The Lies of Locke Lamora

infobox Book |
name = The Lies of Locke Lamora
title_orig =
translator =


author = Scott Lynch
cover_artist =
country = United States
language = English
genre = Fantasy, Novel
publisher = Gollancz (UK); Bantam Doubleday Dell (USA)
release_date = June 27, 2006
media_type = Print - Hardback & Paperback
pages = 512 pp (US hardback edition)
isbn = ISBN 0-553-80467-7 (US hardback edition)
preceded_by =
followed_by = Red 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 Grey 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

#"The Lies of Locke Lamora" (June 2006)
#"Red Seas Under Red Skies" (July 2007)
#"The Republic of Thieves" (February 2009)
#"The Thorn of Emberlain" (forthcoming)
#"The Ministry of Necessity" (forthcoming)
#"The Mage and the Master Spy" (forthcoming)
#"Inherit the Night" (forthcoming)

Plot summary (spoiler)

After a devastating plague, a man known as the Thiefmaker pays off the city guard to allow him to take in thirty newly-orphaned individuals, whom he plans to train as thieves. One orphan sneaks into the group of paid children, "thirty-one of thirty". The Thiefmaker soon discovers that this one child, Locke Lamora, is extremely clever but not "circumspect," and is a liability due to his lack of foresight or restraint. The Thiefmaker decides to sell Locke to Chains, a priest of the Nameless Thirteenth god, the Crooked Warden who protects thieves. Chains 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 nobility that keeps the nobility safe from theft). Over time, Locke becomes known as the Thorn of Camorr, an identity which is never linked to Locke, who maintains the pretense of being a perfectly ordinary sneak thief.

In time, Locke becomes "garrista" (leader) 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 Don Lorenzo 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 skills at deception, he will force him to play the part of the Gray King during a meeting with Capa Barsavi, head of Camorr's underworld. It is also revealed that the Gray King employs a Bondsmage, a member of an exclusive guild of sorcerers who are infamous for both the ridiculous fees required to acquire their services and the wrath they collectively bring down on any person or group that kills one of their members.

Despite reassurances that the Bondsmage's magic will protect him, things go very wrong during the summit meeting. While the Bondsmage's sorcery ensures that Locke can be neither cut nor pierced, he can still be bruised. Unable to defend himself adequately, he is wrestled to the ground and captured. After a brutal and lengthy beating he is sealed in a funeral cask filled with horse urine 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 (actually the Gray King's sisters) kill Barsavi, his entire family, and his most trusted advisers. The Gray King takes the name "Capa Raza" and declares himself 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 arrives and kills Bug before he is killed by Locke and Jean Tannen. Locke swears revenge. 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 possesses. Unfortunately, the Salvaras have been tipped off to Locke's scam; they invite him to the nobility's party on the city's most important holiday, where he is tranquilized by the city's spymaster. Escaping to one of his hideouts, Locke finds the Bondsmage waiting for him, already having incapacitated Jean. By exploiting the bondsmage's arrogance and psychic link with his scorpion-hawk familiar, Locke and Jean barely manage to knock him unconscious. They proceed to torture the Gray King's secrets out of him. Knowing that the Guild of Bondsmagi will surely slay anyone who dares to kill one of its members, they let the Bondsmage leave alive, but without his fingers and tongue- therefore helpless.

From the Bondsmage, we learn that the Gray King's merchant family was killed during the brokering of the Secret Peace, giving him a consuming hatred for Capa Barsavi and the nobility. His revenge on Barsavi complete, he has only to exact vengeance upon the nobility. For this, his Bondsmage plants four sculptures full of wraithstone (a mineral that induces complete permanent passivity) as a gift to the celebration -set to explode at nightfall. Returning to the party, Locke manages to convince the assembled nobles that he has good intentions (though not before being beaten severely) and then goes after the Gray King himself. In single combat aboard the Gray King's ship, Locke narrowly defeats the Gray King by 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

* [http://www.boekerij.nl/db_index2.htm?$db_titel.asp?9022544095 "De Leugens van Locke Lamora"] Dutch Edition, 2006.
* [http://www.alianzaeditorial.es/ciencia-ficcion/ "Las Mentiras de Locke Lamora"] Spanish Edition, October, 2006.
* [http://www.bragelonne.fr/livre.php?num_isbn=9782352940272 "Les Mensonges de Locke Lamora"] French Edition, February, 2007.
* [http://www.hayakawa-online.co.jp/product/books/119530.html "ロック・ラモーラの優雅なたくらみ"] Japanese Edition, June, 2007.
* [http://mag.com.pl/ksiazka_detale.php?id=255 "Kłamstwa Locke'a Lamory"] Polish Edition, October, 2007.

