"The Lies of Locke Lamora" by Scott Lynch

This book is roughly a little over seven hundred pages. For a rough estimation of three hundred and fifty of those pages I was not overly impressed by the book. I almost set this one aside with the assumption that it just didn't cater to my particular tastes. 

The book moved slowly, and the first jump from the past to the present confused me. It works later on in the book, but it did throw me through a loop that first time that it happened. The long introduction to the story, and to the characters themselves, was obviously leading up to something, but in the first half of the book the individual characters came off as flat, one dimensional cardboard cutouts. We were told how they think, feel, and behave, but we weren't shown this until later on in the book. Once we started to see the personalities in action, the anger, the raw emotion, you can't help but feel for these guys .. and feeling for a character in a book is when you know that your character came to life.

This is basically a book about a heist, within a heist, within a heist, and then a few plots, cons, and schemes thrown in for good measure. The difference between the first half of this book, and the second half of this book were almost night and day. The second half being action packed, fast pacing, gory, and taking twists and turns that you did not expect. The lack of magical elements were notable for a large portion of this book, but they did make a appearance.

This isn't just a book about a gang of thieves. Its a entire network of thieves. Schemes, heists, plots, cons, disguises, trickery. Most of the city is corrupt in one way or another.

Cocky little Locke Lamora. I can't help but love him. He is brilliant of mind. A master of cons, and of disguises. Just when I thought that I understood how his mind worked, he would pull a fast one on me. But he is also by no means a Gary Sue. Locke is weak of body, and not of much use in a fist to fist combat, its his mind that is brilliant. He doesn't possess amazing fighting skills, he doesn't have any magical abilities, and he isn't even that good looking. That's what makes this character so believable, and even likable. He might be brilliant, but he makes a lot of mistakes. And the mistakes and risks taken during this heist of his, will cost him dearly.

Jean. I also love Jean. He, like Locke, comes off as a believable, as well as likable character. Being heavy set, he is not going to be winning any races, but he does know how to fight. His large body mistakenly causes people to see him as unintelligent, which couldn't be farther from the truth. But what I liked most about him was his devotion, and absolute love for Locke. They are brothers in every sense other then in blood.

Because of the first half of this book, I cannot rate it higher then a 4.25 stars. But I did really enjoy this book, and I will be reading the rest of them.