Lies of Locke Lamora read-along, week two!
Posted March 17, 2012
on:- In: read along | Scott Lynch
- 31 Comments
Hi Everyone, welcome to the second week of our The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch read along! we’re starting to get into the meat of the story, and many games are afoot. People are starting to die, mob bosses are taking evasive actions, and even the Right People are running scared. this section of our read along covers chapter three Imaginary Men through the interlude called The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse, and this week’s questions were provided by the lovely nrlymrtl over at Dark Cargo. Be sure to be a friendly blogger this weekend and head over to Dark Cargo and comment on her Lies of Locke Lamora post. Lots of other fun stuff over at DC as well.
Some folks mentioned last week their editions didn’t have a map. here ya go, bigger version available at Lynch’s website. while you’re there, check out his live journal. . . he’s been posting some nifty behind the scenes goodies as well!
Be warned, there be spoilers ahead. Those wishing to avoid said spoilers should probably not click the “more” button below, as my answers and some other fun stuff is below the jump. Leave your link in the comments or e-mail or tweet it to me, and I’ll add you to the link list below.
just discovering this read along and want to get involved? no problem! just comment on this post that you want to be added to the sooper seekrit mailing list, and it shall be done. 😉
on twitter? use #lynchmob. but not @lynchmob. that’s someone else.
here are this week’s discussion questions:
1) Do you think Locke can pull off his scheme of playing a Midnighter who is working with Don Salvara to capture the Thorn of Camorr? I mean, he is now playing two roles in this game – and thank goodness for that costume room the Gentlemen Bastards have!
2) Are you digging the detail the author has put into the alcoholic drinks in this story?
3) Who is this mysterious lady Gentlemen Bastard Sabetha and what does she mean to Locke?
4) Are you as creeped out over the use of Wraithstone to create Gentled animals as I am?
5) I got a kick out of child Locke’s first meeting with Capa Barsavi and his daughter Nazca, which was shortly followed up in the story by Barsavi granting adult Locke permission to court his daughter! Where do you think that will lead? Can you see these two together?
6) Capa Barsavi is freaked out over rumors of The Gray King and, in fact, us readers are privy to a gruesome torture scene. The Gray King is knocking garristas off left and right. What do you think that means?
7) In the Interlude: The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse, we learn that Father Chains owes an alchemist a favor, and that favor is a fresh corpse. He sets the boys to figuring out how to provide one, and they can’t ‘create’ the corpse themselves. How did you like Locke’s solution to this conundrum?
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My Awful Reviews
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Lisa Pizza / A Blog thinger
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Genkinahito’s
Felix Pearce
the Hugo Endurance Project
The Bente Way of Life
SF Signal
NEW!!!
Updates to the Theory of Everything
1) Do you think Locke can pull off his scheme of playing a Midnighter who is working with Don Salvara to capture the Thorn of Camorr? I mean, he is now playing two roles in this game – and thank goodness for that costume room the Gentlemen Bastards have!
I love the costume room! and the Midnighter scheme is brilliant. How could Don Salvara not recognize Locke right away? a ha, a dark room, a commanding tone of voice, and a badge tends to make people see what they want to see. that Midnighter badge is almost better than psychic paper! but if they are going to pull this off, they’re really going to have to be more careful of Conte, that guy is vicious dangerous. And they’re now running the risk that the Don and Dona Salvara will keep their mouths shut. But have you ever read a better con than that? I can’t get enough of this stuff!
2) Are you digging the detail the author has put into the alcoholic drinks in this story?
absolutely! Lynch sounds like a man that loves good drink and good food, and for me that adds yet another enjoyable layer to the world. however, I take a offense at Jean’s comment that Apricot tarts and beer is “A combination so disgusting I feel oddly compelled to actually try it”. From personal experience I can tell you that beer goes wonderfully with Apricot tarts. the bitter aftertaste of the beer perfectly balances the near cloyingness of the apricots nestled in buttery pastry. (recipe available upon request) Are the Gentelmen Bastards drinking Bud Light with their apricot tarts or something? cuz that would be a disgusting combination.
