(no subject)
instarec: "The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch.
This was recced in a magazine I read and it really deserved it. It's about Locke Lamora, a thief in a city in the fine fantasy tradition of cunning thieves in Venetian mercantile cities, only smarter, well written, occasionally hideously gory, frequently funny. Gripping. For the first time in a while I HAD to finish it. Lynch isn't afraid to pull his punches. There are moments of truly horrible gore but they're leavened by a lot of stuff that's much more pleasant to read. The city is well and completely imagined.
The blurbs compare it variously with Mission: Impossible, Ocean's 11, Robin Hood and POTC. However, I scorn these references as not genre enough. So. Remember Silk from The Belgariad? (Come on. I know you do. Yeah, you've read those books. Yes, you have.) Well, this book is what a whole book about Silk would be like, if the Eddings' could write well, could write originally, weren't afraid to be graphically nasty, and had overactive imaginations. Also, a plot that I haven't read five thousand fucking times.
Caveat: plenty of bad language, very graphic violence. I wouldn't give it to a kid I wasn't related to and I would hesitate to recommend it to people who are uncomfortable with creatively horrifying torture. There's not a huge amount of it but it's pretty, um.
Race: pretty standard fantasy, ie, as far as I can tell there are no separate races. So either they're all white, or they're all of different ethnicities that just aren't touched on. But I would swing more closely to all white if I had to pick, so, would criticise it from that standpoint.
Gender: better treatment of genders, in general, but in specifics, the main characters are overwhelmingly male. Important background characters are split equally and the women have plenty of agency and power, but, again, none of the protagonists are women and the antagonists are chiefly male also. One woman is referred to repeatedly by all the protagonists but never appears onscreen, which was (I presume deliberately) very tantalising. Also, there are a lot of whores and none of them are men; on the other hand, they're a fairly realistic staple of the sword-and-sorcery world's underbelly, since they're also a staple of the real world's underbelly. He takes some care to give them a backstory which gives them plenty of power of their own, too. There's this short chapter called "The Daughters of Camorr" which explains how the prostitutes... um, basically unionized against the mob. The whole thing is an argument for not fucking with the women. Except, um, it kind of has undertones of conflating all women with whores, which I was a little uncomfortable with. So, in conclusion: it's better than lots and lots of fantasy out there, but I would still be more comfortable with women in leading roles. Anyway, all of that aside, I really enjoyed in and would thoroughly recommend it to a fairly significant proportion of y'all.
ETA: "The Lies of Locke Lamora" stands on its own pretty well, however, there is a sequel (this month! \o/) which I am pretty excited for. HOWEVER, checking out his website, I am forced to note that Lynch has planned out in at least minor detail a full seven books. Now, do with this information what you will: I plan to keep trusting him for awhile yet. After all, Tamora Pierce manages to write to her very advanced schedule (or she has for the last five or six years that I've been following it on her website, anyway).
This was recced in a magazine I read and it really deserved it. It's about Locke Lamora, a thief in a city in the fine fantasy tradition of cunning thieves in Venetian mercantile cities, only smarter, well written, occasionally hideously gory, frequently funny. Gripping. For the first time in a while I HAD to finish it. Lynch isn't afraid to pull his punches. There are moments of truly horrible gore but they're leavened by a lot of stuff that's much more pleasant to read. The city is well and completely imagined.
The blurbs compare it variously with Mission: Impossible, Ocean's 11, Robin Hood and POTC. However, I scorn these references as not genre enough. So. Remember Silk from The Belgariad? (Come on. I know you do. Yeah, you've read those books. Yes, you have.) Well, this book is what a whole book about Silk would be like, if the Eddings' could write well, could write originally, weren't afraid to be graphically nasty, and had overactive imaginations. Also, a plot that I haven't read five thousand fucking times.
Caveat: plenty of bad language, very graphic violence. I wouldn't give it to a kid I wasn't related to and I would hesitate to recommend it to people who are uncomfortable with creatively horrifying torture. There's not a huge amount of it but it's pretty, um.
Race: pretty standard fantasy, ie, as far as I can tell there are no separate races. So either they're all white, or they're all of different ethnicities that just aren't touched on. But I would swing more closely to all white if I had to pick, so, would criticise it from that standpoint.
Gender: better treatment of genders, in general, but in specifics, the main characters are overwhelmingly male. Important background characters are split equally and the women have plenty of agency and power, but, again, none of the protagonists are women and the antagonists are chiefly male also. One woman is referred to repeatedly by all the protagonists but never appears onscreen, which was (I presume deliberately) very tantalising. Also, there are a lot of whores and none of them are men; on the other hand, they're a fairly realistic staple of the sword-and-sorcery world's underbelly, since they're also a staple of the real world's underbelly. He takes some care to give them a backstory which gives them plenty of power of their own, too. There's this short chapter called "The Daughters of Camorr" which explains how the prostitutes... um, basically unionized against the mob. The whole thing is an argument for not fucking with the women. Except, um, it kind of has undertones of conflating all women with whores, which I was a little uncomfortable with. So, in conclusion: it's better than lots and lots of fantasy out there, but I would still be more comfortable with women in leading roles. Anyway, all of that aside, I really enjoyed in and would thoroughly recommend it to a fairly significant proportion of y'all.
ETA: "The Lies of Locke Lamora" stands on its own pretty well, however, there is a sequel (this month! \o/) which I am pretty excited for. HOWEVER, checking out his website, I am forced to note that Lynch has planned out in at least minor detail a full seven books. Now, do with this information what you will: I plan to keep trusting him for awhile yet. After all, Tamora Pierce manages to write to her very advanced schedule (or she has for the last five or six years that I've been following it on her website, anyway).