Jaco van Hemert

The worldbuilding in Lies of Locke Lamora is quite subtle at first, but it becomes more and more prevalent as the story carries on. The core rules of the world function mostly the same, save for three major deviations: The  magic of the so-called Bondsmages (and based on the descriptions, there was once other magic as well), the existence of the Elderglass structures in the cities, and the alchemical things.

There are many references and allusions to more worldbuilding, so perhaps these will be explored later in the series. For example, a very interesting concept is that of the Wraithstone, which is a material that, when treated in some way (heated, I think?), it releases a mist that “Gentles” people and animals, which is basically a sort of lobotomy, where the mind and conscious decision-making is removed.

So, for me, the alchemy is probably the most interesting of the elements, though the Bondsmage magic could be quite intriguing. But first, let’s explore the alchemical arts. It seems to be quite extensive in scope, ranging from different coloured lights to genetically modified plants. I’d imagine there’s all kinds of other applications as well, such as modifications in animals and humans, and probably some form of machinery. None of these were shown in this first book though. (Though there is a hybrid bird that might have been made with the alchemical sciences.) It’s basically a science, which is quite cool, put sort of in contrast to magic, in that it’s a common thing that people often have access to, and is a skill that produces things that allows any person who has it to manipulate the world, rather than an inherent ability that only the holder of that ability can use.

The magic of the Bondsmages seem to be quite powerful, and appear to have “true name” system (ala Earthsea) attached to some of the actions. There’s also a stitching and thread kind of motif in a few abilities. Other abilities seem to be a straightforward think sort of situation (though that could be a spell that was activated earlier and just still remained in effect), such as where bolts deflect from a specific person. There seems to still be a lot to explore in this, so I’m interested to see what else comes from their magic.

Perhaps more interesting than the magic is the culture that’s attached to that magic. They’re this singular country (Or region or city? Not sure) that basically stamped out all other magic, and have this order-wide rule that if one Bondsmage dies, every other Bondsmage drops whatever they’re doing and goes to take revenge en-masse. It has a Hyozan Reckoners feel to it, which I find quite intriguing. I’m hoping to see more of their culture as the series continues.

The previous inhabitants of Camorr (and several other places, as I understand it) are mostly unexplained, but I’m usually keen for any ancient magical civilisation situations, so I’m on board with that. Nothing much to say here except that I enjoyed the concept of building a city around, over, and through these nigh-indestructible Elderglass structures like a hermit crab.

A few quick notes about the rest of the worldbuilding:

I thought Lynch did a good job on the different ancestries of the people across the landmass, with different traits, and having these traits and cultures influence the story in interesting ways (e.g. the whiskey(?) ploy relating to the one country that has this world-famous brewery).

I also liked the gladiator style Revelry activities; it was an interesting touch that felt like part of the world in a natural way. There’s a lot of Italy-themed motifs in Camorr, and having the festivities play off in an ancient Roman style seemed appropriate and interesting.

There is this looming threat of a plague that gets mentioned a few times without being directly part of the story. At one stage they call it the “Black Whisper”, and mention the Duke’s “Ghouls”, who appear to be people who survived exposure to it. This leads me to think that there might be more to this plague than a simple illness. So I’m intrigued by that, and I’m sure it’ll come up more overtly in later books.

Overall, I found the worldbuilding to be a tad slow at the start (fortunately the plot pulled me along sufficiently), but it expanded quite nicely once the story got going, and became quite intriguing – enough so that I am compelled to read the next books in the series to find out more.

My rating for The Lies of Locke Lamora:

40,000 stolen crowns