Happy Ent Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 Whether one enjoys Vellum or not, Duncan's ability is something altogether rather unique and undeniable IMHO. Speaking on behalf of those who fookin' hated Vellum, I grant you permission to remove "IMHO". It is undeniably brilliant. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobodymN Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 Speaking on behalf of those who fookin' hated Vellum, I grant you permission to remove "IMHO". It is undeniably brilliant. Good to hear! I'm glad that there are some who can recognize ability even when it's used to mold something they don't particularly enjoy - or even hate. I think Scott automatically will appeal to a much wider fan base, and generally when I say that it's a semi-veiled insult, but what makes The Lies of Locke Lamora somewhat of a breath of fresh air is that it's a book that bucks that trend for me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Angalin Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 Damn! He was in town this last weekend and I missed it. Would have been fun, but Keycon kind of passed over my head. (Didn't even get to see Anthony Bourdain on his own tour, making fun of Woody Harrelson's raw foodism.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted May 30, 2006 Share Posted May 30, 2006 UK readers rejoice! Lies is now out in the UK. Or at the very least they had a big stack of copies of the book in WH Smith today when I walked in. Result! I was also impressed by the quality of the pimpers on the cover: George RR Martin, Richard Morgan, Hal Duncan, Sarah Ash, Matt Stover and Kate Elliott. Not a bad group to have on your team. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Baelish Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 I bought this book today, and I'll start reading it tonight. Looking forward to it. It should be good, considering it cost me £13. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Olaf Posted May 31, 2006 Author Share Posted May 31, 2006 I bought this book today, and I'll start reading it tonight. Looking forward to it. It should be good, considering it cost me £13. My copy is ready to ship from Amazon Germany. I should have it by Friday. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
pat5150 Posted May 31, 2006 Share Posted May 31, 2006 Enjoy it, guys! By the way, Scott called my review "very fair and most positive." It's always interesting to see what authors think of my reviews. Of course, since my book review was quite positive, authors and editors habitually enjoy stuff like that. I didn't receive any kudos when I smashed Feist's last trilogy. . . Patrick Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Baelish Posted June 2, 2006 Share Posted June 2, 2006 It was a good book. A very good book, in fact. It made me laugh out loud a fair few times, and I enjoyed most of the story. I felt the end of the book kind of let the rest down, though. It seemed rather formulaic, I guess. But I still enjoyed it, and Locke Lamora is a good, fun, deep character. But I don't know how Lynch is going to make this into a series, I really don't. Some major spoilers coming up, so be warned. SPOILER: Locke LamoraAll the threads seemed to be wrapped up at the end of the book. The Grey King is dead, Barsavi is dead, etc. The only things I can think of to keep going is Locke and Jean finding Sabetha and trying to escape the Bondsmagi. I don't know how that can be extended to so many more books, but I look forward to finding out. All in all, I will definitely be on the lookout for the next books in the series. Although the story was a bit predictable in places, it was still a great read. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 3, 2006 Share Posted June 3, 2006 About 100 pages into it now and it is excellent. The city of Camorr is painted incredibly vividly, the characters practically leap off the page and the story is engrossing. Lamora is from the Cugel (Jack Vance) school of character where you're not sure if you should be cheering them or slapping them around for being overtly smug. I also note Dreamwatch gave it a very good review, 9 out of 10 and compared its impact with that of Perdido Street Station. Possibly hyperbolic (I've never read PSS, so not sure about that as a comparison), but if it gets more people reading the book, all the better. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lord Baelish Posted June 8, 2006 Share Posted June 8, 2006 Have you finished it yet, Wert? I'd be interested to hear what you thought of the ending. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 8, 2006 Share Posted June 8, 2006 I'm going to try and give it a good read this afternoon. Because I spend so much time buggering around online and playing games, my reading has become restricted to my lunch hours at work, which makes progress slow. But Lies is demanding far more attention than that. Up to page 200 now and it is still excellent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 9, 2006 Share Posted June 9, 2006 My review: That The Lies of Locke Lamora is a debut novel is difficult to believe. That it was written by someone younger than I am is even more so. That it not only meets but exceeds the hype that has been built up around it is damn-nigh impossible to believe, yet it is so. In the city-state of Camorr the Secret Peace exists between the criminals and the rulers, a decades-long pact between the Capa and the Duke that keeps the merchants and nobles' wares and riches safe. The only problem is that two