Customer Reviews

Red Seas Under Red Skies (The Gentleman Bastard Sequence)

5 star:		(32)
4 star:		(29)
3 star:		(20)
2 star:		(7)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch is the second book in the Gentlemen Bastards sequence, the first book being The Lies of Locke Lamora. This is the second novel that Mr. Lynch has published, it is quite evident that Mr. Lynch truly has a gift for weaving an incredible story. If you have not read The Lies of Locke Lamora you really need to do so before you even think about picking up this book. Events and discussions that happen within the pages of this novel will make much more sense having read the first book. Plus, the first book is simply bottled magic and a fantastic read, every fantasy fan should read it in my opinion.

The plot of this book follows Locke and Jean as they plan their next major heist on the shores of Tal Verrar. On the surface this seems like a straight forward plot, however, much like the first book - things aren't always as they seem. This is a much more involved plot that you would think; there are also a couple sub-plots that occur along the way. I don't really want to talk about those sub-plots though for fear of ruining a part of the book for anyone. If you read the first book though, you understand that rarely do things go exactly as planned for Locke and whoever is following him. We'll leave it at that. Suffice it to say that the plot of this novel is well done and succinct and rarely is there a slow moment in the entire book.

The story clearly focuses on Locke and Jean, two of the characters from the first book. There is a great deal of character development for Locke and Jean in this book, much more than the first book for sure. There are also a great deal of additional characters added, which only makes sense sine Locke and Jean completely uprooted themselves and moved to a different place. The addition of these new characters is seamless. They flow right into the existing story and fit perfectly into the grand scheme of things. Each character that Mr. Lynch adds is done with a reason and a greater purpose in mind. Mr. Lynch also has a way of getting the reader to hate certain characters; there are two that come to mind right away. All the characters in this novel, from the main heroes to the beer seller, are all richly detailed with just enough information given that the reader is allowed to form their own picture of what the character looks like, and acts like. They are truly unique characters, no clichés here. Characterization is definitely a strong suit for Mr. Lynch.

I do have two minor criticisms about this novel. While a great deal of this book takes place on a ship, and Mr. Lynch does his best to set the ambiance of life on a ship. There are times when Mr. Lynch has dialog with countless nautical terms. He obviously did quite a bit of research to make that dialog as realistic as possible, however, the dialog during those moments felt forced and didn't flow with the rest of the story. Secondly, as with the first book, Mr. Lynch talks about the all powerful Bondsmagi. However, we learn nothing more about them than we knew after the first book. I am all for keeping things mysterious, however, there should be a little information revealed to keep the reader interested by the mystery. After all, the adage `out of sight out of mind' holds true. I know they are present, but if I don't read much about them, then I will soon forget they are there. I hope that changes in the next installment.

Overall, I enjoyed this novel - although I think it just missed in living up to its predecessor. The magic that was the first books seemed to be slightly off in this one. That could be merely me loving the first book so much that I gave this one unfair expectations. This is a very good book and one many fans will enjoy. If you liked the first one than I have no doubt that you will enjoy this one just as much. In my eyes, Mr. Lynch has cemented himself as one of the best up and comers in the fantasy genre today. I will continue to recommend this series and I can not wait until the third installment hits the shelves.

Even though I often judge the purchase of a new book by the average star ratings on Amazon, sometimes they really don't suffice to give a proper idea of what to expect. "Red Seas Under Red Skies" is Scott Lynch's sequel to his outstanding debut novel, "The Lies of Locke Lamora". If you are looking at this book without having read "Lies", stop right here. Go buy "Lies" first - you won't be disappointed.

The reason I have a hard time simply using stars to judge this book is that my feelings about it are very mixed. One the one hand, we have a continuation of the Gentlemen Bastards from the first book. They continue to be a wonderful blend of Fafhrd and the Grey Mouser, Mission Impossible, and a little bit of "The Sting" thrown in for good measure. The worlds and environments that Lynch creates are detailed, inventive, interesting and richly imagined. The capers that Locke & Jean get caught up in never fail to boggle the mind.

So why are my feelings mixed? You know, I don't mind the pirate section of the book as much as some here seem to (though to be fair, on a ship in high winds and crashing seas, I can't imagine that having both "larboard" and "starboard" as terms used to indicate opposite sides of a ship NOT getting aurally confused). For me, the failings are primarily in the very abrupt ending. In the last 40 pages or so of the book, a anonymous threat is suddenly revealed, Locke & Jean first encounter one of the major warring factions and quickly enlist their aid, topple a previously unassailable tyrant, and pull off a heist in in a massively secure tower.

