Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, Book #1 of Gentleman Bastard series.
Introduction
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch is book one of the Gentleman Bastards series. Locke Lamora is an orphan of the island city of Camorr. The Thiefmaker turns the orphans into thieves. Lamora learns quickly and soon becomes more trouble than he is worth. Many years later, Lamora is grown up and collects his own crew, the Gentleman Bastards, who work confidence games. Another crew headed by the Gray King threatens to expose and kill them. To what lengths will Lamora go to defeat the Gray King and secure the Gentleman Bastards’ retirement?
Summary
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch starts with young Lamora learning the craft of theft from the Thiefmaker. The Thiefmaker soon learns that Lamora will steal anything at any time, and the risk that commands worries him. Lamora ends up with Father Chains, who runs a con game. They run the con with the twins, Calo and Galdo.
Locke Lamora, Calo, and Galdo leave Father Chains to form a new crew. They have unrecorded adventures until they try to pull a con on Don Lorenzo Salvara. The two other members of this crew are Jean Tannen, a powerful man, and Bug, a fresh recruit. Their fifth member is Sabetha, but she is on a mission in another town. Their goal is to amass a fortune large enough to escape Camorr forever.
All the thieving crews in Camorr pay tribute to Capa Barsavi. A new thief threatens them, named the Gray King. The Gray King has issues with Barsavi and with Lamora. The three groups struggle with each other. They lose fortunes and lives. Lamora wants to survive and escape Camorr with his fortune. It will be a hard task, but he vows to survive and win.
Recommendation
I read The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch from March 22, 2017, to April 17, 2017. There were three books I read in 2017 for which I did not write a book review at that time. This is the second of the three retro posts I will write. The Lies of Locke Lamora is an interesting mix of influences. It serves as a history book for the society of Comorr. The author based the society on Renaissance Venice with magic added. Locke Lamora’s early thieving career has aspects of Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. The main storyline follows a caper path like the movie Ocean’s Eleven.
They published the next two books in the series in 2007 and 2013. I held off reading them at that time because I had heard that there would be a delay in releasing the fourth novel, The Thorn of Emberlain. On his website, he stated that he completed a draft for the book in May 2019. It must come out soon, so I plan to read the next two as soon as I can.
Links
This is the link to the Goodreads page of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/29588376-the-lies-of-locke-lamora
The series that this novel reminds me most of is the first book the Mistborn series by Brandon Sanderson. Mistborn has a crew of thieves that must pull off a difficult heist. The series goes in a different direction, but it starts in a similar spot. This is the link to the Goodreads page of Mistborn: The Final Empire by Brandon Sanderson.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/68428.The_Final_Empire
I posted a review on a book with a similar background to The Lies of Locke Lamora on Port of Shadows by Glen Cook. Port of Shadows has a similar magic system and features a medieval technology level.
In Port of Shadows by Glen Cook, The Black Company searches for rebels but finds dozens of identical young girls. Can Croaker unravel the mystery before the rebels open the Port of Shadows and free a powerful sorcerer?