Lies of Locke Lamora

Thought it might appear if I'm a fan of the fantasy genre, in actuality I'm not. I'm tired of dragons. I'm tired of orcs. I'm tired of elves. I'm tired of authors who have rehashed Tolkien over and over. Nobody can best Tolkien's orcs, elves and dragons, that's my opinion.

I'd seen Lies of Locke Lamora sitting on the shelves for a while. I thought it was another medieval knight in long lost land saga. So I didn't bother picking it up. It took a long stretch of boredom and someone's recommendation to make me pick up the book.

It was a pleasant surprise. Firstly, it's very hard to write a book in which the hero is a villain, well, some sort of a villain, albeit of the Robin Hood type. Scott Lynch does the world building skillfully. The story revolves around a band of thieves and their capers, and their attempt at beating the Gray King, a shadowy figure who is intent on ruling the underworld of Camorr, the setting of this novel.

I didn't want this book to end, which is an extremely rare thing for me to say. So when the sequel Red Seas Under Red Skies came out I read that almost immediately hoping for more of the same. Unfortunately I was disappointed with Lynch's second effort which is less seamlessly put together and feels like a few scenarios hastily cobbled together.