Book #149 of 2018:

The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard #1)

Over a decade and countless rereads later, this long-time favorite of mine is still an incredible read. It’s an Ocean’s Eleven or Mission: Impossible style heist story crossed with a Godfather-esque tale of honor-bound criminal vengeance, all set in a fantastical version of medieval Venice. And this is fantasy in the Game of Thrones tradition, where the magic is secondary to the intrigue and the blood.

The worldbuilding is intricate but never distracts from the story at hand, which manages to be both action-packed and character-driven as the heroes rush to pull off their audacious con job amidst an ever-escalating gang war. It’s also one of the few books I’ve read that navigates dual timelines so well; readers are kept engaged and interested in the characters’ unfolding backstory without ever feeling like we won’t understand them in the present until we’re all caught up.

I confess to being less enamored of this novel’s sequels — although I will happily drop everything when the long-awaited fourth volume finally arrives — but luckily this first book tells a complete story in and of itself. It’s a modern classic of the fantasy genre, and one I come back to often.

(I do have some qualms with the audiobook, which I just listened to for the first time. As is often the case for fantasy stories, various British accents have been used, presumably as a genre default. But this is an American, Mafia-inflected narrative, and these characters deserve to sound like they’re from Little Italy if not Italy itself.)

★★★★★

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