Cross-posted at http://readingisgoodforyou.wordpress....

"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 extrodinary 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."

I'll readily admit it -- this book took me forever to read. I checked it out from the library on a whim based on a LibraryThing recommendation and it sat on my bedroom floor forever before I finally picked it up. It just wasn't what I wanted to read at the moment after thoroughly engrossing myself in the Outlander series.

I was quite pleasantly surprised when I finally got around to reading Lies. Yes, the language is more than a little rough and it's a bit more violent a book than I am used to reading, but the characters are clever and the world Lynch has created is intricate and vivid.

With his quick wit, intelligence, craftiness and daring, Locke Lamora reminds me an awful lot of Megan Whalen Turner's Eugenides (it also helps that the pair of them are thieves with an aversion for bloodshed). Eugenides' profession forced him into isolation, however, while Locke is supported by his Gentlemen Bastards, the gang of young men he's (mostly) been acquainted with since childhood. The Sanza twins provide endlessly clever banter, Jean counters his muscle with intelligence and kindness, and Bug certainly won me over with his boldness and fierce loyalty to his brothers and mentors. These lads may be deceitful on a daily basis, pulling one long con after another, but that certainly didn't keep me from caring about them. They all had hearts of gold.

And then there were the baddies, who were really bad and provided all sorts unexpected of twists and turns. And the Duke's Spider, can't forget about the Spider. That character was really cool as well. 'Nuff said about all that before I give something away.

The one thing that really bugged me about Lies was the format. At first, I got whiplash from the constant change between the present timeline and the flashbacks, then I felt as if it kept me engaged with the plot and left me wanting more, until I finally got fed up with it. I mean, you'd have one scene where Locke is drowning in a barrel of horse piss and then it's like, "Oh, we interrupt this regularly scheduled broadcast to demonstrate how Jean learned how to be a killing machine!" I knew that these flashbacks were necessary and were foreshadowing something important that would one day come into play, but I found myself wanting to skip over them and just find out what happens already. So, I did - my first time through, anyhow.

Despite my issues with this book, I do want to read the sequel, Red Seas Over Read Skies, so of course, my library does not carry it. Thank goodness for inter-library loan. They are going to be so sick of me before the year is even up with all of the requests I am going to be making for the 100+ Reading Challenge. ( )

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. ( )