This is a review for book 2 of a triolgy. If you are interested, I recommend starting at The Lies of Locke Lamora.
I thought he wasn’t going to make it. Here I was, 23 hours into a 26-hour audiobook, and of the seventeen plot threads going, it looked like exactly one of them would be resolved. I fully expected to end on a cliff-hanger and need to pick up book 3 (Republic of Thieves) before too long if I was to have any narrative satisfaction.
I was wrong.
The first third of the book, you think you’re into one type of journey, then out of nowhere the act-2 plot twist hits hard and doesn’t hold back, sending the plot careening off in another direction. Lynch does it, though. In the final moments, all the threads wove together nicely, if they didn’t quite tie off into a neat bow.
This is not a book for neat bows.
The Basics:
Title: Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastards #2)
Author: Scott Lynch
Genre: Fantasy, Heist, Mystery, Action-Adventure
Published: Bantam, 2007
Spoiler-Free Summary:
Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen begin at the bottom of all barrels. More than that, their barrel is at the bottom of a barrel of barrels, and they’re pressed down tight. That super-barrel is in an abandoned wellon a low-lying plane. Things are bad, ok? At the end of book 1, they succeeded and they survived, but life is not exactly going well for them, and they can hardly count their losses and enemies.
Two years have passed. Our heroes have escaped to a new city, less of a fantasy Venice and more of a fantasy rennaisance Las Vegas. They are running a long con on the local crime boss when the local naval admiral (The “Archon”) presses them into his service. It’s well-known that no person can serve two masters. That’s in the good book. Locke and Jean spend this book serving two (and later three) diametrically opposed mortal enemies with very different agendas, while keeping everyone convinced they are their double-agents: truly loyal to them, and not the others. Even summarizing it is a mouthfull.
The adventure ranges from landlocked dens of iniquity to the seaborn variety, with a colorful and creative cast of thieves, assassins, and criminals to befriend and betray.
Why You Will Love This Book:
The pace of the books in this series is odd. Wikipedia calls the US edition 558 pages, and I already mentioned the length of the audiobook. It meanders a bit as twists great and small bounce the plot around. Taken together, you might think this would be a long, tedious read… but, and I mean this as the highest compliment, the book reads fast despite this. Each scene pulls you along quickly as tension mounts and suprises abound. Lynch is, for my money, a master of the complex plot.
And the characters! There are no small parts. Every side-characters is an unexpected and fully realized being, with quirks, hopes, strengths, and foibles. Their voices lend humor and levity to an otherwise dark tale.
Speaking of darkness, The Gentleman Bastards series borders on grimdark. Cruel people do cruel things and speak with salty tongues. If that doesn’t bother you, I strongly recommend these modern classics.
Where Can You Learn More:
Check out the author’s backlist and upcoming releases over here.
Happy reading, folks.
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