Product Description

In this stunning debut, author Scott Lynch delivers the wonderfully thrilling tale of an audacious criminal and his band of confidence tricksters. Set in a fantastic city pulsing with the lives of decadent nobles and daring thieves, here is a story of adventure, loyalty, and survival that is one part Robin Hood, one part Ocean’s Eleven, and entirely enthralling.…

An orphan’s life is harsh–and often short–in the island city of Camorr, built on the ruins of a mysterious alien race. But born with a quick wit and a gift for thieving, Locke Lamora has dodged both death and slavery, only to fall into the hands of an eyeless priest known as Chains–a man who is neither blind nor a priest. A con artist of extraordinary talent, Chains passes his skills on to his carefully selected “family” of orphans–a group known as the Gentlemen Bastards. Under his tutelage, Locke grows to lead the Bastards, delightedly pulling off one outrageous confidence game after another. Soon he is infamous as the Thorn of Camorr, and no wealthy noble is safe from his sting.

Passing themselves off as petty thieves, the brilliant Locke and his tightly knit band of light-fingered brothers have fooled even the criminal underworld’s most feared ruler, Capa Barsavi. But there is someone in the shadows more powerful–and more ambitious–than Locke has yet imagined.

Known as the Gray King, he is slowly killing Capa Barsavi’s most trusted men–and using Locke as a pawn in his plot to take control of Camorr’s underworld. With a bloody coup under way threatening to destroy everyone and everything that holds meaning in his mercenary life, Locke vows to beat the Gray King at his own brutal game–or die trying.…


From the Hardcover edition.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3436 in Books
• Published on: 2007-06-26
• Released on: 2007-06-26
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 752 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Life imitates art and art scams life in Lynch's debut, a picaresque fantasy that chronicles the career of Locke Lamora—orphan, thief and leader of the Gentlemen Bastards—from the time the Thiefmaker sells Locke to the faking Eyeless Priest up to Locke's latest con of the nobility of the land of Camorr. As in any good caper novel, the plot is littered with obvious and not-so-obvious obstacles, including the secret police of Camorr's legendary Spider and the mysterious assassinations of gang leaders by the newly arrived Gray King. Locke's resilience and wit give the book the tragicomic air of a traditional picaresque, rubbery ethics and all. The villain holds the best moral justification of any of the players. Lynch provides plenty of historical and cultural information reminiscent of new weirdists Steven Erikson and China Miéville, if not quite as outré. The only drawback is that the realistic fullness of the background tends to accentuate the unreality of the melodramatic foreground. (July)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
*Starred Review* On a distant world, orphan Locke Lamora is sold into a crew of thieves and con artists. Soon his natural gifts make him an underworld celebrity, leader of the flamboyantly larcenous Gentleman Bandits. But there is someone who covets Locke's talents, his success, his very life, forcing him to put everything on the line to protect himself. With a world so vividly realized that it's positively tactile, and characters so richly drawn that they threaten to walk right off the page, this is one of those novels that reaches out and grabs readers, pulling us into the middle of the action. With this debut novel, Lynch immediately establishes himself as a gifted and fearless storyteller, unafraid of comparisons to Silverberg and Jordan, not to mention David Liss and even Dickens (the parallels to Oliver Twist offer an appealing extra dimension to the story, although the novel is no mere reimagining of that Victorian classic). Fans of lavishly appointed fantasy will be in seventh heaven here, but it will be nearly as popular with readers of literary crime fiction. This is a true genre bender, at home on almost any kind of fiction shelf. Expect it to be among the year's most impressive debuts. David Pitt
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Review
"Locke's resilience and wit give the book the tragicomic air of a traditional picaresque, rubbery ethics and all."-Publishers Weekly

-Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser would have felt right at home with the Gentleman Bastards. They-re not out to save the world, just their own skins...oh, and to relieve some nobles of their gold, jewels, and silks along the way. This is a fresh, original, and engrossing tale by a bright new voice in the fantasy genre.- Locke Lamora makes for an engaging rogue, and Camorr a fascinating and gorgeously realized setting, a city to rival Lankhmar, Amber, and Viriconium.- I look forward to returning there for many more visits.--George R. R. Martin

-Scott Lynch is a con man, a conjuror, a wickedly entertaining juggler of words with knives up his sleeves and hatchets down his back. By the time you realize he-s dangerous, you-re already bleeding. The Lies of Locke Lamora is a ticket inside the astonishing city-state Camorr, and a free pass into the company of the entirely extraordinary Gentleman Bastards, and a match for any fantasy adventure I-ve ever read. The best news is: it-s Book One. That means there-ll be more.--Matthew Woodring Stover

"Among the year-s most impressive debuts ... Lynch immediately establishes himself as a gifted and fearless storyteller, unafraid of comparisons to Silverberg and Jordan, not to mention David Liss and even Dickens. Fans of lavishly appointed fantasy will be in seventh heaven here, but it will be nearly as popular with readers of literary crime fiction."-Booklist, starred review


From the Hardcover edition.

Customer Reviews

Don't buy from Amazon
This book so far has been great however halfway through the book there is a printing error that ruins the book right during one of the best parts. The pages are cut off at the top of the page meaning you only get half of the page then the bottom half of the page is printed upside down and has nothing to do with the top half so you miss out on about 40 pages of the story. I would suggest buying the book as it is really good but go to a books store and flip through the book to make sure its printed correctly look at pages 389 to 420.

Now HERE'S something completely different
What I love about "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch is that it isn't your typical fantasy. The setting isn't reminiscent of Medieval England or ancient Scandinavia or the like, but rather it looks and feels like the Renaissance era of Italy. Also, the characters are much more anti-heroic than the protagonists found in other fantasy novels. And plus, the dialogue is sharp and witty (I hope you don't mind heavy profanity). The plot twists are hard-hitting, and the ending of "Lamora" leaves you wanting more. Well, luckily "Red Seas Under Red Skies," the sequel, has come out before I bought and read this one. I'll be reading that soon.

Grade: A

"I can't believe it isn't sci-fi!"
I read hard boiled crime and Science Fiction and I view most fantasy as idiotic. Elves? Middle Earth? Good grief. If I live long enough I will see the development of FTL Travel, time travel, android girlfriends, flying cars and a lot of other cool stuff I can read about right now. Sure, I'm going to have to live a long time to pull this off but as soon as immortality is developed, it won't be a problem.

This book, The Lies of Locke Lamora is quite simply one of the best books I have ever read. A REAL 5-star book. Edge of the seat excitement. A dizzying array of plots, sub-plots and sub-sub-plots so well arranged that you can easily keep track of everything. This "fantasy" now stands side by side with the likes of Altered Carbon, The Skinner and Jennifer Government on a revered altar in the underwater cathedral I built to house the worlds greatest books. I'm so hard to please that I have less than 20 5-star books although I have 4 and 4.5 star books to tide me over between the 5-star eras.

The storyline has been well covered in other reviews. I just want to make sure my fellow sci-fi brothers and sisters don't miss out. Just go buy it now. Trust me on this.

Oh, let me plug a couple of my other 5-stars. None But Lucifer (Gateways Retro Science Fiction) and Truth Machine