In an attempt to educate Mrs. NW, who is not exactly an avid reader of science fiction and fantasy, Mr. NW each month assigns a classic novel.
I’m very familiar with this book. I’m fairly sure Mr. NW has read The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch at least 3 or 4 times. In fact, half the time when I ask Mr. NW what he is going to read next (from his rather large collection that is taking over our hallway) he says I might just read Lies again. So by some miracle, he lent me his precious copy with strict instructions to not dog-ear the corners and I made a solemn promise to use the bookmark provided. I avoid bringing up the fact he wouldn’t have this problem if he used a Kindle.A bit of background on my reading history – I like to read but tend to go for action novels or detective stories or a Bill Bryson book. Terry Pratchett is probably the closest I’ve ever got to reading fantasy. The thing is I read really fast; I’m a skip reader. But this doesn’t work very well with sci-fi or fantasy novels. You just end up missing important bits and having to re-read sections over and over again. So I’ve never really had much patience for this genre. Mr. NW, as you might gather, is completely obsessed, and judges bookshops based on whether they separate sci-fi and fantasy or lump them all together.
So I take it The Lies of Locke Lamora is classified as fantasy? Does having some alien glass lean it a tiny bit into the sci-fi category? Or did Lynch just mean alien in the sense of foreign not outer space? Or are there some actual aliens in the sequel? That would be a great twist. Don’t spoil it for me! Are there rules about how a book is classified? What about ones that sit between the two categories? I mean surely some poor bookshop attendant must have to make a call on where to put the book. Maybe they should have a scale. 95% fantasy 5% sci-fi.
Well with that rant over, on to the actual book. I did in fact read it. The first couple of chapters essentially summarise the plot of Oliver Twist, with a lot of detail about Camorr thrown in. There’s a weird calendar, the seasons are strange and the naming of the years is just difficult to follow. There’s some girl Lamora is supposedly in love with who fails to actually show up at any point in the book. A bunch of people get killed Game of Thrones styles. There’s a pretty crafty plot where Lamora tries to swindle the Don and Doña out of their cold hard cash or should I say crowns. And then there are about a million pages dedicated to costume changes. In fact, I think there were more descriptions of clothing than at Paris Fashion Week. I’m pretty sure Scott Lynch is secretly a tailor!
Scott Lynch does make a good point in a recent interview about needing to balance the worldbuilding aspect of story telling with not boring people to tears.
It’s not all just, “Here’s the map and here’s your 50 pages of fucking background research. Memorize this so you can have fun with the story.”
Honestly, I did enjoy reading The Lies of Locke Lamora. The pace of the writing is good, there’s plenty of twists and it wasn’t too out there. It’s not going to make my top 10 list but I would certainly recommend reading it. All in all, not a bad choice, Mr. NW. Now I have to read the rest of the series before The Thorn of Emberlain is released…
What was your first experience with sci-fi/fantasy writing? Did you love the genre straight way or did you warm up to it over time?
I loved that book!! Love love love. Ha ha. I’ve read all of Scott Lynch’s books, and he needs to write faster. Yes, can’t skip-read with most fantasy, too many details snuck in there that might be important later. And you do need to enjoy world-building because all the assumptions of “Earth-life” don’t necessarily apply. Good for you for giving it a go. 🙂
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Mr Nw spends a lot of time checking the internet for updates on The Thorn of Emberlain and always ends up disappointed. I’ve just started on Red Seas Under Red Skies and it’s definitely much faster to get into because you already know the world. I’m enjoying it so far but I’m only 100 pages in.
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I do too! The 3rd one in the series, The Republic of Thieves, was my least favorite, but I’ll keep reading as soon as the next is out in ebook.
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Hmmmm…This is probably one of the most well known novels that I’ve never heard of. Neither title, series or author. Good review and I can’t wait to hear more of your thoughts.
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Thanks Robert. Scott Lynch was picked up and published from writing he released on his blog and he seems to have quite a big cult following now.
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hehehe yes a scale would be useful 😉
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Yes, I loved The Lies of Lock Lamora – and as for the genre – it was instant love the first time I read my science fiction book… But then I love unpredictability and I’m not a skip reader:)
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It’s a real curse being a skip reader. My problem is I’m too impatient and I just want to know what happens in the end. Mr NW loves exclaiming “you didn’t even read that page” with horror when watching me read.
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hello mr and mrs nw its dennis the vizsla dog hay my dada red this buk!!! he sez he liked it but it kind of reeminded him of a sumwot less intense verzhun of bas lag!!! i do not no wot bas lag is but aparently that is ware the train stops at perdido street station!!! ok bye
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Thanks Dennis. You are a very clever dog. Tell your dad that I haven’t read any of China Miéville’s books but the combination of steampunk and magic sounds really interesting.
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Just managed to snatch a copy of this thanks to this review. I would have probably passed it over (mostly due to the title) but now it sits on my shelf slowly mocking me that it will probably be several months before I get to it.
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Come back and let us know what you thought of it once you get to it. It is easy to walk past a book and think I should get round to reading that and then 6 months passes. Haha 😂
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I have never read this book, but now I want to! Great post and thanks for the love on my blog 🙂
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I absolutely loved this book! But the series went downhill (as series tend to do). I was disappointed with the second and third book to the point where I have no idea what Lynch is going to do in The Thorn of Emberlain.
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