The novel has 2 timelines: a past one, fast, entertaining and witty, a 4/5. And a present one that tries too hard to be entertaining and witty and is just boring and overburdened with uninteresting, unoriginal worldbuilding, yet not enough characters' building. And definitely not believable at all in its schemes. A 2/5 at most. The average would be 3, but i'll lower it further not because of the author, but of the many reviews pretending this is another "Name of the Wind". No, not even nearly, and that comparison set my expectations too high and the dissappointment was sharper. I will not read the rest of the trilogy, though I already got them. ( )

Wow. This book's pacing and interleaving is incredible. I already know this will be a repeat read for me in the future. ( )

If this story was told from almost any other character's point of view, that's the story you'd be rooting for. In that sense, it's far better than the standard good vs. evil trope, and a nice change. I'll be reading the rest in this series. ( )

This book has become infamous in the book club. Firstly, because it's the only book that has been autographed, and since the autograph is made out to "Fuzzy and the book club", it's also where we got our name. Secondly, because before me no one had actually finished it. I think partly because it's 700 pages long, but in some cases because of the aggressive lack of female characters.

And that lack of female characters is why I'm only rating it three stars. I did enjoy the plot, because I like con-stories and action and gentlemen thieves, but oh my gods, you cannot have this few female characters in a book this long. Not when the book is only ten years old! No, I won't accept that.

And fuck you, Scott Lynch, for brutally killing of most of the female characters as well. Yes, I know, a lot of the guys died too, but their women always went first so they'd suffer the most from it, and the women NEVER was as important for the plot as the men were before they were killed. So no, I'm not okay with that. At all.

I am super-not okay with Sabetha never showing up at all, just existing as the Love Interest and Painful Past of Locke Lamora. Take your manpain somewhere else, dude. Actually, he is an enjoyable character, but I got the feeling the author is kinda in love with him and that made me dislike him a little.

So to sum up: Scott Lynch can write, his story was good, but the way the narrative treats the female characters made it way less enjoyable than it should have been. I'm not mad, Scott Lynch, I'm disappointed. ( )

This one took me a minute to get into but it was really a great read. It didn't have the same page turning characteristics that i'm quite used to but i really have no faults in this story line at all. I love the low level fantasy elements - the alchemical items, the nods to the bonds mages -but loved even more that so much of the "fantasy" was slight of hand. Ther immense planning that went into each of their theiving exploits was so much fun to follow as it unfolded. overall this was a good book that i know will withstand the test of time. ( )