Just finished reading . . .
Jan. 17th, 2007 08:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eimarraLast night, I stayed up to read ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
scott_lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. It had to go back to the library today, so those last 100 pages had to be read. If you want a taste, there's an excerpt up on his official Website.
I am now eagerly awaiting the June release of his next book, Red Seas Under Red Skies.
Locke is a rascal, a rogue, a cunning charmer . . . and he has limits, which he learns fairly early. He is apprenticed to Father Chains for screwing up. It is not the first, nor the last, time he makes a mess of things. As he grows, he learns to work around his limits and use others to make up for what he cannot do himself.
One of my favorite bits early in the book is when the Sanza twins tell Bug that Locke Lamora games only work for Locke Lamora. Then along comes the Gray King, who has games of his own . . .
The book has interludes woven throughout--backstory, snippets of how Locke and his friends got from his first days with Chains to the full-fledged Gentleman Bastards that they are in the main story. I've heard others say to keep backstory and flashback to a minimum because there's no tension--you know the characters came out okay, so the reader won't feel impelled to keep reading. Certainly, some of these had no story tension; the one where Jean Tannen first discovers his flair for hatchets comes to mind. However, I do not recommend skipping the interludes. There's history, there's theme, there are little bits that will be mirrored in the main storyline. Besides, why would you want to miss any of the author's wonderful world and wry words?
Although clearly Locke is heading off to more adventures at the end of the book, Lies is a marvelous stand-alone novel. Or so I thought before I visited Scott Lynch's Website and found out this is the first of seven Locke novels. Marvelous! And I applaud Lynch's sentiment: "I'm extremely annoyed by books that simply stop rather than come to an actual finish; as best I can, I'll try never to write one."
If you haven't already, go read this book and join me in awaiting the next one. And if you're one of those people who don't normally buy hardcovers (Yes, I've followed the recent posts out there. No, I am not taking a stand.), go to your nearest library and ask them to buy it.
scott_lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora. It had to go back to the library today, so those last 100 pages had to be read. If you want a taste, there's an excerpt up on his official Website.I am now eagerly awaiting the June release of his next book, Red Seas Under Red Skies.
Locke is a rascal, a rogue, a cunning charmer . . . and he has limits, which he learns fairly early. He is apprenticed to Father Chains for screwing up. It is not the first, nor the last, time he makes a mess of things. As he grows, he learns to work around his limits and use others to make up for what he cannot do himself.
One of my favorite bits early in the book is when the Sanza twins tell Bug that Locke Lamora games only work for Locke Lamora. Then along comes the Gray King, who has games of his own . . .
The book has interludes woven throughout--backstory, snippets of how Locke and his friends got from his first days with Chains to the full-fledged Gentleman Bastards that they are in the main story. I've heard others say to keep backstory and flashback to a minimum because there's no tension--you know the characters came out okay, so the reader won't feel impelled to keep reading. Certainly, some of these had no story tension; the one where Jean Tannen first discovers his flair for hatchets comes to mind. However, I do not recommend skipping the interludes. There's history, there's theme, there are little bits that will be mirrored in the main storyline. Besides, why would you want to miss any of the author's wonderful world and wry words?
Although clearly Locke is heading off to more adventures at the end of the book, Lies is a marvelous stand-alone novel. Or so I thought before I visited Scott Lynch's Website and found out this is the first of seven Locke novels. Marvelous! And I applaud Lynch's sentiment: "I'm extremely annoyed by books that simply stop rather than come to an actual finish; as best I can, I'll try never to write one."
If you haven't already, go read this book and join me in awaiting the next one. And if you're one of those people who don't normally buy hardcovers (Yes, I've followed the recent posts out there. No, I am not taking a stand.), go to your nearest library and ask them to buy it.
