need Gentleman Bastards opinions

[psocoptera]

I read the first three-quarters-ish of Scott Lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora, and I wasn't enjoying it much, and then my library ebook expired. Should I go to the trouble of re-waitlisting for it to finish it?

I got interested in the series in the first place because of Lynch's defense of a pirate lady in the second book as a wish-fulfillment fantasy for middle-aged mothers, which sounded pretty relevant to my interests. But there's no one at all in the first book that I like much at all, which doesn't really bode well for me getting much out of the pirate lady either, and I feel like structurally I left off at a point in the first book where I should be on the edge of my seat to know how they'll possibly survive/pull it off/etc and I Just. Don't. Care. (Thinking about it, I enjoy heists and con jobs when I find the protagonists sympathetic and the targets actively unsympathetic. Lies didn't really establish either, for me. Yes, the big bad is extremely unpleasant, but for me it had more of an effect of making the whole *book* unpleasant than getting me invested in Locke. I like my rogues lovable, is the thing. When I read the first chapter, I really wanted this book to be "Miles Vorkosigan if he was raised by Ferengi instead of Klingons", but Miles wants *so* many things, so strongly, and Locke for all of his scheming doesn't really seem to have much forward momentum at all, in the sense of things I can really worry/care about him pursuing.)

But I would be very interested if anyone wanted to argue that the last quarter of the book is so awesome it should not be missed, or that the second book (Red Seas Under Red Skies) is so much better than the first that I should keep going for it.

Comments

[gannet.livejournal.com]

I read the whole thing, but I barely remember it other than thinking that everyone was unpleasant and that I probably wouldn't read any sequels.


...a little more is coming back to me, but it's reminding me how much I didn't care for it. So there's that.

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Thank you! Very useful.

[kelilah.livejournal.com]

Hm, if you both think the people were unpleasant, then I probably wouldn't like it. Several people have recommended Lies of Locke Lamora, but I really don't like reading about all unpleasant people. (Even really unpleasant villains bug me. I start whining, "Why are you so annoyingly evil, evil villain? Just...gah!")

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

My opinion is that you would not enjoy this book. Among other things there's a fair bit of torture-murder which I have the impression you would not care for. (I didn't care for it either, bleah.)

[jaipur.livejournal.com]

Huh--my memory is that I liked it; it's a pot-boiler, a fast read, don't look for any depth, but I found it clever and I thought I liked Locke. But if you aren't liking it it's certainly not worth slogging through. I certainly wasn't inspired to go digging for a sequel, though if I come across it I might pick it up...

[psocoptera.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I didn't even realize quite how sloggy a slog it had been until I started zipping along in something else ::grin::.

[motyl.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I can't comment on the end as you made it farther than I did. Bleh.