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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A terrific adventure story, it's got a little bit of everything. Heroes, villains, swashbuckling, monsters, revenge, humor, sadness. Like the blurb on the back cover says, it reminded me of Ocean's Eleven and Robin Hood, but it also reminded me of The Godfather in a way. Too long to read in one sitting, but I did read the latter half in one day. And it was a really good day, too. ( )

I love books about thieves and this is one of my favorites. Full of twists and turns and all sorts of plot moves I didn't expect, and also more gore than I expected from a book about thieves. It took me about 150 pages to get into it, but once I did I didn't want to put it down. Locke Lamora is generally awesome and I loved all of the characters; I feel like I know them well. The only thing confusing for me was the different names for cities and cultures in the Lamora world, but I tend to mix things up like that anyway. Some of the scenes in the book--with all the detail Lynch uses to describe them--are genuinely film-worthy and just totally amazing. Loved it! ( )

An annoyingly overwritten yet well plotted fantasy novel about a gang of thieves who rob from the rich and erm.. rob from the poor. There are far too many neologisms which seem to be littered about the page, capitalized for no good reason apart from that's what the scifi/fantasy genre expects. This is the sort of fiction which no doubt develops from RPGs, which is not in itself a weakness but it certainly leaves its mark.

The setting, the fictional city of Camorr, appeared to be a sort of Venice with go-faster stripes, but you can't really see what the author has gained by not simply setting his novel in Venice. You see many of the plot twists coming but the hero, Locke, is compelling enough, audacious and witty. I only wished the supporting characters could have been similarly nuanced. My love of books about stealing will probably mean I dip into the sequel.

It's hard to imagine that this is a debut novel. A cross between fantasy and crime. This fun thriller's pace never slackens. ( )

Enjoyed the book thoroughly. Finally, another good fantasy to go alongside RR Martin and Farseer Trilogy . ( )

Summary: Locke Lamora is a scruffy orphan with a brain for mischief and a gift for lying. Along with his gang, the Gentleman Bastards, he devises a daring plot to steal twenty five thousand crowns from one of the nobles of Camorr. However, another plot is snaking through the city, a plot that may take the entire criminal underworld by storm.

Review: I’d heard a lot of good reviews for this book but I wasn’t sure I would enjoy it as much as everyone seemed to think I would. The thieves and rogues genre isn’t one that I normally enjoy. I tend to find overly clever characters insufferable in their arrogance. Yet after finishing the first chapter of The Lies of Locke Lamora, I changed my mind. I do enjoy this because Scott Lynch makes it impossible not to. The man is a golden storyteller. He could probably write a story about accountants and it would still be rollicking, witty, and creative.

Thankfully, this is not a story about accountants. It’s a story of cunning, brotherhood, revenge, and growing up. It’s dark when it needs to be dark — and it has a high body count, higher than I expected — and it’s funny when it needs to be funny. Lynch writes with a grim, tongue-in-cheek humour that perfectly suits the kind of people Locke hangs out with.

The characters were all compelling, each and every one of them. The interludes to the past were integrated smoothly with the present-day plot, allowing you to get a glimpse of who Locke was without disturbing the adventure of who Locke is. The dashes of creativity and culture fleshed out the world of Camorr. The little mysteries — the mention of Sabetha, Locke’s real name — were left to whet your appetite for the books to follow.

This is a real swashbuckler, the kind I haven’t read in a long time. It breathes life into the tired thieves and rogues genre, and if this is the future I’m glad to be clinging on to the ship.

Conclusion: Top-notch fun. ( )

This story is good even for those who don't normally gravitate towards fantasy. Locke is a true Stainless Steel Rat, though of the more furry variety! ( )

I'm only writing this review because I like excellent fantasy stories.

LIAR!

I'm only writing this review because this tale has one of the finest detailed fantasy cities I've seen in a LONG time.

LIAR!

I'm only doing this because I love fantasy stories where the fighting actually seems realistic.

LIAR!

I'm doing this because I love a fantasy where the cultures, religions, and ways of life of various strata of society are greatly thought out.

LIAR!

I'm only writing this review because the Gentleman Bastards have weaseled, connived, and stolen their way into my fantasy pantheon of all time favorites.

BASTARD!

There are so many memorable characters in this book, I almost can't believe it. When I think back on it, practically every major and minor character has their own personality and quirks. Excellent character building.

Likewise for the settings, such as the city of Camorr, with it's almost endless areas of interest.

I also loved the way the entire social, political and religious climate was revealed. There are so many interesting interactions on so many levels, the author should be commended for the wonderful job done here.

I suppose it had to be this way, because you can't game the system without a believable system. And the Gentleman Bastards find countless ways to game the system. It's really fun seeing what these guys come up with to achieve their goals.

There are plenty of humorous moments. This book has manage to pull off one of my pet peeves without irritating me. The use of modern curses (f-bombs, s-bombs, etc) in a medieval (in this case, Renaissance) style setting. But it actually works here. Some of the more colorful tortures, threats of torture, and plain old haranguing are quite hilarious. Some of the revenge moments are so horrible you might wince when reading it, but a part of you will be saying "yeah baby, he had it coming for a long time!"