Now, for me, it's not a matter of failing my willing suspension of disbelief at all. It's just that this whole sequence deserved more details. The pacing here was so vastly counter to the rest of the book that it hurt. I usually enjoy the quickening pace at the end of a good book, but this was far too severe for my tastes and far too abrupt.

This is not the only flaw in the book by any means, but it was the one that really affected my overall opinion of the book the most. Some of the characters and motivations in the story are a bit formulaic, but not so much that it detracts from the work of a good storyteller. Having said all of this, I still enjoyed the book, on the whole, though it was clearly not in the same league as "Lies".

I have high hopes for the next book in the series. There are lots of loose ends to address, and I do enjoy the main characters. "Red Seas" is not by any means a bad book, but here's hoping for better things to come!

I totally loved the first book in this series, The Lies of Lock Lamora, but I have mixed feelings about this one. It's got some great characters hurling some of the best insults I've read, and the odd smattering of humor kept me going. The pacing of this adventure was uneven. For a swashbuckling adventure, the buckles could have been swashed a bit harder. After a bit of plodding plotting the resolution comes ridiculously swiftly. The energy in the last 20 pages would have been welcome throughout. The cliffhanging ending is more irritating than intriguing. It's got some great bits, but on the whole It's Just OK.

When you set out to write seven books, it turns out you have to find a way to fill seven books. And that's the basic problem with Red Seas Under Red Skies, the second book in Scott Lynch's...septology?

Lynch left himself with a lot to work with from the first book, The Lies of Locke Lamora. What is all that Elderglass? How will the bondsmagi try to take their revenge on Locke and Jean? How the heck does that magi stuff work in this world anyway? What has happened to Camorr after their caper's semi-success? Who's going to run the underworld now that the Grey King and Capa Barsavi are both gone? When will we get to find out more about that gal that Locke's pining after?

Rather than answer any of those questions, Lynch gives us two books in one: a pirate-romance novella sandwiched inside Locke and Jean's main caper, an elaborate attempt on the Sinspire, the most opulent den of iniquity in the city-state of Tal Verrar. Characters march on and off stage as if by rote, ideas are dropped almost before they're begun, and multiple machinas are elevated to deus status at various points to keep the plot creaking along.

Fortunately for the reader, Lynch's sarcasm and propulsive prose eventually overbalance what turns out to be basically an 800-page diversion, and the book, despite itself, is pretty enjoyable at that level. So long as you don't expect the larger arc of the Gentleman Bastards to move very far down the track, Red Seas Under Red Skies can be the kind of readable romp that makes for good vacation or airplane material.

I thoroughly enjoyed Scott Lynch's debut novel, The Lies of Locke Lamora, and had high expectation for this sequel. While it is a fun adventure story set in a well realized world, it does not quite live up to the expectations set by its predecessor.

Back are all the thieves, magi, capers, fights, witty banter, betrayals, double-crossing, and convoluted plots of the first novel. Locke and Jean are back and the story focuses this time on their friendship. They are trying to make their way in the world by pulling off a major heist in Lynch's fantasy version of Las Vegas (or Monte Carlo if you prefer).

The story begins in media res, and uses flashback chapters to fill in all the backstory between the end of Lies and the beginning of Red Seas Under Red Skies. I thought this technique was effective as it gets the action going right away. The characters are all well developed, including the many new faces, and all exhibit growth over the course of the novel. The reading experience is greatly augmented by Lynch's fine sense of humor.

Where this novel falters, for me at least, is with the plot. Lynch once again uses a very convoluted, very complex plot - which I love and fits the style of his novels perfectly. The beginning of the book it very well plotted as all the different players are introduced and their motivations are developed. The plot loses it tightness during a long middle section that features a piratical adventure. I usually love pirates, and the pirates hear are great fun to read about - they just don't add much to the plot that was developed in the first third of the book. The pirate interlude leads to an ending that felt rushed. More plot threads are left dangling here then were in Lies. Important characters are introduced that played absolutely no role in the first two-thirds of the book.

Despite it shortcomings I still recommend this book. If you can deal with the plot issues you'll have a great time with this book. I look forward to future books in the series.

For those who enjoyed Scott Lynch's The Lies of Locke Lamora, his follow-up book, Red Seas Under Red Skies, will likely be a mixed bag. As other reviewers have commented, it doesn't quite measure up to the first book and the intertwining plots would have been better served had they been done in two novels instead of one. The jumping around in time sequences and locations gets confusing, the resolutions of some of the plot threads are rushed, and the ending is decidedly dissatisfying on a couple of levels, particularly in what amounts to not so much a cliff-hanger as a cliff-tease.

