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The Lies of Locke Lamora

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The Lies of Locke Lamora
Cover to the US hardback edition of "The Lies of Locke Lamora"
AuthorScott Lynch
LanguageEnglish
GenreFantasy, Novel
PublisherGollancz (UK); Bantam Doubleday Dell (USA)
Publication date
June 27, 2006
Publication placeUnited States
Media typePrint - Hardback & Paperback
Pages512 pp (US hardback edition)
ISBNISBN 0-553-80467-7 (US hardback edition) Parameter error in {{ISBNT}}: invalid character
Followed byRed Seas Under Red Skies 

The Lies of Locke Lamora is a fantasy novel by Scott Lynch. It follows the adventures of a group of con artists known as the Gentlemen Bastards. They live in a city called Camorr, heavily based on late medieval Venice. The book is divided into two interspersed stories. In the present time, the Gentlemen Bastards must contend with the Gray King, a powerful figure terrorizing Camorr's criminal community. Every other chapter, however, delves into the history and mythology of Camorr, the Gentlemen Bastards, and especially the protagonist Locke Lamora.

The Lies of Locke Lamora is the first book in a projected series of seven.

The Gentleman Bastard Sequence

  1. The Lies of Locke Lamora (June 2006)
  2. Red Seas Under Red Skies (July 2007)
  3. The Republic of Thieves (forthcoming)
  4. The Thorn of Emberlain (forthcoming)
  5. The Ministry of Necessity (forthcoming)
  6. The Mage and the Master Spy (forthcoming)
  7. Inherit the Night (forthcoming)

Plot summary

After a devastating plague, a man known as the Thiefmaker pays off the city guard to take in a number of newly-orphaned individuals, whom he plans to train as thieves. He soon discovers that one of them, Locke Lamora, is far smarter and crueler than the rest, to the extent that he tricks the Thiefmaker into killing two of the other children. The Thiefmaker thus sells Locke to Chains, a priest of the Nameless Thirteenth god. Chain uses his temple as a front to operate the Gentlemen Bastards. They play confidence games on the city's richest citizens, in defiance of the Secret Peace (an agreement between the criminal underground and the nobility that keeps the nobility and the government safe from theft).

In time, Locke becomes head of the Gentlemen Bastards. His crew includes Jean Tannen, an expert fighter (especially with hatchets- his favorite pair is nicknamed "The Wicked Sisters"); Calo and Galdo, a pair of jack-of-all-trades twins; a young apprentice named Bug; and a woman named Sabetha, whom Locke loves and who, for unspecificied reasons, does not appear in the novel.

At the beginning of the novel, the Gentlemen Bastards are commencing a confidence game against Lorenzo, Don Salvara and his wife. Locke pretends to be Lukas Fehrwight, a representative of a powerful wine-making family that needs to get its stock out of its home state before it erupts into civil war. During the course of this con, a mysterious figure named the Gray King begins killing prominent members of the criminal community. Soon, the Gray King approaches Locke and tells him that, due to Locke's immense skills at deception, he will play the part of the Gray King during a summit with Capa Barsavi, head of Camorr's underworld. It is also revealed that the Gray King employs a Bondsmage, one of only several hundred men in the world who practice magic (as they kill all competitors).

Despite reassurances that the Bondsmage's magic will protect him, Locke is captured during the summit and thrown into the harbor. Assuming that his enemy is dead, Barsavi invites the entire underworld to a celebration on his headquarters, a dry-docked ship. During this time, Barsavi's two deadliest bodyguards (who are actually the Gray King's sisters) kill him and his most trusted advisors. The Gray King enters and declares that he intends to be the new head of the underworld.

Locke escapes to find the Bastards' home ransacked and the twins killed. One of the Gray King's men is waiting for them and ends up killing Bug. Locke and Jean begin planning vengeance. Down at the docks, Jean kills the Gray King's sisters, while Locke tries to continue the confidence game with what few resources he still has. Unfortunately, the Salvaras have been tipped off to Locke's scam; they invite him to the nobility's party for the city's most important holiday, where he is tranquilized by the city's spymaster. Escaping to a hideout, Locke finds that the Bondsmage is waiting for him; he and Jean defeat him and torture the Gray King's secrets out of him, before letting him go with his tongue and fingers removed.

The Gray King's merchant family was killed during the brokering of the Secret Peace, giving him an undying hatred for Capa Barsavi and the nobility. He plans to get revenge by disguising himself as a nobleman and bringing four sculptures full of wraithstone (a mineral that induces complete permanent passivity) as a gift to the celebration. They will explode at nightfall. Returning to the party, Locke manages to convince the assemblied nobles that he has good intentions (though not before being beaten severely) and then goes after the Gray King himself. In one-on-one combat aboard the Gray King's ship, Locke beats him by, for a split second, convincing him that Jean was sneaking up behind him. The novel ends with Jean and Locke aboard a ship setting off for a new life.

Foreign Editions


Movie Adaptation

Warner Brothers bought the film rights soon after the book's release. The brothers Kevin and Dan Hageman have been hired by Warner Bros. to write the screenplay. Michael De Luca ("Zathura") and Julie Yorn ("The Exorcism of Emily Rose") will produce.

Critical reception

The reception has been generally positive (though one prominent genre website, Strange Horizons, criticized the book [1].)

Reviews

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