3) Who is this mysterious lady Gentlemen Bastard Sabetha and what does she mean to Locke?
I wish I knew. All I know about her is that Locke loved her once, and it seems like she left him. There have been a few fleeting hints dropped by Calo and Galdo, that they wish she would get better and such, but that’s really all I know. I wonder if she felt the same way about him that he felt/feels about her? Kudos to Lynch, again, for being willing to make Locke so heartbroken and flawed right from the beginning. And, since his heart belongs to someone else, I don’t have to worry about any epically cheesy romance scenes. more beer and swearing please!
We do get to meet Sabetha in the soon to be published The Republic of Thieves, but meeting someone is so very different from knowing them.
4) Are you as creeped out over the use of Wraithstone to create Gentled animals as I am?
totally. From a certain twisted standpoint, I can sort of understand – just like it’s described in the book, Camorr is very densely populated, with twisted alleys and dangerous bridges and wobbly boats. Animals are needed to carry goods, but you can’t risk the animal getting frightened or freaking out. but there has got to be a better way that Gentling, because that’s just fucking sick. can’t they give the donkeys some alcohol or catnip or something? just enough to chill them out so they don’t kick people?
5) I got a kick out of child Locke’s first meeting with Capa Barsavi and his daughter Nazca, which was shortly followed up in the story by Barsavi granting adult Locke permission to court his daughter! Where do you think that will lead? Can you see these two together?
ok, slightly off topic, those of you who are listening to this on audio, how is her name pronounced? Is it like Naja,with a very soft j? or more like a harder sh sound? She’s great, even though I really can’t see the two of them together. they are close friends, but they don’t have romantic feelings for each other. I suppose it could be a marriage of convenience. . . but can you imagine the two of them sharing their secrets? Nazca is the only person who knows all her father’s secrets, and Locke has quite a few secrets of his own. they’d make a crappy couple, but a brilliant team.
6) Capa Barsavi is freaked out over rumors of The Gray King and, in fact, us readers are privy to a gruesome torture scene. The Gray King is knocking garristas off left and right. What do you think that means?
yeah, that’s one helluva torture scene, isn’t it? I know it makes me sound like a sick fucker, but that’s become the scene that I judge all other torture scenes against. Sorry, I totally should have warned people ahead of time about that. my bad. But it is to good effect, no?
I think the Grey King is sending Caa Barsavi a message, something along the lines of “I can knock off your soldiers at the time of my choosing. Soon it will be your turn”. that’s some scary shit, and we haven’t even met this Grey King yet!!
7) In the Interlude: The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse, we learn that Father Chains owes an alchemist a favor, and that favor is a fresh corpse. He sets the boys to figuring out how to provide one, and they can’t ‘create’ the corpse themselves. How did you like Locke’s solution to this conundrum?
oh I though it was hilarious! instead of doing things the simple way by buying the corpse and being done with it, Locke has to turn it into this city sprawling production. Smart kid, he’s accomplished more than just getting Chains a fresh body: he’s learned how different types of people react to crying children, how to properly bribe clerks, and best of all he’s shows the Sanza twins exactly what he is capable of. I lost count of how many times I exclaimed “ha!” out loud while reading this section!
31 Responses to "Lies of Locke Lamora read-along, week two!"
[…] Day, and welcome to the second week of the Lies of Locke Lamora readalong! Stop by here for links to more discussions about the […]
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Sabetha won’t be in this novel? I was so looking forward to meeting her too. This book is getting better and better so I’m not too upset by that news. 🙂 Here’s this week’s thoughts – http://justbookreading.com/2012/03/17/the-lies-of-locke-lamora-read-along-part-2/
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Guess it’s time I finally got my own answers up: http://myawfulreviews.blogspot.com/2012/03/lies-of-locke-lamora-week-2-questions.html
I’m really looking forward to next week. I guess I should probably make some questions up 😛
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The Boy Who Cried for a Corpse should come with a health warning: I almost soaked my kindle in the coffee coming out of my nose! 😀
Here’s my answers: http://coffeecookiesandchilipeppers.blogspot.com/2012/03/read-along-of-lies-of-lock-lamora-by_17.html
I am enjoying this book SO much: thank you for introducing it to me!