One particular disappointment for me was a great scene involving Jean taking over a gang of street kids and starting to teach them how to be _real_ thieves. It felt like the beginning of something really interesting, plot-wise, but no sooner does it get going than it's summarily abandoned. Very annoying.

These things said, however, Red Seas Under Red Skies is still worth the read. The parts where it works are thoroughly engaging, with individual scenes that are true delights and dialogue that rises to memorable comic brilliance as can be seen in this particular rant of Locke's:

"Have we ever been _less_ in control of our lives than we are at this moment? We can't run away from the archon and his poison, which means we can't just disengage from the Sinspire game. Gods know we can't even see the Bondsmagi lurking, and we've suddenly got assassins coming out of our a******s. Know something? I'd lay even odds that between the people following us and the people hunting us, we've become this city's principal means of employment. Tal Verrar's entire economy is now based on _f*****g_with_us_."

Also on the plus side, I particularly liked how the novel gets into an actually plausible rational for the thieves' theology of the Crooked Warden, i.e. that the role of thieving has a purpose in the grand cosmic scheme of things. I also, unlike some reviewers, actually liked the pirate section of the book more than I liked the on-land con. It's always good when you can tell that an author has done their homework, and Lynch definitely did his on pirates, working in a number of details that really added to the texture and feel of those scenes. Parts of it are pure fantasy, of course - it is a fantasy world after all - but I still appreciate authors who work to make it as real as it can possibly be in that context.

So overall, I do recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy and/or who liked The Lies of Locke Lamora. It's a good if not great read, and there's enough of Locke and Jean in it to keep you going until Lynch's next novel comes out.

This book was enjoyable and entertaining, but if you're a fan of the first, I say lower your expectations. Overall there's A LOT going on in the plot. I would have been satisfied with just the Sinspire plot, but he also threw in a whole pirate part in the middle. And that's where I personally think this story sags and lags. It's weighed down by a lot of tedious description (I'm sure there are people who enjoy this, I'm not one of them) and not enough robbing. Pirates are fun yes, but unfortunately this seemed a bit out of place and was inconsistent. Which is why I enjoyed the first and last third of the book, and skimmed through the middle. I plan to keep reading the forthcoming books in this series, but I hope to see more of Locke doing some thieving and robbing in the future.

Even more so, when neither book is good. It's very difficult to satisfy two very different audiences, and in this case, Scott Lynch fails miserably. As a fan of Lies of Locke Lamora, I was excited when I learned about this sequel. Most authors get better with experience, but, unfortunately, there is the exception that proves the rule, where Red Seas over Red Skies is that exception. Lynch makes the following mistakes in this book.

1. He believes he's capable of writing a sea adventure. He is no Patrick O'Brian, Robert Louis Stevenson, or C.S. Forester. Reading up on several nautical terms does not give an author the understanding to do so, and changing them does not make a good story. The old adage, "write what you know" applies here. Lynch didn't follow that rule.

2. Fantasy cliches abound: pirates with hearts of gold, who look like Xena but act like Rowling's Hermione, corrupt military leaders trying to instigate wars in order to secure their ruling position, and thieves who bumble from near-death experience to near-death who survive because the author refuses to end the novel. Stock characters and elements can be fine when you want to make things familiar, but they should not be your entire story!

3. Heroes who survive on the might of strawmen and divine fate to carry them through the plot. In life sometimes you are saved by dumb luck, but no one has the winning streak of Jean and Locke. After three or four times everything becomes contrived and the reader loses all suspense of what may come. When ill befalls our heroes, we know their salvation is only five pages away.

4. The Interludes were a wonderful literary device in Lynch's first novel, but he tries to reach their magic with a similar approach and gives up half-way through the book. The Reminiscences are hit and miss, but they continued to provide much needed depth to this story. The plot in the first book worked so well, because everything was a product of the rich history Lynch created. Characters long dead were the motivations and inspiration for the present events: Father Chains lived on through the Gentleman Bastards and Capa Barsavi's murders survived in the Grey King. There is no parallel in this novel.

I could go on, but let me get to the heart of the problem. I wouldn't mind this book such a disappointment, except Lynch departed in so many ways from what made his first story grand. In Lies, Lynch found his writing voice, which he used abundantly in Red Seas, but this novel lack the focus, grit, and creativity of its predecessor. The last 200 pages of Lies were an easy read, but looking back, those chapters were the most poorly written, and, while he kept that tone throughout this book, he also kept the bad ideas. Lynch needs to find a balance between his witty fast pace writing style, and the careful detail which he crafts his worlds. That was not the case with Red Seas.