Another area I pay closer attention to are fighting scenes. This book has quite a few, and they all strike me as believable, given the world and circumstances. Kudos for the Wicked Sisters. I'm glad to see the author took a chance with a main character being proficient in something other than the standard fantasy broadsword or two hander. If you are a practicing weapons martial artist, I believe you will enjoy the fighting here.

In r/l, I despise thieves. I would as soon shoot one dead, if I caught them in my house. But don't let that stop you from enjoying this book. You will end up pulling for Locke and crew. Maybe it's the near impossible odds they face or maybe it's the comradery they share.

This is the best fantasy tale I've read from the newer stable of authors. I consider myself to be more in tune with the older authors such as Robert E Howard or Michael Moorcock. This author has come out of nowhere to give me the sort of story I love, and I had no idea when I picked it up :)

I highly recommend to fantasy fans. ( )

A breath of fresh air in the fantasygenre! ( )

Summary: Locke Lamora is the consummate thief - a young orphan taken in by a gifted con artist, his training eventually leads him to become the leader of the Gentleman Bastards. The entire city of Camorr - full of shark-infested canals, twisting alleyways, wealthy nobles, petty thieves, and fantastical unbreakable glass buildings left behind by an ancient race - is their playground, and the Bastards plan the most elaborate heists possible, preying on the nobility while convincing city officials and crimelords alike that they're only running a small-time operation. However, there is someone watching them who can see through their scams, and soon they're caught up in a game that's bigger - and more dangerous - than anything they'd ever dreamed of.

Review: Phenomenal. This book is essentially Ocean's Eleven set in a fantasy world; I used that same description for Mistborn: The Final Empire, which, coincidentally, was the last book that I gave a five-star rating to... but they both deserve both the description, and they both deserve the rating. This book is a little more towards the "swords" side of the "swords and sorcery" scale of fantasy than Mistborn - magic does play a part in the plot, but for large chunks of the story it's peripheral, and with a few tweaks, this story could be set in Renaissance Venice. It's told in alternating "present-day" chapters and shorter "interludes" about Locke's childhood, the forming of the Gentleman Bastards, and little tidbits about the history, politics, and economics of Camorr's world - and underworld.

The Lies of Locke Lamora starts off as a fun, fast-paced heist book, full of gritty detail that breathes life into the slums of Camorr, but with a snarky, carefree sense of humor underlying everything. During the first half of the book, I found myself constantly grinning, either at something the characters had done, or at a successful caper they'd pulled off. I knew that the good times couldn't last (it's not a very interesting heist story if everything goes right all the time), but Locke and his compatriots were just so cool, so slick, and were having so much fun that it was impossible not to join them.

And then, about halfway through, things take a severely dark turn. There are hints of darker things to come running throughout the early sections of the book, and for the next three hundred pages, Lynch is not shy about putting Locke and his friends in impossible situations, and letting them - and the reader - squirm. There are some brutal turns to the storytelling, and some plot twists that actually literally took my breath away - and yet, things fit together so intricately and so well that I felt like I should have seen them coming.

So, to sum up... Things I loved: Intricate, original, quick-moving, and *fun* story that throws you a curveball every few pages; an excellent blend of gritty darkness and quick-witted humor; fantastic writing in terms of subtle character development and worldbuilding, pacing, and suspense; but mostly I loved the fact that it hooked me in quickly and kept me totally absorbed until the end. Anything I didn't love? There were a few too many mentions made of Locke's lost love without ever explaining what happened or having it amount to anything, but even that's not enough to really dock it any points. If this doesn't end up on my top 5 for the year, it will have been a fantastic year indeed. 5 out of 5 stars.

Recommendation: If you even vaguely like fantasy (or crime capers - or both), this should go to the top of your list. It's a phenomenal debut, and I'm already looking forward to Lynch's next book. ( )

This is a debut work and the first in a fantasy trilogy. It got excellent buzz and certainly lived up to its hype. I've actually been reading it for a while--it's over 700 pages and sadly I just don't have time to devote to gulping down books of this length these days. But I never set it down because I wanted to, and always came back to it, which I think kind of speaks for itself.

The story follows the adventures of Locke Lamora, sold into service to a band of crooks after being orphaned in a plague epidemic. He soon demonstrates a gift for the art of the con, lying fluidly and disguising himself as numerous other personalities, a talent that eventually makes him the leader of a group who refer to themselves as the Gentlemen Bandits. The book follows this crew through an elaborate con, all while they attempt to fight off a mysterious individual who seems bent on using their abilities for his own purposes. Great world building and fabulous characters. I'm looking forward to the next volume in the series. ( )

I am truly stunned by this book. One fantastic, exciting, swashbuckling adventure packed up neatly into 500 pages that go by much too quickly. I'm not usually one to read series as I tend to find them dragging, but I am very glad this is only the first book in a series, even if said series is incomplete. I could not put this book once I was about 100 pages into it. I'm addicted to Locke and his friends and cannot wait for the next book to come to me in the mail. It cannot get here quickly enough.

