Skip to main content

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch - A crime caper extraordinaire


There is a type of novel I like to call the Swashbuckler. A swashbuckler keeps you on the edge of your seat and has twists coming thick and fast which seem obvious in hindsight but totally unexpected when you first encounter them.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is a Swashbuckler. It keeps you entertained and it draws you in to a world of thieves and confidence games in the city of Camorr.

Locke Lamora is the Garrista of the Gentleman Bastards who specialize in thievery, duping the rich and playing confidence games. They plan an ambitious heist playing upon the greed of a certain Don. As expected complications arise as the Gentlemen Bastards get caught in a war for the Underbelly of Camorr.

What sets The Lies of Locke Lamora is the execution of the plot, the deftness of the writing and the glorious city   of Camorr which is as rich a setting as I have encountered in fiction. Camorr reminded me of New Crobuzon of Bas Lag as I read about it with all its strange guilds, many faceted religious orders and unlike most other cities in fiction Camorr has canals run through it making water a part of the city.

Because Locke Lamora is a thief and you view the city through his eyes and Camorr impinges itself on your imagination. The waterways, canals and the allusions to the fact that the Camorr was previously inhabited by another sentient race make for great reading and add to the mystique of the novel. 

The plotting is devious and ingenious. I could never anticipate what would happen next and yet when it happened it seemed what happened could not have happened any other way.

The characters are flawed, brilliant and surprisingly real in the choices they make when confronted by Locke Lamora's schemes. I particularly enjoyed the origin stories of The Gentlemen Bastards which occur in the form flashbacks and interludes.

All in all Locke Lamora is just a great read that everyone should enjoy.

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Rule 34 by Charles Stross : You will never look at your email the same way again

This is one of the great reads of the year(with a terrible cover though). Charles Stross writes a near future police procedural in this one. Its a future where 3d printers are a reality and plans for printing almost anything are available online(This includes all sorts of weapons of course). This of course leads to a whole lot of materials being smuggled. Its a future where you have to bid to get a bus to go your way. The police instant messages and everything has gone digital. The rise of the internet has lead to an increase of unimaginable crimes. Our lead detective Liz works in the Rule 34 squad. A series of apparently connected murders take place. Only no one can figure out the perpetrator and the motive behind the crimes. Stross moves from the grissly murders to explanations of AI, singularity and spam with ease managing to keep you on the edge of your seat. Its a complex novel that virtually demands a reread. It is also written in a weird second person style that jar
Post a Comment
Read more

Places to eat in Kanpur

Our real exploration of Kanpur began in our 5th year when we had our stipend to spend so hopefully this article will prove helpful to all the foodies out there. Surprisingly(and I really mean this) there are a number of terrific places to eat in Kanpur. Hopefully this article will prove helpful to many who are looking forward to spend their stipends. By far the best way to reach places to eat in Kanpur is to catch the bus that the institute provides. The bus runs everyday(except Sunday) at 8:00 pm and 9:00 pm. The bus returns at around 10:15 pm. Murgi(Our food and snacks Coordinator, every wing should have one) always takes the phone number of the conductor so that he can stay updated about where the bus is and so that the return is convenient. The bus service is really a life saver and unless you have a bike should be the first option. It is also better to roam during weekdays than weekends simply because there is lesser ruckus everywhere. Going to a restaurant on a weekend is an ab
19 comments
Read more

Murgi’s fun facts

This one goes out to Mrigank Gupta aka Murgi. Murgi is such an awesome dude that even Chuck Norris and Rajnikanth can’t hold a candle to him. Below are Some facts that are indeed facts When Murgi was an infant he changed his own diapers Murgi was born toilet trained Murgi is actually the eldest in his house. He let the others enter this world before him When Murgi was born he got his own birth certificate from the doctor’s office Murgi never sits idle. He is just pretending to be like us Murgi never listens to excuses on the phone. He simply tells you what to do and disconnects. When Murgi will finally take a vacation the world will stop spinning While Chuck Norris counted to infinity twice, Murgi had already finished counting thrice and was solving everyone else's problems. Natural selection does not apply to Murgi. (Courtesy Ikka) Murgi caught an electron at rest.(Courtesy Ikka) When Arthur Eddington was asked if he really believed there were just three peop
30 comments
Read more