I'm well aware that many of you have been eagerly awaiting this book review. As was the case with me, I'm persuaded that most of you are curious to see if this one lives up to the expectations generated by its predecessor, The Lies of Locke Lamora. Hence, let me put your mind at ease. With Red Seas under Red Skies, Scott Lynch lives up to readers' high expectations!

And by that I mean that if you enjoyed Lynch's debut, you'll undoubtedly like this second volume in The Gentleman [...] sequence. To me, Lynch's books are like summer blockbuster movies. They're big productions with plenty of action, all in all quite the roller-coaster ride. They'll never win an Oscar, but in terms of fun and entertainment they pack a sure KO punch! If you're looking for a grand fantasy epic, don't bother. But if another imaginative and convoluted caper is your cup of tea, then buckle up and enjoy the ride! Think of it as an original cross between Ocean's Eleven and Pirates of the Carribean.

Locke and Jean's newest set of misadventures are sure to thrill fans of The Lies of Locke Lamora. Having screwed up things as bad as humanly possible in Camorr, both were forced to flee and eventually settled in Tal Verrar. Interestingly enough, that's where the Sinspire, the most exclusive and notorious gambling house, can be found. Orchestrating their most perfect crime, Locke has his sight set on the Sinspire's fortune. Unfortunately, Locke's plans have a tendency to go awry, and both he and Jean somehow find themselves among pirates on the Sea of Brass. Mix the Gentlemen [...] and piracy on the high seas, and you find yourself with a recipe for one fun-filled adventure!

As was the case with the author's debut, worldbuilding doesn't play much of a role in Red Seas under Red Skies. Even less so than in The Lies of Locke Lamora, truth be told. Although the action was more or less restricted to the city of Camorr in the first volume, Lynch created a veritable living and breathing locale as the backdrop for his story. Camorr sort of became a character in and of itself. The imagery wasn't quite the same with Tal Verrar, Port Prodigal and the other locations where the action takes place in this sequel.

The aspect which elevates this novel to another level is the characterization. Red Seas under Red Skies is a character-driven book, and Locke is once again the heart and soul of the tale (though Jean ups his game considerably in this one). The relationship between both characters is further fleshed out, making them even more endearing. Although he can craft an exciting, action-packed story, with witty dialogues throughout, I feel the characterizations remain Scott Lynch's bread and butter. He truly excels in that department. Which is why, I believe, I was a bit disappointed by the supporting cast. There are too many clichéd "tough chicks" for my taste, and what feels like an inordinate amount of female pirates (ferocious, every last one of them, of course). Somehow, that rang a little false. I'm all for strong female characters, but other than Ezri Delmastro I found the rest too clichéd in comparison.

The pace is brisk for the better part of the novel, though the rhythm becomes a bit sluggish in certain instances while the boys are at sea.

Kudos go out to Lynch for closing the show in unexpected fashion! Once more, Red Seas under Red Skies is an extremely entertaining adventure. Conventional wisdom says that the author will likely not be able to maintain this level of interest with a different caper in every volume of this seven-book cycle. And yet, conventional wisdom said that the James Bond franchise couldn't last. Still, Lynch's style ensures that this tale remains fresh in a genre that is too often known for its stagnancy. In any event, there are some hints of an overall and more ambitious story arc, so I'm curious to see what Lynch has in store for us in the forthcoming Republic of Thieves.

You can safely pre-order this one!:-) Red Seas under Red Skies may not be the best fantasy novel you'll read this year, but I doubt you'll have more fun reading anything else!

Check out my blog: www.fantasyhotlist.blogspot.com

I would like to start by saying that I may judging this book more harshly than most because I had very high hopes for it after reading the first novel in the series "The Lies of Locke Lamora".
Red Seas under Red Skies isn't bad exactly, it's just very average. From the perspective of a stand alone novel, the book has a good amount of intrigue, interesting characters and a couple decent plot twists. Unfortunately, it does not possess enough of these qualities to really stand out in the field of medieval fantasy, and would be hard to recommend by itself. It's greatest value comes from the character and world development that occurs and relates to the overall series of Locke Lamora and I am glad that I read it simply because it will allow me to read the third book, which I hope will give Lynch a chance to redeem himself as one of my favorite new authors.

Don't read this book by itself, read Lies of Locke Lamora first, and only read this book if you loved the first and wish to read the third.

In order to not totally trash the book, here are some things it does well:
1.) Humorous, Locke and sidekick are still amusing and clever to a certain degree, and this adds alot to the depth of characters and plot.
2.) Dark and real, The world of Locke Lamora is dangerous and no character is invulnerable to death or maiming.
3.) Intricate plot, main plots and subplots entwine to keep you guessing. The tapestry is not as satisfying as the first novel, but still well done in a field that is littered with straight forward and bland plots.