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Apricot tart is disgusting too, I just have to side with Jean there, sorry 😛
And yeah, I can understand why they would want to gentle animals, but that’s probably something they do everywhere (not only in Camorr) and it’s sick, no excuse can make it up. Locke, geez, go save some horses on the way!!
The torture was gruesome but not too much in my opinion, it was just enough to realize how dangerous this Grey King business can/will be…
I think I already said (in many places) how frustrated and impatient I am to finally meet Sabetha – I read the excerpt of book 3 but it’s never enough!
And here’s my post for this week! http://bewareofthefroggies.blogspot.com/2012/03/lies-of-locke-lamora-read-along-part_17.html
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[…] from the creation of the book. Little Red Reviewer is herding an epic number of us so visit her blog for more […]
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Listening to the audio, her name gets pronounced NAZKA. NAZ like the rapper 🙂 and CA with the hark K sound. I like her boots. I can’t believe that we won’t meet Sabetha for that long!
This week’s reading was just awesome all around. Here’s my post:
http://hugoenduranceproject.blogspot.com/2012/03/lies-of-locke-lamora-read-along-week-2.html
-Jeremy
The Hugo Endurance Project
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Sabetha is the only one of the main characters that we never meet throughout the first two books… I can’t believe that Lynch pulled that off without making it wired or making us loose interest in her. I can’t wait to get to know her in “The Republic of Thieves” and find out what happened between her and Locke!
Here’s my answers:
http://thebenteway.blogspot.com/2012/03/lies-of-locke-lamora-read-along-part-2.html
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1) Well I guess this I answer this first before reading other answers as that may spoil things for my first read through. As Locke is our “Hero” I will assume he will succeed. Playing both sided really reminds of what the original Mission Impossible would do, and they’ve taught me that everything always goes as planned. Any unforeseen incident was always considered and planned for.
2) I love the alcoholic drinks, especially the ginger one. Reminds me of my drink of choice, the Dark n Stormy. The spicier the ginger the better!
3) So far very little is known of Sabetha other than she’s been gone a long time. She was gone when Locke arrived, but as I recall, in Locke’s older years she has still been gone but it seems not after meeting him. Perhaps they had a fling? To be honest, this element of the overall story hasn’t interested me as much as the other plotlines.
4) Wraithstone is quite haunting as a brainwashing method, but is it really all that different from a lot of the other actions and method we use with our pets or livestock?
5) The courting is quite funny. My bet is that they will develop a relationship far further than they planned but that it ultimately won’t pan out and perhaps possibly end tragically with a death?
6) Well with first mention I actually thinking that the Grey King was Locke himself, or that he’s involved. His way of keeping total control overall. Based upon the other Bastards responses, this would mean that they too aren’t privy to Locke’s plans. But then again that’s probably pretty far fetched. Who knows?
7) I found it amusing that they did do exactly what I thought would be easiest; they bought it! Nice touch to stage a theft to get a little more out of the compassion of others.
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Little Red Reviewer: I didn’t get an e-mail with the discussion questions for last week, so I just wanted to check if you had me written down on your mailing list? If not, my e-mail is bente.2dnem@gmail.com
Bente 🙂
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I’m so glad I didn’t read ahead at all before answering this week’s questions! Goodness! http://ginarinelli.blogspot.com/2012/04/locke-lamora-read-along-week-two.html
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[…] Day, and welcome to the second week of the Lies of Locke Lamora readalong! Stop by here for links to more discussions about the […]
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1 | Allie
March 17, 2012 at 7:21 am
This book is getting better and better! In my head, I was pronouncing her name phonetically, “Nahz-kah”. I kind of like the sound of that better than Naja. Well, I’m glad to hear we’ll meet Sabetha in the third novel, though I’m sad to hear she won’t be in this or the next.
Here’s my answers: http://tethyanbooks.blogspot.fr/2012/03/read-along-lies-of-lock-lamora-by-scott.html
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