Review: Red Seas under Red Skies

Escaping from the attentions of the Bondsmagi Locke Lamora, the estwhile Thorn of Camorr and Jean Tannen have fled their home city. Taking ship they arrive in the city state of Tal Varrar where they are soon planning their most spectacular heist yet; they will take the luxurious gaming house, The Sinspire, for all of its countless riches. No-one has ever taken even a single coin from the Sinspire that wasn't won on the tables or in the other games of chance on offer there. But, as ever, the path of true crime rarely runs smooth and Locke and Jean soon find themselves co-opted into an attempt to bring the pirate fleet of the notorious Zamira Drakasha to justice.

The second installment in the Gentleman Bastard Sequence is a strange, difficult one to review. It seems that there are a lot of things to criticize, but I still finished the book with a good feeling; I simply enjoyed it, despite its shortcomings. And now I will try to explain why...

Like the first book I enjoyed the world Scott Lynch created. We get to see more of the world now, not just the city of the first book. Because the first book was exclusively limited to the city state of Camorr it’s fair to say the world in the first installment was a bit better developed, more detailed for sure. But I enjoyed seeing more of the world and not being limited to just Camorr. For me seeing more of the world worked and it’s good to know there is much more to discover left for the next 5 books.

The sharp and crisp dialogue, the humor, the drama & tragedy, the intrigue, Scott Lynch’s stylish style (?) – it’s all there and it’s all good. This is escapism as it should be – read an hour before sleeping and being completely transported to and absorbed by the world the writer created – this feeling is what I remember from being a young boy who started reading and being totally absorbed by the stories I read. The Gentleman Bastard books do this for me and that’s good. I even found myself ‘saving’ the book for reading in bed, without distractions of wife, child, television and telephone during the evenings. Lesser books I can read with whatever going on around me, the two Lock Lamora books I wanted to save for optimal enjoyment it seemed. Good job Mr. Lynch!

But there are also some problems. Locke and Jean are invulnerable. In itself this is not too bad (I mean I can also enjoy a James Bond movie while I know James will never die) but being in mortal peril constantly and coming out alive no matter what gets to be a little bit much after a while (and takes away some of the tension and excitement). Leading characters in ongoing series obviously usually survive, but in Locke’s and Jean’s case is too often because of dumb luck or because of other contrived reasons.

There were also some problems with the pacing. The first third of the book is used for setting up the Sinspire heist and the Archonate plotline. Nice and slow, no problems here. Then we get a part that’s a bit too long to my taste and drags a bit in which Locke and Jean learn to be sea men, which is the set up for the pirate part of the book. It is a too sudden departure from the Sinspire / Requin plotline; somehow it didn’t feel right, like Lynch threw together the plans for two separate books – one about the heist and one about pirates and crammed these two books into one. It felt somehow inconsistent I guess.

I actually liked the pirate part when it started good and well; the characters of Zamira and Ezri and the rest of the pirates, the description of Port Prodigal, the adventures at sea. Biggest problem arises when the plotlines of the beginning of the book are wrapped up in the last 50 pages or so; which seems to be ridiculously fast compared to the much slower pace of the early and middle part of the book. I appreciate the dramatic effect of a quickening pace toward the end of a story, but this was a bit too quick and too conveniently wrapped up.

Another unsatisfactory part of the ending: who was Merrain really working for? Didn't seem to be for Requin or the priori and she definitely wasn't working for Stragos . Did she work for the Bondsmagi? Doesn’t make much sense does it? Something for the next book maybe. And what’s the deal with these Bondsmagi anyway? I’m not a big magic fan and if it’s used it has to be explained well. The bondsmagi are completely off scene in this book, which is fine, but we are led to believe that they are super powerful. Why then don’t they just kill Locke and Jean them if they hate them so much? We’ll find later I suppose.

But all criticism aside: I still enjoyed this book a lot. A bit less than its predecessor, but I’m sure that everybody who read ‘Lies’ will want to read this one, and that the overall vibe and being in Locke and Jean’s world is enough to provide enjoyment. And although both books feature a lot of graphic language and violence, this one has a somewhat ‘darker’ vibe overall. No problem for me, but I can imagine that readers who particularly liked the devil-may-care vibe of the first book are a little bit put off by this one.

Conclusion: Despite its shortcomings it is still an enjoyable and entertaining story with the same sense of adventure as the first Gentleman Bastard book and I recommend this book to everybody who enjoyed ‘The Lies of Locke Lamora’.

8 / 10

PS: Although this is the second installment of a supposedly seven book series, this book like the first one is pretty much self contained. There are some open plotlines and there’s even a ‘cliffhanger’ at the end of ‘Red Skies’ but these books are nothing like for instance GRRM’s Song of Fire & Ice where all plotlines stay open. This makes the waiting for an extra year (Gentleman Bastards #3: Republic of Thieves seems to be postponed to 2010) less aggravating than in GRRM’s case.