This is the second book in the Gentleman Bastards series. I adored the first book, The Lies of Locke Lamora, so naturally I had high expectations coming into Red Seas Under Red Skies.
The book opens some two years after the events of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Locke and Jean have assumed new identities and infiltrated a high-security gambling house, the Sinspire, in the city of Tal Verrar to pull a new heist. Naturally, given their luck, things do not go well for our heroes, and they’re forced into a rather complicated pirating job for the military dictator of the city while still trying to string along their original plan. In the first part of the book, the present events are alternated with flashbacks to what happened directly after they made their escape from Camorr, much of which is important set-up for the course of the novel.
The main strength and attraction of this book for me is the relationship between Locke and Jean; having such a strong relationship between two male characters is pretty rare in fantasy fiction as far as I can think of, or at least, it’s generally not characterised so well…was there a reader in the world fooled by the prologue’s scene? The tagline of ‘friendships tested’…well, yes, Locke and Jean fight and make up, fight and make up, fight and make up…but the problem with characterising an unbreakable friendship so well is that it then becomes hard to convince the reader it can be broken. The supporting characters are also solid, especially (sigh) Ezri.
The book balances humour, intense violence and tragedy with the same deft flair as the first. Humour me while I make a comparison to David Eddings, who really shouldn’t even be mentioned in the same breath as Lynch. His The Redemption of Althalus features the World’s Best Thief, where for comic effect the first hundred pages is spent dwelling on all his jobs going wrong. By the end of this sequence, I was convinced that the main character’s reputation was a self-proclaimed joke…except it was made clear the reader was, yes, meant to think of him as the World’s Best Thief despite all evidence to the contrary (I gave up on this book right about then). By contrast, Lynch manages to show things going humorously wrong for Locke and Jean without damaging their impressive reputations.
We are now also beginning to get some suggestions of an overall arc for the seven-book series (by the way, Lynch has titles and basic teasers on his website for each book, so he’s planned well ahead, a good sign for the integrity of the series as a whole). Red Skies, like Lies, is a stand-alone novel, but there’s a couple of unresolved questions which I trust will be built on over the next few books; plus there’s that major problem Locke’s been left with.
On the downside, the book is long…over-long? Almost, but the world-building and moments of genuine humour or chills are so well done that it’s hard to complain…and the pacing is off, particularly in the middle where they’re training for their pirate expedition and setting out with their new crew: this happens just late enough in the book (especially with the flashbacks also slowing things down) that it seems like an entirely new development rather than what the book has been leading to the whole time. It’s a slow build with what felt like a rushed conclusion (with some pretty big stretches; but the beauty of character-driven books is that plot can be so readily forgiven).
I was also disappointed with the several glaring copy errors in the text…look, publishers, the first book was an international bestseller, for the love of god. The second book’s going to do just as well, if not better…do you think you could spare a tiny fraction of the profits to hire a bloody proofreader and show some respect for your readers?* Just send a few proof copies to dedicated fans, between them they’ll pick the errors for free.
That’s not to say I’m not annoyed that the next book, The Republic of Thieves, isn’t out yet. Lynch, if you pull a GRR Martin on me, I shall have to come over there and smack you. He’s already managed to pull enough of a Martin on me to make me seriously question whether both our boys are going to make it to (or past) the end of this series…
The tagline for the next one is ‘The roots of love and a deep rivalry. The nature of magic and the secrets of Karthain. Thorn and Rose fight to share the stage.’ Hopefully that Rose is Sabetha, because a) it’s time for a female main character and b) enough hint-dropping already, Scott. We want to meet the girl who’s got Locke’s heart.
So…supposedly it’s out in early 2009. There’s also a prequel novella coming out to explore Locke and Jean’s early days in Camorr (The Bastards and the Knives). I have mixed feelings about this, as I thought the flashbacks in Lies handled this very well and I really think, Scott, that maybe this kind of thing could wait till you’ve finished writing the current series, you bastard. Though…maybe he has?
In Red Seas, Locke says ‘I’m getting a bit annoyed with those who praise our previous escapades as an excuse for forcing us into even riskier ones.’ Oh, Locke. You’re in a bit of trouble, then.
Lynch’s website is here; it has maps!
Interested? Buy it from Fishpond.com.au
*Though, you do do gorgeous covers, so well done for that, at least (I am talking about Gollancz; other covers aren’t so nice).
I agree there was a sudden change of pace and almost new book midway through. And for a terrible proof reader like myself I was very suprised to come across an entire line repeated…having said that nothing stopped me reading this book at 4 times my normal pace!
Yeah…the direction change shouldn’t have been a surprise since it’s referred to on the back cover, but the first part of the book did seem somewhat disconnected from the piracy bits…again, I think the interspersed flashbacks had something to do with that; they probably could have been handled better.
But I don’t mean to sound so negative; I should make it clear I enjoyed and highly recommend this book and that I can’t wait for the rest of the series.
[...] open with action happens in subtler ways too. Take, for example, the opening of Scott Lynch’s Red Seas Under Red Skies. I really enjoyed this book, but I felt the prologue doesn’t work – it’s a [...]