Archive for June 13th, 2009
Lisztomania
annnnddd…I’m spent
Finally, the most recent in my backlog of read books:
The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch
Ohh…give me a good fantasy with great characters and an intreguing plot 
full of twists and turns and I will owe you cookies for life.
I suppose that means I should bake myself some cookies, since I found this book in the bargians when I was working at JB and thought it looked interesting.
Apparently, judging a book by its cover is not always a futile act. The Lies of Locke Lamora WAS interesting. Hurray for me! It is also, much to my annoyance, the first in yet ANOTHER series in which I have only the first book. I really need to start checking before I start reading. *sigh*
But less about my issues, more about the book!
If you share my love of slightly steampunk fantasy, and charming con artist criminals with more tricks up their sleeves than the number of fleas on a shipyard rat and more brains than some other appropriate metaphor for ‘a whole lot’, then you should absitively read the Lies of Locke Lamora.
In a world resembling but not identical to our own, in the port city of Camor, Locke Lamora was already an orphan street urchin pickpocket when a disease tore through the neighborhood he lived in. When the children who lost their parents to the sickness were rounded up and picked through by a local thief-teacher, he decided that going along might suit him well. HOWEVER, he is too clever for his own good with too little foresight into the full range of concequences for his actions, and the man who bought him sells him to an old priest who runs a small group of young thieves to be more than petty larconists. Locke learns (a little) humility and (some) caution and by the time he reaches adulthood he is the undisputed leader of The Gentleman Bastards, tiny group of criminals whom are believed by pretty much everyone to be avarage small-time hoods. Of course, they are actually the most talented and audacious con-artists that Camor has ever seen or likely will again.
However, something is rotton in Denmark.
Camor, rather.
Someone is killing the leaders of the city’s gangs in a specific and bloody manner. Capa Barsavi, the boss of the city’s underworld is starting to get a little worried. Stuff is afoot. And, smack in the middle of a huge score, Locke does NOT need the waters to get stirred up. Unfortunately, the Gentleman Bastards are about to get a LOT more involved than he would like.
I loved this book. I didn’t want to put it down. The world was interesting, and not revealed all at once, but discovered bit at a time as I walked through the city with our unlikely hero. The book is set in a time and place most resembling…perhaps early Victorian England? However, there discrepancies between Locke’s world and ours. Alchemy in its own right and in tandem with gardening of all things is a part of daily life. Before people lived there, Camor was built by other beings, and who- or whatever lived there before left behind a city made of a curious glass of strange properties–apparent indestructability being but one. It is an interesting world full of complex facets.
The characters themselves are complex and interesting–even the secondary characters have dimension and underlying motives. The main characters are awesome. And Locke is remarkable. Wits as sharp as shark’s teeth, a heart made at least partially of gold (or a gold alloy if nothing else), a fierce loyalty to those he cares about, an ounce or two of pure madness and an astounding ability to think on his feet–there were one or two schemes he pulled off (and out of his butt, at that) that had me staring at the pages in astonishment, so complex and machivailian they were.
And he has a great name.
He also has weaknesses, however, which made him a stronger character by far. He could sell a bridge to his own mother (if she were alive) but there are things he isn’t good at.
Now I just have to get my hands on the next book…and then wait paitently for the next ones after that…*sigh*
In conclusion, squee-worthy book, wonderfully fantastic story–I didn’t want it to end and I highly recommend it.
The Time-traveler’s wife
The Time Traveler’s Wife by Audrey Niffenegger came heavily recommended from many different directions. I don’t think I ever heard anything but good things about it.
Upon reading it, I must concur with the opinions of those who went before me.
If you haven’t read The Time Traveler’s Wife, you should.
TTTW is the story of a man perpetually unstuck in time. His time travel is entirely involuntary, and apparently caused by a genetic anomaly in his DNA. He can not prevent himself from popping out of his current time nor 
can he control where he goes, though physical or psychological stress most often precipitate the travel. Only his organic components travel, so where ever he ends up he does so naked and vulnerable. He travels along his own life line, usually into the past but occasionally into the future, finding himself in places and around people that hold significance for him.
As the title might imply, this book is not only Henry, the traveler, but also of the woman he loves. He first meets Claire when he is 28 and she is 20. She first meets him when she is 6 and he 36. By the time he meets her, she has known him for most of her life.
This is the story of two people who love each other without reservation, about the life they build, and about how Henry’s inability to stay in his own time both brings them closer and pushes them apart, told from the alternating viewpoints Henry and Claire as they find each other, encounter obstacles and work to overcome them.
As with most adult general fiction, The Time Traveler’s Wife is not a particularly cheery book…but it is undeniably a beautiful one that I highly recommend.
*oh, and I guess they are making a movie from the book that comes out in August.
