Fantasy, as a genre, gets a bad rap.
Partially because for too many years, the outward face of the fanbase weren’t so good at the public relations, or even, let’s face it, at private ones.
Partially because it requires a particular kind of heavily elastic and innocently enthusiastic imagination that’s dedicated to the casual illustration of new and occasionally bizarre concepts.
But also because all too frequently, it’s written by someone who doesn’t understand how to cater to the reading habits of anyone who doesn’t fit the exact bill of the reader described in the first two parts. They don’t realise that contrary to the perception within the genre that Fantasy is some of the most imaginative writing about, that it’s incredibly easy to write an unimaginative Fantasy novel. There are standards in Fantasy. Obvious stereotypes. Hackism. The truth is that there’s a huge amount of truly, truly mediocre writing in Fantasy, stuff that doesn’t bother departing in any way from the staple schlock storylines of lone boy with a great destiny, the misunderstood assassin fighting for good, the powerful wizard learning his craft and fighting the ancient evil. It uses supremely flowery language such as “Magistirium” stupid hero names like “Torrin” or made up places such as “Tath ‘Garnalak” that immediately cause a viscerally negative reaction in the minds of the majority of new readers who look at this kind of thing as just being plain silly.
And in this, The Lies of Locke Lamora is no different. It’s littered with references to standardly geeky sounding “Iron Seas” and “Bondsmages”. It’s set in a huge pseudo-Venetian ducal state where magic and myth are a fact of life. It’s full of the same kind of evil priests, huge villains, overly magical beasts and crazy spells that are the bread and butter of the low to middling fantasy “epic”. The sad thing is that in a lot of ways, it becomes very difficult to explain to people how actually, it is different. Because in Locke Lamora, they’re excellently woven into the fabric of the world, no more interesting than the scent of mud and blood and desperate poverty that permeates the world. This is because because Scott Lynch decided to do something clever. He pegged an unreal world on a real story, which is something JK Rowling excelled at. He did it by going cross genre, by taking a gritty, real concept and putting it in a Fantastic setting.
He set a heist film in a fantasy world and with it he STOLE MY HEART.
So, Locke Lamora is basically a really awesome meeting of really awesome standards. You have the cast of rogues, each a specialised, capable scoundrel with morals learned on the street. You have a seemingly implacable mark, a rube who’s seems to be born to be taken advantage of. You gave a caper, a scheme, a con. And on most Heist stories that would be it, you’d have a set-up, a formula and a pay-off. And that’s where it gets interesting, because Lynch takes it beyond that, he takes it deep into a world of evil crime bosses in an underground world of deceit and sudden bloody death, of magic and deception and thievery most horrid. It’s funny, when you read or watch a standard heist film, the really attractive element of it is the fact that it constantly illustrates the fact that no matter how much money a thief has, he’s always looking for more or jealously guarding what he has. It keeps it real, it keeps it genuine, you feel their avarice and the cut-throat nature of their intent.
But when you put that reality into a world where the thief can utilise hard hitting black-magical devices to achieve his nefariously awesome goals, has to spend a lifetime learning to speak like a Venetian noble to pass muster, is a priest in a temple of the black God of Direst Thievery, has to be adept with several kinds of stilletto to survive and at the same time as that, has a basic avarice that seems familiar from standards like Ocean’s Eleven, you’re mixing two different worlds in a mutually complimentary way that I’m surprised hasn’t been done before. It’s exactly the kind of thing that Hollywood adores and as such, it’s no surprise that Lynch has already got a development deal
for the book in the works.
All in all, Lamora lives in a convincing world of lies and I shall happily be adding it to my regular rotation.
