Falling somewhat behind, but I'm still participating in this...
Legolas Send a noteboard - 02/07/2013 10:50:27 PM
View original postI do remember that the second chapter was essentially a large metaphor for what Locke and his gang are doing. I liked the second chapter more than the first. The first was an introduction to the gang as adults and the start of their Salvarra game. There was nothing wrong with it, but the time-hopping, going back and forth between the present and the immediate past even outside of the interludes, took a little getting used to at first, and at the end of the day, it's still an introduction.
Very much an introduction, yeah. Probably necessary to set up the rest of the book, though, and it's amusing enough.
View original postBut in that second chapter we get Locke at his finest fakery, completely slipping into the confidences of the Salvarras. While in the background, people fight and are devoured by various dangerous sea creatures. It's a metaphor for what will happen to Locke and his gang if they slip up, if they're careless, which makes you worry whether or not Locke has fully grown up from being the boy who stole too much.
Yeah, you can hardly call it subtle as metaphors go... but it's a good reminder of a point made earlier in the prologue, about how utterly ruthless the Camorran establishment is. Have to say I liked the floating gardens, although I'm having a hard time imagining how the kind of vessel I pictured could possibly fit into the improvised floating amphitheater setting mentioned.
View original postI like the confidence game element of this book. It's something you don't see in fantasy very often, or at least I haven't, but it's a lot of fun. This book actually came out fairly close to Brandon Sanderson's first Mistborn novel, which featured a heist, something else you don't see much in fantasy. Of course, Sanderson never really focused on his heist, and the book ended up being about something else. But Lynch gives us the confidence game and the wonderful abilities of the Gentleman Bastards all the way in. I appreciate it for that. The book really is something different, rather than being a cover for something else. (The something else that Mistborn turned into, especially over the full trilogy, is really very good, but it's not what it started out pretending to be.)
I still haven't read any of the later novels in Lynch's series - does it stay that way, or is there more of a traditional epic fantasy plot later on?
View original postI remember thinking this time around that it was just a touch unrealistic that the Don would fall so quickly and fully for Locke's game. But I have to remember that the rich of Camorr are completely unused to being the targets of thieves. The city is under the Secret Peace, and the wealthy are supposed to be untouchable. Which makes it a lot of fun that Locke and his company come along and touch them, just for the fun of it. I love that they have a huge vault full of the money they've stolen, and they don't even do anything with it. They just like to run daring plans and get away with it.
I was struck by the amount of money that was spent on that wine they offer him (the real one, that is). If you put a few of the earlier statements about money in Camorr together, you realize that it's a staggering amount they spent on that. One would think that, assuming this is their biggest con game yet, a rather large part of their earlier winnings must have gone into the preparations of this one. Even in con games, it seems to require wealth to obtain more wealth...
View original postBut of course, I think Lynch also realized that Salvarra's complete gullibility was just a little hard to swallow, so he had Locke himself lampshade it in the next chapter, which we'll get to shortly.
Haven't gotten around to that yet.
View original postI liked the bit with the Austershalin brandy, especially with the fake cask of the unaged stuff. You really get a sense of what an enormous temptation this is for the Salvarras. Which of course is why they should have been more careful of it. And perhaps they would have been, given just a little more time to get into things, which is why Locke's upcoming internal lampshading ends up being so brilliant.
It's nice, but it kind of pushes credibility for me, to blatantly take that aspect of modern society and transplant it into a medieval setting just like that. I'm not sure that it makes economic sense for an otherwise pre-modern society to have the whole "bottles of that brand of wine from that year are worth millions" thing. For one thing, they wouldn't have the levels of standardization required to ensure the constant quality you need to build a brand that strong.
Yes, I know, I criticize odd things. 
Reread: The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
- 03/06/2013 10:07:06 AM
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The Prologue
- 03/06/2013 10:08:39 AM
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It had been years and years since I'd read this, so I don't remember most of the plot...
- 05/06/2013 10:17:21 PM
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Re: It had been years and years since I'd read this, so I don't remember most of the plot...
- 10/06/2013 03:35:48 PM
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Chapters One and Two.
- 10/06/2013 03:36:57 PM
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I was waiting for someone else to go first.
- 13/06/2013 03:39:31 PM
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What do you mean by "lampshading"?
- 18/06/2013 02:52:46 PM
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Falling somewhat behind, but I'm still participating in this...
- 02/07/2013 10:50:27 PM
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Re: Falling somewhat behind, but I'm still participating in this...
- 03/07/2013 05:21:34 AM
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Not as entranced as I thought I would be.
- 18/06/2013 02:47:24 PM
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Chapters 3 and 4.
- 18/06/2013 02:53:34 PM
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Initial thought:
- 18/06/2013 02:55:52 PM
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This is another one with messed up timelines.
- 24/06/2013 04:47:16 PM
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Chapters 5 and 6. *NM*
- 25/06/2013 05:06:10 PM
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Chapters 7 and 8.
- 10/07/2013 06:22:02 PM
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I finally grabbed my book off the shelf so I could see what these chapters were.
- 16/07/2013 03:45:50 PM
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I'll come back to actually reply, but I just wanted to let you know that I've read this. *NM*
- 24/07/2013 06:35:54 PM
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I think this is where I became quite impressed with Lynch's plotting.
- 30/07/2013 02:20:31 PM
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Chapters 9 and 10. *NM*
- 10/07/2013 06:22:22 PM
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Chapters 11 and 12. *NM*
- 24/07/2013 06:34:25 PM
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Chapters 13 and 14. *NM*
- 24/07/2013 06:34:41 PM
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These are very satisfying chapters, on the whole.
- 30/07/2013 03:11:28 PM
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Locke's scheme is probably one of my two favourite sequences in the book.
- 02/08/2013 11:13:40 PM
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Those interludes suddenly started to remind me very strongly of Lost.
- 14/08/2013 09:01:04 PM
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Chapters 15 and 16 and the epilogue. *NM*
- 30/07/2013 02:09:39 PM
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Disappointing, on the whole, I felt.
- 14/08/2013 09:25:31 PM
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