[pat5150]

Hi guys!

Well, this book is probably the most anticipated debut in a very long time. Here's your chance to get your hands on a free copy of the US Bantam edition. Check the blog for all the details.

Scott Lynch is working on his own website, and he's supposed to let me know when things are up and running. If there are sample chapters and a synopsis, I'll definitely let you all know. This book will undoubtedly make a lot of noise this summer! I've got the ARC awaiting my attention, and I can't wait to sink my teeth into it!

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

[RodeoRanch]

I'm in!

[pat5150]

Good interview, Jay!

I have one scheduled with Scott, probably next week!

Cheers,

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

[Werthead]

Nice! I picked up a copy of Lies today in WH Smith. They had quite a big stand of them, so obviously VG are giving this one a bit of a push. The cover bylines are by reasonably well-known authors as well: George RR Martin, Richard Morgan, Hal Duncan, Matt Stover, Sarah Ash and Kate Elliott. Impressive!

Even better, I also finished off Flashman today (great book), so I can move straight on to Lies.

[Murrin]

Yeah, you can tell they're putting a lot behind this. Borders today had something like twenty copies around the store. Waiting to make sure I've lost the competitions for it before I buy a copy, though.

[drosdelnoch]

Thought that I'd also better post this :
Scott Lynch, author of The Lies of Locke Lamora, is jetting over to the UK next month for his first trip to our shores, in order to promote his rather superb debut novel.

After being discovered by UK publisher Gollancz, The Lies of Locke Lamora was sold to Bantam in the US in a major six-figure deal and rights have also been snapped up in Germany, France, Holland and Russia.

Word-of-mouth has already attracted the interest of Hollywood movie producers and news of the Tinseltown buzz surrounding this astonishing debut was also reported in US Trade magazine Publishers Weekly. Authors, reviewers and booksellers are queuing up to heap praise on this superb debut novel.

No less a fantasy genre luminary than George R.R. Martin was one of the aforementioned praise-heapers: "This is a fresh, original, and engrossing tale by a bright new voice in the fantasy genre." he said.

"Locke Lamora makes for an engaging rogue, and Camorr is a fascinating and gorgeously realized setting, a city to rival Lankhmar, Amber, and Viriconium. I look forward to returning there for many more visits."

And now, if you live far enough south, you've got a chance to meet Scott in person and get first edition signed of the most talked about fantasy debut of the year – so mark the following dates and get yourself along to say hello:

Saturday, June 3 - 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Forbidden Planet, Shaftesbury Avenue, London
Wednesday, June 7 - 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Ottakar's, 11-17 Castle Street, Norwich
Wednesday, June 7 - 7 p.m. at Ottakar's, High Street, Lincoln (tickets for this event cost £1 from the store)
Thursday, June 8 - 1 p.m. to 2 p.m. at Forbidden Planet, Bristol
As always, don't forget to check with the venue before setting off for the event, in case of last-minute alterations and/or cancellations.

[Werthead]

Working on Saturday and the Wednesday when he's in London and Norwich. Damnit!

The opening of the book was great fun, especially

Spoiler

when LL is nearly responsible for burning down the Narrows.

Bodes well for the rest of the book.

[Werthead]

About 100 pages into it now and it is excellent. The city of Camorr is painted incredibly vividly, the characters practically leap off the page and the story is engrossing. Lamora is from the Cugel (Jack Vance) or Tyrion/Theon (GRRM) school of character where you're not sure if you should be cheering them or slapping them around for being overtly smug.

I also note Dreamwatch gave it a very good review, 9 out of 10 and compared its impact with that of Perdido Street Station. Possibly hyperbolic (I've never read PSS, so not sure about that as a comparison), but if it gets more people reading the book, all the better.

[Lister of Smeg]

I bought this book on Wednesday and finished it on Friday. I thought it was a really good book, which interesting characters and a great setting. I felt the ending was a bit of a letdown, but apart from that it was great.

I'm wondering how he's going to turn it into a series, though ...

[pat5150]

Hey RodeoRanch!

Check your email, dude! You've won the book! You see, sooner or later you were bound to get lucky!

Cheers,

Patrick
www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

[Karsa Orlong]

Hey Congrats to RodeoRanch

Enjoy it!

[Werthead]

My review:

That The Lies of Locke Lamora is a debut novel is difficult to believe. That it was written by someone younger than I am is even more so. That it not only meets but exceeds the hype that has been built up around it is damn-nigh impossible to believe, yet it is so. In the city-state of Camorr the Secret Peace exists between the criminals and the rulers, a decades-long pact between the Capa and the Duke that keeps the merchants and nobles' wares and riches safe. The only problem is that two people are screwing with the Pact, one a smooth conman and his band of helpers, the other a shadowy killer striking from the shadows without warning. The city is about to be plunged into a war in the shadows as these factions collide.

The story is told skillfully and economically. Lynch knows how to show, not tell. The story moves with a rattling, page-turning pace where exposition is kept to a minimum. As the 'current' storyline moves forward, Lynch gives us frequent flashbacks to the formative years of the titular Locke Lamora, showing his rise from an overconfident scoundrel to a skilled conman and demonstrating how the bonds of true friendship are forged between Lamora and his band of knaves, the Gentlemen Bastards. Amongst this he also brings to life his prized creation, the city of Camorr itself, a traditional fantasyscape of guards, merchants and peasents eking a life in hovels under the watchful eye of the aristocracy, but with an element of the strange introduced as all are dwelling in a city forged thousands of years ago by an inscrutable alien race whose disappearance remains troubling. With its many islands and districts, temples and guilds shadowed by towering glass monoliths, Camorr is as much a character as Locke Lamora himself, a city that immediately joins Ankh-Morpork, Lankhamar and Viriconium as a perfect setting for stories of the fantastical.

Lynch is also a master alchemist of taking his influences and whipping them into something fresh and exciting. He has George RR Martin's skill are creating great characters and then unexpectedly killing them, mixed with early Raymond Feist's sheer gleeful storytelling and occasional eye for detail (the merchant houses sequences seem heavily inspired by the trading house chapters in Feist's Rise of a Merchant Prince). The story shifts tones with ease, moving from its early chapters of setting up cons and marks (feeling oddly reminiscent of the British TV series Hustle) to a much darker place, yet always with a certain enjoyable wit about it. Lynch knows how to make the reader laugh, even if the humour turns from light amusement to midnight-black as the story progresses.

This is the opening volume of a seven-novel sequence, yet it is virtually entirely self-contained, with only the closing few pages giving us a sense of where the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies (due in January 2007), will take the story next. I for one cannot wait. 5/5

[Slick Mongoose]

Just adding my voice to the chorus. This book is great. Witty, moving, and captivating from first to last.

[Valgard]

Yeah I agree loved it to thought it was a brilliant book. Highly amusing captivating really great fun to read would recommend it to any one.

[werewolfv2]

yeah... me three... book rocks!

[Dagger]

I just bought a copy for myself and one as a birthday gift for a friend. Scott's going to be in uptown Minneapolis for a signing next week and I hope to get both signed then. Go me!