Reviews

I’ve heard rave reviews about The Gentleman Bastard Sequence for years. Having given up on Scott Lynch ever finishing the series, I decided to just pick it up now. Having spent the last year reading the entirety of Brandon Sanderson’s Cosmere universe, I was pretty accustomed to his writing style, so Lynch’s prose was pretty jarring for me. I did get used to it & it definitely fit the overall ambiance of the novel, but I can’t say I loved it. I actually spent the first quarter of the book trying to figure out what all the fuss was about. It didn’t seem to be anything special and, if I’m being honest, it seemed pretty pretentious & like it was trying too hard to be edgy. But at some point (and I’m not really sure what point it was), it just clicked. I really just fell in love with this book & every protagonist in it. I had to get in the habit of dropping my jaw every hundred pages or so. It could possibly have my favorite antagonist I’ve ever read before as well. Whenever our “heroes” were in the presence of either the BBEG or his hireling, I felt real danger & was prepared to witness a death. The gruesomeness led to realness for me. For most of the book, I couldn’t decide if I preferred the flashbacks or the main story. By the end, however, I felt like the flashbacks should’ve been finished in part 3. They felt very much in the way of the pacing in the final act, despite some very helpful worldbuilding. It honestly didn’t feel like fantasy with the minimal use of magic, but it did in the worldbuilding. Camorr felt so real to me that I would swear to you I’ve spent the last month living there. In conclusion, The Lies of Locke Lamora isn’t without flaws, but it’s the easiest five star read for me since Words of Radiance. I plan to jump into boom two very soon!