
Metaphorosis Reviews
Summary
Locke Lamora is a professional thief, raised from childhood to be so. But he and his crew don't follow the rules of the Secret Peace that governs the city's underworld. And they'll pay a price for that.
Review
I’ve been hearing about this book for a very long time, but somehow nothing specific enough to trigger a purchase. When I saw it on sale, I decided to finally go ahead and pick it up.
The blurb on the cover says, “fresh, original”. I have to say that it isn’t really either of those. Pretty much all the foreground elements are things we’ve seen many times before. And much of the storytelling seems more driven by heist movies than by fantasy tropes; I began to feel worn out by the sheer number of ‘but he wasn’t really dead’-type twists. It’s exacerbated by the slow introduction and the endless time-hopping. There are any number of fairly sizable plot holes that are papered over or simply ignored. One of the big reveals – the identity of the villain – is very disappointing, while another that is often hinted at never comes up at all, and will presumably provide a climax for the series.
Oddly, it’s the background worldbuilding that’s most interesting about the book. Lynch has clearly spent some time on this – to the extent that he’s constantly introducing more scenery, giving the feeling that, most of the way through a fairly large book, he’s still introducing the city it takes place in. While I liked the world, I got the feeling that he’d done so much work on it that he insisted on cramming it all in, even when it slows or complicates the plot. Maybe it’s all essential to the later books, but I have my doubts.
All that said, and to give Lynch credit, the characters are engaging (if somewhat stock), the plot itself moves along quickly (ignoring the constant flashbacks), and the whole setup is intriguing enough to make the book a fun, reasonably quick read (despite the frustrating plot holes). I could see picking up and enjoying later books in the series (but don’t really feel driven to buy them).
So, fresh and original this is not, but it is a reasonably fun and solid fantasy read, with caveats.