Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Locke and Jean up to their old tricks again, August 19, 2007
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.
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39 of 48 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
A sagging middle, August 5, 2007
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.
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Not Free SF Reader, November 8, 2007
Piracy problems.
This is also a book with a few problems, too. In particular, pace and structure. What Lynch has here is a caper book with some piracy or a pirate book with some thieving, but it is close to 600 pages.
Now that it is not necessarily a problem. The work is divided into three books, with the first the period after they get out of town in the end of the first novel.
This part has flashbacks, flashforwards, flashsideways that get quite annoying after awhile and will likely leave some readers slightly confused, and occasionally they are pointless shipboard interludes.
For this sort of book the extended learning to be sailors middle book also drags a little.
The whole adventure is wrapped up at almost blistering speed in the last few pages - running out of space then, perhaps?
Anyway, not sure if it is the author or edito/publisher with problems or length demands, but it certainly spoils the book.
Lynch is quite entertaining at the page level, and his dialogue can be very funny at times, so it is disappointing the experience is spoiled by the rest.
The basic storyline here is they have to stir the pirates up into causing a threat to enable the Archon to restore his military powerbase, or they die.
A decent book, but the series continues to frustrate in not achieving its potential.
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