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A review by amblygon_writes
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
5.0
So I'm very late to this party. Scott Lynch and The Lies of Locke Lamora have both been familiar combinations of sounds to my ears. I probably heard about Scott Lynch when I first started reading Tom Lloyd and Joe Abercrombie, and then I kept hearing about his book because apparently it's a pretty big thing in the fantasy world. However, I'm not always convinced; I get nervous about things like 'best-seller' and 'best since [insert name of famous fantasy author]' - they can't all be the best, can they? They can't all be the next Big Thing, can they? But, I should probably get over whatever this issue is because it's hindering me from accessing some amazing books! (Ahem, this precise thought pattern happened before I finally picked up The Name of the Wind...Alhough I have to admit that this dilly-dallying does have one advantage; it means I came to this series with the whole trilogy already published, and a book four as well it seems, and I came to Rothfuss's series with two books published. Makes for some delicious binge-reading.)
Anyway, on to the book itself. I actually started this in August 2015, but, for some reason, the beginning just didn't hit me. At all. I forgot about it and read a bunch of other stuff. Come 2016, I was running out of stuff to read and didn't quite feel like another ebook splurge, so I thought, since I've bought the whole trilogy already, I might as well try a little bit longer (I generally don't put down books unless they are absolutely terribly). So I started right were I left off, and I got hooked.
The world is so exciting. The culture, the people, the atmosphere - it's all there. This place is really awesome! I love the characters; their words bite and their swords sing. They're flawed, interesting and personable. Inside, I laugh with them and I cry with them. I absolutely love the plot twists and the exquisitely executed plots of Locke Lamora (my favourite part is shadows visiting a noble at night - what a sumptuous surprise). I had some small issues with some choices of wording and style decisions at the start (they may have continued throughout the book, but at this point, I was so drawn in, I didn't notice). I also felt that there was a little too much repetition going on (parts being played out from multiple POVs - glad this seems to have been dropped in the second book). Ooh, also, have to mention the great descriptions of food: not over-the-top (and not pages and pages of feast descriptions and waddling either), but enough to get me salivating and feeling the moment with the characters.
So yeah, tldr, it's awesome, why did it take me so long to get to this?!
Anyway, on to the book itself. I actually started this in August 2015, but, for some reason, the beginning just didn't hit me. At all. I forgot about it and read a bunch of other stuff. Come 2016, I was running out of stuff to read and didn't quite feel like another ebook splurge, so I thought, since I've bought the whole trilogy already, I might as well try a little bit longer (I generally don't put down books unless they are absolutely terribly). So I started right were I left off, and I got hooked.
The world is so exciting. The culture, the people, the atmosphere - it's all there. This place is really awesome! I love the characters; their words bite and their swords sing. They're flawed, interesting and personable. Inside, I laugh with them and I cry with them. I absolutely love the plot twists and the exquisitely executed plots of Locke Lamora (my favourite part is shadows visiting a noble at night - what a sumptuous surprise). I had some small issues with some choices of wording and style decisions at the start (they may have continued throughout the book, but at this point, I was so drawn in, I didn't notice). I also felt that there was a little too much repetition going on (parts being played out from multiple POVs - glad this seems to have been dropped in the second book). Ooh, also, have to mention the great descriptions of food: not over-the-top (and not pages and pages of feast descriptions and waddling either), but enough to get me salivating and feeling the moment with the characters.
So yeah, tldr, it's awesome, why did it take me so long to get to this?!