Finally finished this 719 page monster book and I have to say it was definitely worth it. It's not -Perdido Street Station- but as far as normal gritty, medieval, low magic, 1 monster style books go it was great. Lots of suspense, likeable roguish characters, absurdly fun cons played upon the defenseless noble class, and some great cursing.

The world building seemed rather weak and unimaginative to me and the cultures too close to real world cultures (italian). I didn't say "Wow what a cool idea." often enough to give it 5 stars. Also the main chapters are shuffled in with shorter chapters that flash back to the history of the Gentlemen Bastards. This was okay but sometimes it got irritating when you really wanted to find out what was going to happen next.

But that said I would definitely read more books in this series as it was quite a romp. ( )

I was in the mood for another fantasy and this one was rated favorably... It tells the tale of a thief named Locke Lamora and his small gang of Gentlemen Bastards in the canal-ridden city of Camorr. Locke has another grand scheme in motion to divest some visiting nobles of half their fortune when things begin to get more complicated and dangerous. It's sort of a cross between Robin Hood and Ocean's Eleven with a dash of sorcery mixed in. Locke and his gang are interesting characters and the various other players in the story are equally of interest. There are spies, swordsmen, numerous crooks, and con men everywhere in this story. It's also interspersed with flashbacks of Locke's upbringing. At 752 pages it's fairly lengthy but moves briskly. I found the denouement to be particularly exciting and I was entertained throughout. ( )

LIKED

Amazingly fascinating world, thrilling story, very original. ( )

Superb debut novel, not totally without faults, but very worthwhile reading for all fantasy fans. The light fast style is reminiscent of Brandon Sanderson's Mistborn, without the clever magic.

Locke Lamora is an orphan and a stray, and also even at less than 6 yrs old a pickpocket, thief and conartist of the highest calibre. When a plague decimates the city he is sheparded into graverobbers gang, but his brilliance quickly gets him into trouble, and he is promoted (sold or passed on) to Chains, high rpiest of the unmentioned thirteenth God - The benefactor of prudent Necessity and patron saint of the Abandonded - in other words conartists heaven. If you put up a begging bowl people will give you money without you even having to pick their pocket. The city of Camorr of course is also full of Nobles and the Secret Peace negotiated between the Capa of the underworld and the nobles maintains sufficiency of lifestyle between them. Locke of course isn't content with sufficieny, but then fortunetly for him The mysterious grey King isn't content with submission to the Capa either, and matter rush to bloodthirssty head.

The writing is light, delicately descriptive without being overwhealming. There's lots of action and some detailed fights, but plenty of humour (at least in the early passages) and some opposition that almost seems properly clever. There are also lots of flashbacks through to Locke and Co.'s training. I don't like flashbacks in general, but these were clearly highlighted as new chapters and generally didn't interfere with the main plot too much. However they did foreshadow events a little too obviously - for example one of the gang is apprenticed to the death priests in a flashabck and in the very next chapter uses the death priests as a disguise. Just a bit too clumsy a mechanism for introducing the nature of the city guilds. There are other minor quibbles - a few plot holes where and obvious connection isn't made, or continuity fails slightly, but in general much less than occurs in many novels. The worst is the oft alluded to but no details given of his love interest and then the unresolved issue of Locke's death Offering promised to Chains - why is this never refered to again?

Annoyingly one major plot device is left completely unexplained: the city is formed around several 'glass' towers left by preivous non-human civilisation. No other details given, no sense of time, no explanation of who why or where they were or are. Unnecessarily mysterious, especially as there are no other non-humans in the story. The magic system is also unexplained, but as none of themain characters actually do any magic that is perhaps allowable. As a redaer though I have an unresolved curiosity about it.

Locke is the star, obviously but as with a lot of fantasy of this type we don't get a great deal of character development for him, other than revenge very little seems to motivate him, His companions are also very one-track, the angry Jean, and the trickster brothers. However it is a short book and it moves very fast, which like any conman's game keeps your attention rivited to what the author chooses to show you. Action, plans and plots. And these are very well done.

Great debut - I very much hope the sequel holds the same level of quality and that some of our questons are answered.
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