The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch

Being sick has very few benefits, especially since usually when I'm sick I have a terrible headache. But today, I was just plain sick without the headache, which of course made me miserable and brought me nothing good...EXCEPT the opportunity to tackle something longer than 350 pages!

And so I took up The Lies of Locke Lamora, excitedly if a bit trepidatiously, to tackle 719 pages of awesomeness. May I never attempt to do that again (at least not when sick). This really is not a book meant to be read all at once. Which is not to say that you couldn't do it, but it's such a wonderful, long, pleasantly drawn-out story. Lynch utilizes regular flashbacks and a wonderfully intricate plot and deliciously cocky, adventurous, badass characters that truly made it a shame to devour this all in one day. Also I had to cough every few minutes, which kept breaking my reading trance, so I feel like it took me longer than it should have to read 700 pages.

I really respect Lynch for not compromising on the intricacy or length of the novel. Some might think he's being self-indulgent (yes, I did think that at first), but this is a book written for the avid reader--so you can read through at a brisk pace and not finish the story too fast. You really get to enjoy every minute of daring, dodging and devious escapades, the well-written banter and carefully crafted plot development without worrying that you're going to come to the end too soon.

And the plot is great! This is the Ocean's Eleven of fantasy novels. I'm reminded of a few similar works that I read as a teenager, which I unfortunately can't remember the names of right now, but this is like the grown-up version of those other books. It's the big, "black sheep" cousin to those other books. The basic plot revolves around Locke Lamora and his comrades, who are raised to be great thieves and con artists. While executing some particularly fine con artistry, they get swept up in someone else's massive revenge plot and have to put their skills to use not only to save themselves, but their city as well. That's me distilling over 700 pages down to two sentences.

The best thing about this book is…everything! Honestly, I can't think of anything I can criticize. Even the flashbacks, which I at first thought were a bit self-indulgent, were actually really relevant. And I thought I had the end pegged, but I totally got two parts of it wrong! (Well, three if you count to whom the Spider decided to pass on the duty of all that secret police work, but I think that's a minor detail.) The worst thing is that in reading the book all in a day, I didn't get to soak in as many of the intricate details and double-meanings as I would have liked. But this is going to become a permanent addition to my bookshelf, so I'll be reading it again. If you haven't read it yet, you should. You'll love it.

~10/10~