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.

* [http://www.variety.com/article/VR1117946777?categoryid=1238&cs=1 Hagemans play it as it 'Lies': Brothers will adapt Lynch fantasy epic] Variety.com, 13 July, 2006.

Critical reception

The reception has been generally positive (though one prominent genre website, Strange Horizons, criticized the book [http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2006/06/the_lies_.shtml] .)

* [http://illusoryreality.blogspot.com/2006/07/hype-reviews-and-lies-of-locke-lamora.html This link collects reactions to the Strange Horizon review by C.M. Morrison] and the debate that followed it. 4 July, 2006.

* [http://vectoreditors.wordpress.com/2006/06/30/the-links-of-locke-lamora/ This link also traces the debate.]

External links

* [http://www.scottlynch.us/index.html Scott Lynch's website]
* [http://www.camorr.com/ Active Fansite & Archive of Literature]
* [http://pen-paper.net/rpgdb.php?op=showcreator&creatorid=7122 Pen and Paper listing]
* [http://www.fantasybookspot.com/node/1199 Interview with Scott Lynch] conducted by Jay Tomio for Fantasybookspot.com 5/2006.
* [http://www.thebookseller.com/?pid=2&did=19251 Interview with Scott Lynch] by Alison Bone for The Bookseller, 10 April, 2006.
* [http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2006/06/interview-with-scott-lynch.html Interview with Scott Lynch] by Pat's Fantasy Hotlist, 21 June, 2006.
* [http://www.elbakin.net/fantasy/news/Scott-Lynch-repond-a-nos-questions2 Interview with Scott Lynch] by Elbakin.net, 7 August, 2006.
* [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uDlvTFh9IiQ Video Interview with Scott Lynch] on YouTube, 21 July 2006.

Reviews

* [http://www.kvltsite.com/books/books/the-lies-of-locke-lamora-by-scott-lynch.html Review by Jayaprakash] on kvltsite.com August 2007
* [http://www.strangehorizons.com/reviews/2006/06/the_lies_.shtml Review by C.M. Morrison] Strange Horizon, 26 June, 2006.
* [http://www.fantasybookspot.com/?q=node/view/1197 Review by Jay Tomio] for Fantasybookspot.com May 2006
* [http://www.sfrevu.com/Review-id.php?id=3582 Review by John Berlyne] SFRevu, June 2006.
* [http://www.sfsite.com/09a/ll231.htm Review by Sherwood Smith] The SF Site, 2006.
* [http://fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com/2006/05/lies-of-locke-lamora.html Review by Pat's Fantasy Hotlist] 29 May, 2006.
* [http://www.concatenation.org/frev/liesoflocke.html Review by Sue Griffiths] Fiction Reviews, 2006.
* [http://www.tcdailyplanet.net/node/2252 Review by Dylan Skerbitz] Twin Cities Daily Planet, 5 September, 2006.
* [http://speculativereviews.blogspot.com/2006/07/lies-of-locke-lamora-by-scott-lynch.html Review by Williams Lexner] Reviews of Speculative Fiction for the Fan and Collector, 2 July, 2006.
* [http://www.arwz.com/zinereviewVIO36.html Review by Violet Kane] Alternative Reality Webzine, 2006.
* [http://ohilya.livejournal.com/50374.html#cutid1 Review by Ilya Popov] 6 February, 2006.
* [http://www.computercrowsnest.com/articles/books/2006/nz10421.php Review by Martin Jenner] August 1st, 2006 Computercrowsnest.com