For those who don't know what the book is about, Locke Lamora is a thief and leader(garrista) of a little band of thieves who call themselves the Gentlemen Bastards. Locke inadvertently gets tangled up in a conspiracy much larger than himself and much to his surprise, he finds himself playing the unwilling hero to those who wish him dead for all the gold he's stolen.

While I don't really think this is fantasy, nor would I consider it sci-fi, it's definitely reminiscent of the two genres. The Lies of Locke Lamora is a fresh, very new take on the whole hero-must-save-the-world spiel. If you enjoy fantasy and adventure, this is must read (and then a reread, and then another reread...) ( )

I hardly know where to begin. I feel as though anything I say about this book is rather doomed to fall short. Perhaps I will begin by saying that this is by far one of the best books I've read in years. And that if you've heard any hype about this book, I endorse it full-heartedly. I do not tend to buy books - I'm a librarian and a library user. Those books that I own are books that are dear to me, and more importantly, books that I want to read again and a again, at a moment's whim. This is a book I want to own.

Lynch draws a fantastic world filled with fantastic characters. His setting is fully-realized and absolutely engrossing - it's the sort of place that you can not only picture, but also smell and taste and touch and /feel/ when you close your eyes. The politics of the place are foreign, but human, and even bit characters have so much life to them that they feel full and fantastic.

Lynch's main bunch, the Gentlemen Bastards, are aptly named. You love them, you hate them, you love to hate them and hate to love them. They occasionally do horrid things - they're thieves, after all - but it's hard to blame them for much, in the world they live in. There's not a single one in the batch who I didn't love as a character, including one who is drawn quite well even in her continued absence.

The plot is intriguing and twisting, filled with surprises (this book made me gasp aloud in horror and shock at least twice, quite possibly more) and all sorts of fun details about the capering life of con artists and thieves and villains that make me wriggle with the joy of it. This book is /fun/.

The timeshifts are a bit cumbersome at the start, until one gets the hang of them, but they get easier as you go, and soon there's a very fun back-and-forth, a backstory and a forestory tied together in interesting ways. If they put you off at first, stick with it - the book is worth it!

This is a book where the world and characters and exploits stay with you after you've turned the last page - which is a relief, because I hardly wanted to leave them! It's the most fun I've had in a pair of weekend afternoons in a very long time. ( )

Lynch's debut book is an interesting take on the heist genre. He works hard to humanize Locke, making him intelligent, but not omniscient, and fallible. The book reminded me a lot of the protagonist from Rothfuss' debut novel, The Name of the Wind, actually, although as a writer Lynch displays a lot more heart in his writing. While some chapters felt contrived and drug, those were the minority, and Lynch does a good job of introducing Locke through alternating present day action with interludes showing how the character grew into the man he is today. ( )

I was pleasantly surprised at how enjoyable this book was. It took a little getting used to the temporal shifts in the story. Lynch likes to jump back and forth in time both in short term and long. A scene might happen and then we find out more abut what was going on before that scene and then we might jump back 20 years to Locke's childhood for a while to help give some more depth and background information. It settles down a little as the book continues and I find it actually a fun way to tell the story.

Locke is a Gentleman Bastard, a thief of incredible skill and audacity with the ability to get into the deepest sorts of trouble. That's where his lies come into play, he needs them to get himself back out. Though his deepest problems where never solved with lies which is very interesting thing to pay attention to.

Lots of audacity, lots of hints and clues, deceptions and double crossings and that is just in the first chapter! Great book and I highly recommend. ( )

"As the story went on, I found myself more and more drawn in. It seems that in prematurely concluding that this would be an only marginally interesting story about thieves cleverly outsmarting their victims I had underestimated Lynch's abilities. As things progressed, he added layer upon layer of other people acting cleverly to outsmart the Gentlemen Bastards. The result was an intricate fugue of plotting and intrigue. And while most good stories share this quality to some degree, I've rarely seen it done as well as Lynch does it in this book. While initially we don't really see much concerning the consequences of Locke's schemes on others, this changes once Locke and his companions themselves become the victims of the plotting of others. This in turn humanizes and fleshes out Locke and his gang. I was shocked when I realized all of a sudden that I cared about the unsympathetic thieves from the early part of the novel."

Read the rest of this review at Speculative Fiction Junkie ( )

This is a very intricate novel involving multiple points of view and jumping between timelines. I enjoyed the book's characters and surrounding world, and I look forward to reading the other books in this series.

Entertaining story but overall not nearly as good as what reviews would have lead me to believe. The world-building aspect was strong but I found the dialogue overall to be extremely poor.

Not sure if I will find myself reading the sequel. Knowing what to expect of this book before reading it I would have passed it up for something else. ( )