The Lies of Locke Lamora

Okay, I just love this book.

I first read Scott Lynch in the anthology Rogues which contains his short story 'A Year and a Day in Old Theradane' and I loved it. I didn't know it at the time but it turns out Scott Lynch is a role-playing game designer and I certainly remember feeling the love for rpg's in the story. I'd heard of the 'Gentleman Bastards' series and was also pretty sure he also used to post on a sci-fi forum I frequent but I may be mistaken.

It was a shame I have waited so long to pick this up because 'The Lies of Locke Lamora' is superb. I really don't want to get too much into the plot here because the less you know the better but essentially the story of Locke Lamora is the story of the Gentleman Bastards, a group of thieves who delight in robbing the rich in elaborate scams, with Locke as the leader of the gang.

It's almost impossible not to fall in love with Locke and his gang, including his teacher Father Chains in the early part of the book. One can't help smile at their wittiness, their devil-may-care attitude and their love for each other. It's the kind of book where the characters have elaborate set-ups, don disguises and fake accents and lie through their teeth just to tap into the rich's greed and to extricate their wealth. What's not to like? Lynch's dialogue is great, and he develops a sense of love and camaraderie between the gang members which is hard not to adore.

The setting is brilliantly realised. The action focus's on the city of Camorr which is a series of interconnected islands with strange glass structures left by ancient inhabitants and deadly sharks in the sea nearby. Each island has it's own character, typically denoted by what they represent (industry, clerical, mercantile, crime, poverty) but the city as a whole feels like a wholly realised place. It is through the city that we understand the strata of society - the city is ruled by a nobility class but there are tensions with the mercantile class, who are supported in turn by clerical and government workers. There are people who would be considered working class, but there also victims of the 'establishment capitalism' of the city - the destitute and the downtrodden. On top of that is the criminal thief class who are ruled by a single 'capa' with hundreds of gangs below him.

What I loved about this, is how the city, nor the characters were ever 'info-dumped' - it felt very natural as we learn more about the city, it's histories and rules. The city felt very alive. One of the best strengths of the novel is seemingly how everything matters. I read a review which criticised the text as often being superfluous, and I get that, but there were so many times reading this that I realised an inconsequential detail earlier in the novel had significant relevance later.

One of the ways we learn about the city and the relationships between the characters are through little interludes in the story where there are little chapters describing something about the Bastards when they are children being trained by Father Chains. They are so rich and provide context to what is happening in the novel. I particularly loved how Father Chains story came together, and how things which may have seemed implausible came together beautifully.

The plot and pacing is mostly very good. I did feel a little lag here and there in the early part of the novel but the short chapters do drive the book along. I was having such fun with the book as a comedy heist book when the book took quite a stark tonal shift and it definitely jumped into the grimdark territory from then in. It gets pretty dark fast, with more than a few moments where you think the world of the book is unfair. The last fifty to hundred pages are electric in terms of pacing and I couldn't leave it alone. There is a section in the middle of the book where Lynch intentionally confuses the reader and you can't help but laugh when you realise you've been tricked. It suits the book well, since everyone is trying to get con everyone else. I sometimes thought in the book that things that happened where really tricks when they were not - the book isn't manipulative but I like being played tricks with in a book about tricksters.

Most people I suspect will identify with Locke and his gang in terms of liking characters. It's hard to not to care for these lovable rogues but the supporting characters are great too. I adored Dona Sofia Salvara, the wife of a merchant Locke is ripping off. She really grows into the story and I loved how she took agency and acted throughout the book. In a book which is essentially about making fools of others, she is nobody's fool. I liked how my feelings as a reader towards her changed in the book, going from, 'ha ha, her and her husband are getting ripped off' to 'she's awesome how she's not taking this shit!' She will almost certainly be my 'unexpected fictional heroine of 2025'.

Finally, this book is about morally ambiguous characters, and in some cases genuinely evil characters. I won't even touch on the idea of stealing here, recognising that if you rip off the massively wealthy of half their fortune then they've still got more than enough, but there are characters who murder, abuse and harm others and they are the 'good ones'. Locke himself transforms from loveable confidence trickster to doing things that definitely cross a line of decency, but feels justified in the context of the novel. Where Lynch got me, was that aside from the bastards, there are the nobles, the 'secret police' who prop up the inequality, the crime boss and those that seek to dethrone him. These characters, or groups all act in ways that harm others to protect their status and that harm ranges from things relatively minor to unspeakably evil (trying to avoid spoilers!). And yet, for each of these groups their actions are at least understandable in the context they act - I was reflecting that I had an enormous degree of sympathy for everyone, even those I thought I wouldn't.

Brilliant novel and I hope I get round to reading more in the series soon.