people are screwing with the Pact, one a smooth conman and his band of helpers, the other a shadowy killer striking from the shadows without warning. The city is about to be plunged into a war in the shadows as these factions collide. The story is told skillfully and economically. Lynch knows how to show, not tell. The story moves with a rattling, page-turning pace where exposition is kept to a minimum. As the 'current' storyline moves forward, Lynch gives us frequent flashbacks to the formative years of the titular Locke Lamora, showing his rise from an overconfident scoundrel to a skilled conman and demonstrating how the bonds of true friendship are forged between Lamora and his band of knaves, the Gentlemen Bastards. Amongst this he also brings to life his prized creation, the city of Camorr itself, a traditional fantasyscape of guards, merchants and peasents eking a life in hovels under the watchful eye of the aristocracy, but with an element of the strange introduced as all are dwelling in a city forged thousands of years ago by an inscrutable alien race whose disappearance remains troubling. With its many islands and districts, temples and guilds shadowed by towering glass monoliths, Camorr is as much a character as Locke Lamora himself, a city that immediately joins Ankh-Morpork, Lankhamar and Viriconium as a perfect setting for stories of the fantastical. Lynch is also a master alchemist of taking his influences and whipping them into something fresh and exciting. He has George RR Martin's skill are creating great characters and then unexpectedly killing them, mixed with early Raymond Feist's sheer gleeful storytelling and occasional eye for detail (the merchant houses sequences seem heavily inspired by the trading house chapters in Feist's Rise of a Merchant Prince). The story shifts tones with ease, moving from its early chapters of setting up cons and marks (feeling oddly reminiscent of the British TV series Hustle) to a much darker place, yet always with a certain enjoyable wit about it. Lynch knows how to make the reader laugh, even if the humour turns from light amusement to midnight-black as the story progresses. This is the opening volume of a seven-novel sequence, yet it is virtually entirely self-contained, with only the closing few pages giving us a sense of where the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies (due in January 2007), will take the story next. I for one cannot wait. 5/5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Ser Jaime Posted June 13, 2006 Share Posted June 13, 2006 I'm about halfway through TLoLL, and it's definitely living up to the hype so far. Then again, I'm a huge fan of crime novels, Ocean's Eleven, Elmore Leonard novels and the whole con artist/heist genre. I've been waiting for someone to bring that type of plot into a fantasy setting, and Scott Lynch has done it. It's a breath of fresh air in the fantasy genre. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Blue Roses Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Just finished. Great fun and totally enjoyable. The creation of Camorr is breathtaking and the descriptions of the Elderglass towers are truly wonderful (the rose garden - wow what a concept!). I want to visit!! The seedier side of town is also brought to life and is nice to get away from the pseudo medieval world with journeying through vast forests, over mountains and babbling brooks. Big nods to Feist, and Dickens and gansters. Though some bits dragged and some characters were a bit weak including the Spider and the Grey king himself, its a good read and highly recommended. Other characters such as the Thiefmaker and Chains more than made up for it. Also would love to mention the cooking! Nice to see an author take some time over descriptions of food and banquets. Those alcoholic oranges were fab. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agulla Posted June 19, 2006 Share Posted June 19, 2006 Finished reading this book this weekend. I really enjoyed it, really. It took me more time than I expected to read it just for one reason: I wanted to make it last. Loved everything in this book: the place, the characters and the tale. It's time that I start recommending it to my friends. The last book I felt an urge to recommend like this was many years ago was that obscure novel; A Game of Thrones. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobodymN Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 I'm glad to see I wasn't crazy in loving this book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 So the word begins to spread. Maybe in ten years' time we'll be bitching about the incessant delay behind Book 6 of the Gentleman Bastards sequence on a hypothetical-but-inevitable 'Camorr.org' website? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ran Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 You guys are making it very, very hard for me not to crack open the copy of Lies I've got on the shelf behind me. MUST - FINISH - SOME - WORK - FIRST... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Werthead Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Ran: JOIN US!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Agulla Posted June 21, 2006 Share Posted June 21, 2006 Yes. Ran, desist your resisting it's futile. Join the Gentleman Bastards! And I want to be the first one to start bitching about a "delay" in this series: Why Red Seas Under Red Skies is taking so long to be published? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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