The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastards #1) - Scott Lynch

 

Summary

The Thorn of Camorr is said to be an unbeatable swordsman, a master thief, a friend to the poor, a ghost that walks through walls.

Slightly built and barely competent with a sword, Locke Lamora is, much to his annoyance, the fabled Thorn. And while Locke does indeed steal from the rich (who else would be worth stealing from?), the poor never see a penny. All of Locke's gains are strictly for himself and his tight-knit band of thieves. The Gentleman Bastards.

The capricious, colourful underworld of the ancient city of Camorr is the only home they have ever known. But now a clandestine war is threatening to tear it apart. Caught up in a murderous game, Locke and his friends are suddenly struggling just to stay alive...

Thoughts

Oh Scott Lynch you know exactly how to hook me in:

1.  Give little snippets of some BIG THING
2.  Jump to a different part of the story line that is connected in a way that doesn't seem obvious for a long time
3.  Jump back and forth between story lines, amping up suspense about BIG THING
4.  Reveal the BIG THING, but at this point you're already hooked on what's going to happen in the other story line, so no matter what the big thing is, if you might otherwise think it's not a big deal (it always is, but some people aren't as easily as impressed as I am)

This jumping between story lines might not work for anyone, and my bet that's probably going to be a complaint for a lot of people, but I don't feel like looking up bad reviews of a book I really enjoyed, so someone else will have to verify that.  I will say that the time lines aren't as perfectly streamlined as they are in the third book, which is no surprise since this is his debut and by the third book obviously he's grown as an author.

I will say I don't get his descriptions, usually of people's colouring.  What exactly is the skin color equivalent of shadowed honey?  And if you describe someone as very blonde...in the next sentence calling her hair color amber is a bit confusing.  Am I just confused about what color amber is?  Because I was pretty sure it was kind of a dark honey color...sort of brownish orangeish yellowish.  Which doesn't sound very blonde to me.  But maybe this in the context of the characters who all seem to be various shades of dark?

Things happened in this book that I had NO idea were going to happen so soon based on what I know of in the third book, and now I have zero clues what the @#$ is going to happen from here on out.  Like seriously.  I have zero clues what happens from the second half of this book through the second book, because everything I knew about already happened.  Also there was a death I was pretty shocked by because I am 90% sure I didn't know about it judging by the third book.  HOW AM I GOING TO SURVIVE THIS??

Other things 

- There is a drink described in here that I WANT to be real.  I want to try this drink because it sounds like the most amazing thing I've ever heard of, and sadly I gave the book away before writing down the description.  But I'm pretty sure if you've read this book, you'll know what drink in there I'm talking about.  Is there a real life version of that? ...must search...Oh Google, how I love you.  Yeah read this.  Tell me you don't want this.
 - The description of Locke as Vene whatever is totally swashbuckling and rogueish...and you KNOW I love my rogues.  I don't care that Locke is supposed to be supremely average looking...in this outfit?  I know he's a sexy beast.

TL;DR

Read it.  JUST DO IT.