naomikritzer | The Lies of Locke Lamora

I picked up a copy of

scott_lynch's Lies of Locke Lamora at Uncle Hugo's a week or two back, and read it this week.

This was clearly written for people who believe that the Artful Dodger was the real hero of Oliver Twist, and that Fagan got a bad rap. Which is cool, because the Artful Dodger was the real hero, and Fagan totally got a bad rap. (I mean, sheesh. Here's a society where orphans are literally sold into slavery for meekly protesting death by slow starvation, and the person teaching orphans to pick pockets is one of the bad guys?) (Okay, so he wasn't one of the really bad guys. But, still.)

Locke Lamora is a con artist and schemer, and his schemes are satisfyingly complicated without leaving me mystified. It's funny -- well, at least until the body count starts going up. (And even then, the dialog is still very funny. It's just that the situations Locke finds himself in are radically less so.)

Two thumbs up.