Lies of Locke Lamora, the Pacific, et al..

Kewl, for the pleasure of the 3 people who have me on their feedreader (one of whom is me, thereby leading to recursive loop which may make interesting film story material for Chris Nolan), another post from me. And this one is again about a book – recommended again by that friend of mine (who unlike the other friend of mine, is not prone to overspending on books). The book was The Lies of Locke Lamora” by Scott Lynch. Scott Lynch is much like the other Scott, Scott Adams of Dilbert fame, with a rather flippant attitude to both writing and creating events. To say that the book is colourful is an understatement, it is quite vivid in its descriptions, the best that I have come across so far from the newer generation of fantasy story writers, who all seem to have spent a lifetime writing banal screenplays or dialogues for George Lucas. The hero of this rather interesting story is Locke Lamora, or as he is also know the Thorn of Camorr, a Gentleman Bastard and leader or garrista as is known of the Gentlemen Bastards, numbering 5 (including Lamora) and originally 7 (including a rather interesting love interest of whom only glimpses are shown through the book). Written in a rather unconventional manner with the book’s present being interspersed to with interludes from the past which throw more light on the development of the various characters – mainly Lamora but with fairly interesting titbits on other main characters especially Jean Tannen, Lamora’s second in command.

 

The writing is strong and evocative – descriptive passages are very well written and are a joy to read, especially for someone who so recently suffered at the ponderous hands of Robert Jordan in WOT. While not exactly as beautiful as Tolkien (the Master), Lynch manages to capture a reader’s attention by excellent turns of phrase. The narrative is strong, doesn’t lag, doesn’t tend to get bogged down, even in the more depressing parts of the book, and has command over the reader. While I wouldn’t classify it as unputdownable, it is certainly an enjoyable read, with little fat which seems to populate WOT as an example. The writing also is clear in one other thing and that is in the swearing, this is the equivalent of a Quentin Tarantino movie with f and b words flying left, right and center. I, master of the swearword, did learn a couple of new phrases, including one which perfectly describes a fucked up situation – fuckery. And of course, the damnfuck, which well, I should have thought of a long time ago, but dint – to that I am eternally grateful to Lynch.

 

The book in my opinion is a must read for anyone who has an interest in fantasy and especially for those that swear by WOT – this is how a fantasy series can be made interesting. Interesting characters, excellent characterisation, strong and evocative writing and tight storyline. No meandering about with 90,000 characters and heavy insinuations of thingies, but straight from the hip. I eagerly await the sequels, which from the little teaser at the end of this book, seems to be even more interesting. Buy it, borrow it, or steal it, but definitely read it.

 

On another note, I have been an unabashed admirer of World War II books – though most I have read have focused on the European Theatre – very little I had come across in terms of the war in the Pacific. Storm of War rectified a bit of this with writing on a few of the key Pacific battles including the Battle of the Midway, but at a bookstore in the Dubai airport, I chanced upon The Pacific, written by Hugh Ambrose (son of Stephen Ambrose), which is almost a companion book to the HBO series (which i have mostly missed). The book is well written in the usual sparse and to the point Ambrose style, which the son has inherited from the Dad. The other book I got was on the Overlord by Max Hastings, which is a little pessimistic view of the D Day and subsequent battle of the Normandy. In Hasting’s opinion, the US and the British had little chance of beating the Germans without the overwhelming advantage on materiel, which is very contrary to what I have otherwise read about the Normandy battles – mainly Stephen Ambrose’s Victors and John Keegan’s book on the major battles in the European theatre. Interesting though, is the way Hasting emphasises that he wasn’t talking about the leading divisions in the war – such as the 82^nd and 101^st Airborne or the 1^st and 29^th Division or the 1^st or 6^th Airborne of the British. He does throw light on the weaker parts of the Armed Forces in play in Normandy – the 90^th Division, the bad or average US/British commanders and so on. Interesting reading, made me reassess what I have otherwise read and puts in perspective some of the comments in Band of Brothers – of how the soldiers in the Airborne volunteered so they were fighting alongside quality, motivated, volunteer soldiers as opposed to unmotivated, undertrained draftees. The interesting bit in Ambrose’s book is that America created the civilian army from scratch and there were significant parts of the Army which measured up to the regimental, supremely trained German Army. Which I guess was the miracle.