I just have to keep you here . . until Jean. . . shows up!

Posted by: Redhead on: April 7, 2012

• In: read along | Scott Lynch
• 38 Comments

* * * Edited to add * * *

now that you’ve finished the book, you want to know more about Scott Lynch, right?  leave it to Bryce, of My Awful Reviews to take care of your every need!  check out what Sam Sykes, Elizabeth Bear and Myke Cole are saying about everyone’s favorite firefighter.

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Were these not some of the best weeks of your life, or what?  false-facing, banter, brass balls and everything going horribly, horribly wrong.  Glass towers, bondsmagi, mobsters, the best friends anyone could ever ask for, and of course, bloody and tear streaked revenge.  This is what the best books in the world are made of.

And that’s the wonderful thing about books. the adventure is never over. All you have to do to see your friends again to is open the cover and dive in. It’s also nice to know I won’t have to climb into the damn book and take care of a certain someone, if you recall my bloodlust from last week.

The book may be over, but this isn’t goodbye. It’s “I’ll see you later, you bastard”.  Watch your e-mail for information on an upcoming Read Along for Red Seas Under Red Skies.

For our final discussion posts, the questions were supplied by our newest read along team member Lynn, from Lynn’s Book Blog. Make sure to visit her and tell her how great of questions she came up with! And huge, massive thanks to all our other co-hosts, Dark Cargo, My Awful Reviews, @ohthatashley posting at SF Signal and Dark Cargo Explorer!    Leave your link in the comments below, and I’ll add you to the link list.  With the holiday weekend, don’t worry about posting on Saturday, I think everyone is going to be netsurfing around for the next five or six days, digesting the outcomes of one of our favorite books.

And don’t just comment here, we’ve got over twenty bloggers participating. Yes, you read that correctly: over TWENTY bloggers traveled the same road with us these past five weeks. Go give ’em some blogger read along love!

Yeah, these guys!
Lynn’s Book Blog
Nashville Bookworm
Books Without Any Pictures
Genkinahito’s blog
Kaitharshayr’s Musings
Scruffy Fiction
Tethyan Books
Coffee Cookies and Chili Peppers
Travels Through Iest
Just Book Reading
Rose’s thingamajig
Paperless Reading
I Want Life in Every Word
Beware of the Froggies
All I am – A Redhead
Dark Cargo
The Hugo Endurance Project
My Awful Reviews
RealBooks4Ever

*** NEW discussions! ***
John Ayliff
A Blog Thinger
Booky Pony

More new discussions!
Updates to the Theory of Everything
The Bente Way of Life

Due to massive amounts of spoilers, Lynn’s questions and my answers are after the jump!

1.       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?

Locke is not the man of the legend.  The urban myth of The Thorn of Camorr certainly has grains of truth (stealing only from the rich!), and it certainly helps insulate Locke, but i think if someone told Capa Barsavi that Locke was the Thorn, Barsavi would laugh his ass off.  Hmmm, did he change as the story went on?  I don’t think he so much changed as we simply got to know him better. He didn’t go through some kind of transformation or epiphany. We witnessed his reaction when his family was threatened, but I think that was always there.

at the beginning of the book, we don’t know Locke very well. he’s elusive and rather quiet.  The “getting to know Locke” is quite the slow burn. But at the end, the very end. . .  just wow.  It’s the last 100 pages of this book that really show us who Locke Lamora is.

 

2.       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?

the Berangias sisters deserved everything Jean threw at them. These are bitches who killed Calo and Galdo, and they were out to kill Jean and very nearly did. It was completely justified.  He should have killed them slower. he should have given them teeth lessons.

and ok, maybe Locke shouldn’t have punched Dona Vorchenza. That wasn’t very nice at all!  but. . . she tried to poison him! And the unexpectedness of what he does to her I think takes some of the tension out of the scene, which was actually a good thing.  I love those closing scenes with Locke and Dona Vorchenza and the Salvaras, hilarious!

3.       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??

Complex question!  I have a weakness for any magic that has anything to do with naming, period.  True names are immensely powerful things, just think of your own name. When your mother or father calls your name, you know exactly what emotions they are feeling when they say your name, and how much trouble you are in based solely on if your full name is used.  Nicknames between friends are magical things, secret names, code names.  Again, it’s all in the name. It’s all the specific syllables someone uses when they wish for you to do their bidding.

I don’t have any theories about the Elderglass being able to stand up to the magic of the Bondsmagi, and actually I’m hoping Lynch made the whole thing up instead of doing tedious research.  I’m curious to learn more about the mythos of the Elders, but I don’t think it will have any connection to any of our earthly mythologies.

 

4.       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?

They were a lovely, delicious, distraction.   the action has me all hot and bothered,  and then I’m told I have to wait for the climax? Oh, but even the waiting is so tingly wonderful.  so yes, quite useful, just a detour on the path. 😉

5.       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?

I always imagine the Grey King to be some kind of criminal mastermind, and he is, but it’s always a surprise to me that he didn’t start out that way. He wasn’t born anywhere near the criminal underground.  It wasn’t a Capa who sent him down a path of violence, it was the supposedly beneficent civil government. The people who are supposed to be helping the public, making sure society continues to work, those are the people who turned the Grey King into the creature he became.  His game has less than nothing to do with Locke and his false-facing, and it has everything to do with revenge against an entire class of people.   Locke is a ton of fun, but the Grey King? he is a stone cold conscienceless mother fucker steeped in pure venomous hatred.

In another world, the Grey King could be a great antihero protagonist. 

6.       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?

Locke is a thief, he’s not a killer.  The revenge that he’s looking for isn’t on the nobles of Camorr. It could be said that because of his love for the nobles and peers of Camorr, he lets Conte beat the shit out of him.   So I wasn’t surprised.  Getting in the tower was just slightly more difficult that getting money and clothes out of Merragio’s. If anyone can pull off something like that, it’s The Thorn of Camorr! and OK, so maybe Dona Salvara was a little too easily convinced to break open the sculpture and look inside, but come on, everyone was in desperate need of a little plot devicing at that particular moment!

Oh so carefully carrying those sculptures of to the roof, I didn’t so much pee my pants as sweated buckets of bullets.  But when Locke tells Vorchenza where the money is buried? now at that, I laughed so hard I nearly did pee my pants, especially when Vorchenza and her men go to dig it up!

7.       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?

what? there was profanity in this book? Why didn’t someone fucking tell me?  😉

I’ve given this book to more than one person who has handed it back to me and said “couldn’t get into it, Locke is a really unlikeable character”, so maybe people who gave it negative reviews had similar thoughts.

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

hell to the yeah!!  actually, I HAVE to pick it up in the next day or so so I can figure out all the chapter breaks for our read along!

Tags: con artists, fantasy, Locke Lamora, read along