, but for a plot it doesn't differ much from a book. They all do twists, mysteries or cons a lot better/more clever than this book.
The humor in the book is nice, but not the ROFL kind. More 'smile' than 'laugh'. The humor is refined, which suites me just fine.

For my books I look for a writer to live up to the Steven Erikson standard... and Scott Lynch just doesn't. Not in cleverness/plot. Not in character development.

This is not to say I didn't like the book, because i absolutely did. I will read the sequel and look forward to the forthcoming third book. It's a nice light snack for reading inbetween my heavier books. And I love it for that.

(Pardon me for my english, it's not my native language.)

cogmer reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

THE series I am most anxious about.

People can rave about Rothfuss and speculate about Sanderson but Lynch just gets my undivided attention. His books may not have the same breadth of scope or deep world building, but DAMN, it doesn't matter because they are just a hell of a ride.

The fantasy elements are all low key background noise, totally incidental to the story, so it doesn't bother me at all that the details aren't elaborated on. These are adventure stories. They are Oceans 11 (12, 13, whatever) meets Bad Boys with a splash of Indiana Jones and Snatch. Just fucking awesome.

betty reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Because spelling is my Waterloo, I avoided this book for the longest time, even though it was popping up everywhere, because a book about a Scottish lake seemed profoundly boring. If you have been too, thank god, because I'd hate to be the only one that dumb.

Locke Lamora is the name of our protagonist, who we follow from his start as a precociously larcenous six year-old to a masterfully larcenous adult. It's a bit like [book:Oliver Twist], if Oliver hadn't been such an obnoxiously moral little snot, a bit like [book:Illusion] by [author:Paula Volsky], without the lurking dread, and a bit like [book:Death of the Necromancer] by [author:Martha Wells] without the female characters. I found, no matter how out of control events spiralled, I remained fairly confident that Lamora would eventually come out on top.

Locke lives and fleeces his prey in a near-Venice on the border of SF and Fantasy: Camorr is built on top of and within the ruins of a city abandoned by aliens. He works at the head of a brotherhood [sic] of Gentlemen [sic] Bastards.

On which editorial sarcasm, let me expand: There is one female character who is explicitly aligned with Locke. She is Sabetha, the woman Locke loves, and who is entirely present by her absence. She is referred to as the reason that Locke doesn't seek out prostitutes, and he is much mocked for his devotion to her. However, she never makes an in-person appearance, and her conspicuous absence doesn't do a lot to deflect a homoerotic reading of Locke's friendship with Jean Tannen.

The book takes a very non-judgemental approach to Locke's larceny and occasional murder: Locke may regret or not the deaths he is responsible for, and avenge the deaths of his friends or allies, but the only real difference between any of the thefts he is subject to and thefts he perpetrates is how they affect him, and the book doesn't really pretend otherwise. Locke manages to be likable withal.

A fun read, if the by turns grim and cheerful amorality will not bother you. I would like to read the sequels when they come out.

willhopkins reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Storygraph'

5 stars

Scott Lynch did an incredible job building the world of the Gentlemen Bastards, and the characters who live in it are just fantastic and developed as the world itself. Great for fantasy lovers and those looking for an introduction to high fantasy.

fluxmind reviewed The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (A Bantam spectra book)

Review of 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Purely Amazing, I haven't read a fantasy book this good since The Game of Thrones. Words can not describe the satisfaction I felt while, during, and after I read this. Trust me the story is very engrossing, the characters well fleshed out, and the background detailed and personal. I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a complex story, with characters who seem real and worthwhile.