The Lies of Locke Lamora (GollanczF.)
and over 900,000 other books are available for Amazon Kindle .
Learn more
| ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Visit the Amazon.co.uk Trade-In Store for more details. |
Frequently Bought Together
Product details
|
More About the Author
Product Description
Review
"Exports the wit and suspense of a cleverly constructed crime novel into an exotic realm of fantasy and the result is engagingly entertaining. A remarkably stylish debut." (Lisa Tuttle THE TIMES )
"Like an episode of the BBC's 'Hustle' on speed, The Lies of Locke Lamora layers a series of daring scams, one on top of the other, in a complex and highly entertaining mix of magic, manipulation and mayhem. Great stuff." (Sandy Auden SFX )
'Like Locke Lamora himself, Scott Lynch's novel oozes charm, ability, guile, flair, courage, cheek, humour, brevity and bravery in equal measure. It's an awesome debut, powerful and dangerous, romantic and relentless and it absolutely lives up to the hype. The Lies of Locke Lamora is a novel you'll have to work very hard not to be utterly blown away by.' (John Berllyne SF Revu )
" A richly developed fantasy novel, with a nice line in earthy dialogue and many instances of grotesque violence. Lies of Locke Lamora is just like it's anti-hero - bold, witty and likely to catch you off guard." (DREAMWATCH )
"Excellent fantasy about young grifters known as the Gentleman Bastards, out only for themselves." (ABTA magazine )
"Grabs you by the nethers and tears through a ride of intrigue, deceit and daring deeds. In short, a ripping yarn from a major new fantasy-writing talent." (THE LINCOLNSHIRE ECHO )
"Lynch is a virtuoso plotter, who plays fair with us and keeps us bemused at every turn. For once deserving every bit of the praise heaped on it." (Roz Kaveney TIME OUT )
"A surprisingly skillful swashbuckling debut signals the next big thing in fantasy writing. The Lies of Locke Lamora stands up to the hype." (EDGE magazine ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
"Like an episode of the BBC's 'Hustle' on speed, The Lies of Locke Lamora layers a series of daring scams, one on top of the other, in a complex and highly entertaining mix of magic, manipulation and mayhem. Great stuff." (Sandy Auden SFX )
'Like Locke Lamora himself, Scott Lynch's novel oozes charm, ability, guile, flair, courage, cheek, humour, brevity and bravery in equal measure. It's an awesome debut, powerful and dangerous, romantic and relentless and it absolutely lives up to the hype. The Lies of Locke Lamora is a novel you'll have to work very hard not to be utterly blown away by.' (John Berllyne SF Revu )
" A richly developed fantasy novel, with a nice line in earthy dialogue and many instances of grotesque violence. Lies of Locke Lamora is just like it's anti-hero - bold, witty and likely to catch you off guard." (DREAMWATCH )
"Excellent fantasy about young grifters known as the Gentleman Bastards, out only for themselves." (ABTA magazine )
"Grabs you by the nethers and tears through a ride of intrigue, deceit and daring deeds. In short, a ripping yarn from a major new fantasy-writing talent." (THE LINCOLNSHIRE ECHO )
"Lynch is a virtuoso plotter, who plays fair with us and keeps us bemused at every turn. For once deserving every bit of the praise heaped on it." (Roz Kaveney TIME OUT )
"A surprisingly skillful swashbuckling debut signals the next big thing in fantasy writing. The Lies of Locke Lamora stands up to the hype." (EDGE magazine ) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Book Description
Introducing Locke Lamora, the fantasy genre's next cult hero. A brilliant debut fantasy from a 26-year-old author.
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Tags Customers Associate with This Product(What's this?)Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Starts slowly, but keep at it,
By
This review is from: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Paperback)
I suspect a fair number of readers will give up on this in the first few chapters: you can tell this is a debut novel and the writer is sort of settling into his own voice as he goes. The first impression was of a sort of sub-Jack Vance, which is a hard act to follow.
It's worth persisting though - the language becomes less florid and the plot more fascinating: I really liked the setting. At first I didn't warm to the characters, but after a while I started to get attached to them. Be warned though, if you are the kind of reader that finds violence and death to sympathetic characters in fiction hard to read, you may not like this. Several reviewers have referred to this novel as fantasy: it's set in a renaissance culture in the ruins of an alien culture, which to my mind makes it sci fi, but perhaps sci fi is less in the public eye just now. I am definitely looking forward to reading the next one.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Entertaining, but tries a bit too hard,
By Anne Lyle (UK) - See all my reviews
This review is from: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Paperback)
"The Lies of Locke Lamora" is the first in a projected series of seven books detailing the adventures of The Gentleman Bastards, a gang of thieves and conmen from the Venice-like city of Camorr. It's a ripping yarn full of larger-than-life characters, something akin to "Moll Flanders" meets "Pulp Fiction"; mostly light-hearted but with moments of savage violence, as befits the protagonist's devil-take-the-hindmost attitude to life. There is one torture scene that literally gave me nightmares, which rather puts me off buying the rest of the series - a pity, as it is otherwise good fun.
The mix of traditional fantasy elements (pre-gunpowder weapons, mages) with vaguely SF/clockpunk elements like the advanced architectural technology of the long-departed Elders, the intricate Heath-Robinsonian human inventions and the pseudo-science of alchemy combine in a heady mix of otherworldliness, making Camorr a city you'll remember long after you close the book. If the description is occasionally a little heavy-handed (please, Scott, can it sometimes be just the wind, not the Hangman's Wind?), it's still damned impressive for a debut novel, especially from someone who is still under 30. Only one thing really takes the edge off an otherwise great book: the dialogue. I'm not at all averse to swearing, but in "Lies" it is at times overdone and inappropriate. It's one thing for the Gentleman Bastards to be effing and blinding amongst themselves, but the Bondsmage? Don Salvara? Considering that the city is sharply divided into the haves and have-nots, the frankly rather unimaginative swearing sometimes gives the dialogue a homogeneous, classless (or rather lower-class) flavour that spoils the overall effect. The characters' voices become almost indistinguishable from one another at times, and sound anachronistic to boot, like Lynch had been watching a lot of Quentin Tarantino movies to get in the mood. Judging by things he has said in interviews, Lynch is a fan of "Serenity" and presumably "Firefly" (the tone of the book reminded me very much of the show). IMHO he should study Jos Whedon's work a bit more closely: learn how to write really cracking dialogue and most importantly, be a bit more creative with his cursing!
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
entertaining caper,
By
This review is from: The Lies of Locke Lamora (Paperback)
This is like the Godfather, Oliver Twist and Ocean's Eleven mixed up and distilled on the page. Fun, witty, violent and entertaining, it keeps you reading and so is the perfect commute read. As other reviewers have said, Lynch dramatises rather than tells - a bit of a lost art for contemporary writers.
Personally I didn't like the flashbacks and back story, and thought it was too much of a device to delay the main plot but that's personal taste. There are places where Lynch overwrites but this is forgiveable, especially in the middle section of the book where the tension really ramps up. Lynch doesn't shy away from making his characters realistically violent as so many writers do out of moral correctness and that adds to the texture of the plot and characterisation. This isn't by any means great literature, but it is a great romp of a novel that reminded me of how much sheer fun reading as a child used to be.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
Would you like to see more reviews about this item?
|
Most Recent Customer Reviews |
Customer Discussions
|
This product's forum
Active discussions in related forums
Search Customer Discussions
|
Related forums
|
![[Start the discussion]](http://g-ecx.images-amazon.com/images/G/02/x-locale/communities/discussion_boards/start-new-discussion-sec._V192198663_.gif){kind=small}
Listmania!
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
|
