a blog thinger.

“Gods, a real Karthani bondsmage. Looks like he won’t be recommending Camorr to his friends.”

you guys! the lies of locke lamoraread-along is over! this has been a lot of fun, and i super-appreciate all four awesome bloggers who ran it because lord knows i needed an excuse to throw this many words at the internet about my favorite book.

ashley and i had a much shorter thread than usual, but it did contain the thing i think we say every single time we read this book, which is that nothing feels as good as hearing locke ask the falconer what the fuck made him think locke was his real name. seriously, BEST FEELING EVER.

now, on to the questions! if my ramblings haven’t convinced you to read these books yet, i hope they do soon. i just feel bad for you, because you are missing out on some of the best fantasy out there and your life could therefore be improved quite a bit.

The Thorn of Camorr is renowned – he can beat anyone in a fight and he steals from the rich to give to the poor. Except of course that clearly most of the myths surrounding him are based on fantasy and not fact. Now that the book is finished how do you feel the man himself compares to his legend. Did you feel that he changed as the story progressed and, if so, how did this make you feel about him by the time the conclusion was reached?

i think that locke lives up to his legend as much as anyone lives up to the legends that surround them. those stories all started somewhere, and at the end of the day, locke is pretty fucking clever. i’m gonna disagree with ashley though- i think these events did change locke. before the gray king, he thought- with good reason- that he and the rest of the gentlemen bastards were untouchable. but between the gray king and the spider, i think his ego was taken down a notch or two. fortunately, as we learn in red seas, he does not let his newfound fallability cripple him too much, at least not after jean kicks his ass.

but he also learned an important lesson about where the game ranks in his life. i think before all of this, he would have ranked the cons right up there with the bastards. and while locke (and jean) DID appreciate their family and the time they had together, i don’t think they were really able to separate that from cons until they had to.

Scott Lynch certainly likes to give his leading ladies some entertaining and strong roles to play. We have the Berangia sisters – and I definitely wouldn’t like to get on the wrong side of them or their blades plus Dona Vorchenza who is the Spider and played a very cool character – even play acting to catch the Thorn. How did you feel about the treatment the sisters and Dona received at the hands of Jean and Locke – were you surprised, did it seem out of character at all or justified?

i know i am always harping on this one bit of wank, but hufiewhfe I LOVE THE LADIES IN THIS BOOK. the thief ladies and the noble ladies are all truly forces to be reckoned with. they are smart and funny and capable and have incredible lives that cannot be overshadowed by the men they know.

the sisters and the spider, in particular, are so amazing to me. the berangias were so young when their parents were killed, and not only did they train and devote themselves to this revenge, but they were undercover for EIGHT YEARS. undercover ascontrarequialla, which had to be so hard. they were beaten because of one small flaw- their professionalism- in a fight with someone who is incredibly well-trained.

and the spider very nearly won. the only thing that saved locke was his recklessness at jumping out the window, and if they hadn’t been in the middle of this mess with the gray king, there is a good chance he would have truly been caught. (i doubt he would have gone in all alone if he had had a gang to take with him.) and in the end, she really DID win. even if locke and jean had WANTED to stay in camorr at that point, they wouldn’t have been able to.

Towards the end we saw a little more of the magic and the history of the Bondsmagi. The magic, particularly with the use of true names, reminds me a little of old fashioned witchcraft or even voodoo. But, more than that I was fascinated after reading the interlude headed ‘The Throne in Ashes’ about the Elderglass and the Elders and why their structures were able to survive even against the full might of the Bondsmagi – do you have any theories about this do you think it’s based on one of our ancient civilisations or maybe similar to a myth?

i have no theories about the eldren, and don’t particularly care to formulate any at this time.

but the bondsmagi! oh, their magic is AWESOME. i love how old school it is, and the implied limits of it. can’t wait to see more of them.

We have previously discussed Scott Lynch’s use of description and whether it’s too much or just spot on. Having got into the last quarter of the book where the level of tension was seriously cranked up – did you still find, the breaks for interludes and the descriptions useful or, under the circumstances did it feel more like a distraction?

i still love the interludes, but reading it slowly for once made me agree with scott a bit that the later interludes aren’t as fleshed out. i still think they add a lot to the story and are good shorthand for characterization (the one on revenge sums up camorr nicely, i think), but they could have been used more effectively.

Now that the book has finished how did you feel about the conclusion and the eventual reveal about the Grey King and more to the point the motivations he declared for such revenge – does it seem credible, were you expecting much worse or something completely different altogether?

super-credible. the gray king is like the anti-batman, you know? and i get that. i was expecting it to be more personal for the gentlemen bastards, but if they were spying on every gang to find any weaknesses it makes sense that they would have found out about them and decided to use them.

Were you surprised that Locke, being given two possible choices (one of which could possibly mean he would miss his chance for revenge on the Grey King) chose to go back to the Tower – especially given that (1) he would have difficulty in getting into the building (2) he would have difficulty in convincing them about the situation and (3) he would have difficulty in remaining free afterwards? Did anyone else nearly pee their pants when Locke and the rest were carrying the sculptures up to the roof garden?

i wasn’t surprised at all. at the end of the day, locke is not a killer. as the gray king says, taking people’s money isn’t the same at all, and that’s a line i think locke will always have a hard time crossing. he’s a priest and a thief and a liar, not a murderer.

but also, even after everything, i think locke loves camorr. he loves the city and the thieves and the sharks and every damn thing about it, and he knows that without capa barsavi the city will be chaotic for a while, maybe forever. but he also knows how much worse it would be if all of the nobility suddenly died as well. by choosing revenge, he would have been damning the entire city, not just those nobles, and he doesn’t have that in them.

not to mention- if you think you don’t want the bondsmagi on your tail, can you imagine being chased by an angry locke and jean? hoo boy.

Finally, the other question I would chuck in here is that, following the end of the book I was intrigued to check out some of the reviews of LOLL and noticed that the negative reviews mentioned the use of profanity. How did you feel about this – was it excessive? Just enough? Not enough?

bitch please. i LOVE the cursing in this book. i love that the boys are foul-mouthed little shits, and that is only partly because i have also been described in a similar matter, most often by my grandmother.

but seriously, i love the language used. it adds so much depth and character to the book, and gives it just the right amount of grit to help it pull off so much fantasy.

Okay one further, and probably most important but very quick question – having finished, will you pick up the sequel, Red Seas Under Red Skies?

listen- i was not even supposed to be reading THIS until we got a release date forrepublic of thieves. so while i will (hopefully) be reading it soon, i am going to do my best to wait until we know the next one is on its way. (but also, i have a GIANT stack of library books waiting for me. why can i not read full-time? ugh.)