| The Lies of Locke Lamora | Contributor: Amfo | Posted: 08/02/07 | 12:48 |
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page 1 of 4  The Lies of Locke Lamora
Author: Scott Lynch Publisher: Gollancz (Orion) Out: Now Pages: 505 ISBN-13: 978 0 57507 802 4 Class: Fantasy Niche: Swashbuckler Terry Pratchett once said he came up with all his best ideas by pillaging from history. Where Pratchett has lifted concepts and on occasion even actual events for re-imagination in the Discworld, other authors have been more content to merely take inspiration from historical periods. Scott Lynch, in his debut novel, creates a canal city called Camorr, which is transparently a somewhat alien version of Venice during the middle years of the Most Serene Republic (9th Century AD to 18th Century AD). In case you're in doubt of this, publisher Gollancz even goes as far as using an inverse silhouette of Piazza San Marco on the front cover - complete with famous pigeons. It's a refreshing setting for what is a very 21st Century take on a straight-up swashbuckling adventure. The Lies of Locke Lamora gives you plenty of political intrigue, some loveable rogues, gallons of blood - mostly spilt by swords or similar edged weapons - and a plot that nods at complexity but runs a fairly direct course from initial set up to its slightly hurried conclusion. This is very much a heist-gone-wrong story with Hollywood pacing and climaxes at all the right places. It combines great ideas with a by-the-numbers plot structure to give you an experience that you know doesn't exactly extend you as a reader, but instead puts entertainment as a priority. Locke Lamora is a master thief with a mysterious lineage. We learn early on that he's an orphan and that his name is assumed - the obvious implication is that he has connections to the city nobility, headed by Duke Nicovante, who despite never appearing the novel manages to give the impression of being a Machiavellian mastermind simply by dint of the first four letters of his name. Locke is first taken under the wing of The Thiefmaker, a shadowy but interesting character who keeps hundreds of orphans in secret tunnels beneath the city's biggest graveyard, but who never gets the time and space in the novel that he deserves. Locke, who proves to be more than the Thiefmaker can handle, is quickly passed off to a blind priest known only as Father Chains. A chapter and a half later and Locke is grown, has a tight-knit gang of fellow thieves, and is in the middle of pulling the greatest con job of his short but lucrative career. Specifically, a meticulously planned ruse which is thrown into disarray by the arrival of the Grey King, a super-villain with plans that go far beyond ripping off a couple of dozy nobles. It's a bit of a temporal lurch - just as you're getting a handle on all the faux-Italian terminology and discovering the unique talents of five-year-old Locke Lamora, you're suddenly catapulted a couple of decades into the future. But then two chapters later, the story of Locke's first night with Father Chains continues in a flashback. |
