Red Seas Under Red Skies

by Scott Lynch

Paperback, 640 pages

English language

Published Nov. 7, 2007 by Gollancz.

ISBN:: 978-0-575-07967-0

(131 reviews)

After a brutal battle with the underworld that nearly destroyed him, Locke Lamora and his trusted sidekick, Jean, fled the island city of their birth and landed on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilization, they can't rest for long---and they are soon back doing what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves.

This time, however, they have targeted the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele - and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior...and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire.Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors...straight to Requin's teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb - until they are closer to the spoils than ever.

But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough.

4 editions

Øyvind reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch (Gentleman Bastard, #2)

The Gentleman Bastards strikes again

5 stars

A few years has passed since the last time we saw Locke and Jean, and they have established themselves in the city of Tal Verrarr planning another spectacular heist. It's interesting to see how they deal with everything that's they face of challenges in they way of their heist, and how they deal with the outfall of both them and the ending of the last book. Even though we have moved away from the city of Camorr is the worldbuilding still great and we get to visit quite a few interesting places, and meet a few interesting persons. A few potential action sequences where cut from the book, however the way it was done was quite clever so I can't be to hard about it.

It's a great book that I'd recomend to everyone that have read The Lies of Locke Lamora if you haven't I'd recomend that you start …

It's a great book that I'd recomend to everyone that have read The Lies of Locke Lamora if you haven't I'd recomend that you start there, although you'll probably be fine jumping into things here as well. The main downside of th Gentleman Bastard sequence is that it's far from finished, and the gap between book 3 and 4 is on over 10 years.

georgewhatup reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

After reading this I'm confident in saying most fantasy series would benefit from including one book where the characters become pirates for a bit.

Locke and Jean are still the beating heart of the series but the host of new characters manage to hold their own.

Not quite as tight as the first book, and it didn't add much new depth to the characters, but still a swashbuckling ride that never stops entertaining. The bold shift in style makes up for any small grumbles I might have.

Left me looking forward to book 3.

kholerik reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

None

2 stars

Ugh, what a tedious read this was. I really like the characters, I like the world, I love good cons and heists. And yet Lynch manages to make the books so damn hard to get through. There is an incredible amount of filler pages, hell, entire chapters that you could just rip out and nobody would notice. I complained about this in the first one already, but it's so much worse in this one. Many plot strings meandering along, until there's a rush on the last 50 pages or so to tie it all up.

I cannot recommend this book and I will not continue the series.

Enno reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Not bad for a second book. Likable new characters, another exciting heist that leaves the reader in the dark until the very end, and many adventures that make me want to play a D&D campaign in this world. This book made me want to play the old Pirates! game from Sid Meier again, and I didn't regret that either.

Mollarom reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I think a good, short review may be: "Well. I didn't see that coming."

Lynch delivers. Two protagonists from the first Locke Lamora book return for a new score, only they wind up with much, much, MUCH more than they bargained for.

Sean Gursky reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I swear, Je...Jerome, the next person who tells me something like, 'Squiggle-fuck this rightwise cock-swatter with a starboard jib' is going to get a knife in the throat. Even if it's Caldris. No more nautical terms tonight."

"You seem to be three sheets to the wind."

"Oh, that's your death warrant signed then, four-eyes."

Jean and Locke return with great banter, wonderful action and a series of cons to pull on victims. The remaining Gentleman Bastards have the events of Lies of Locke Lamora hanging heavily over their heads, and all plans. The world of Gentleman Bastards has been set up and I was ready for a con-within-a-con, especially if the Bondsmagi were the ones pulling the strings. Then, rather abruptly, everything was thrown out with the bath water and we were conducting piracy on the seas.

The pirate locale worked but it almost became too much to hold together. You had the Captain Council and their schemes, the events happening on the boat with Jean and Locke, and then the cons set up on shore. It was messy but the more complicated it got the more eager I was to see how it would all unravel or piece together.

The below quote is from Locke near the end of the story, and I couldn't help but think Lynch was pleading with the readers as a Deus ex machina was putting a bow on the plot.

"We've left a few parts of our story untold, Zamira. Forgive us. Sometimes these schemes get a bit heavy to haul around."

I really like what Lynch has done with this story, building fantastic characters, slowly adding complexity and consequences to actions on top of a problematic situation, and because of that I'll continue reading this series. I wanted to enjoy this book as much as the first but I had to dock it points because it almost became too much in the story.

The third book is longer than the previous two, so if Lynch is set on filling the pages with as much twists and turns as possible I'll see if that is the benefit, or hinderance, of these Bastards.

AJ Kerrigan reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

I enjoyed [b:The Lies of Locke Lamora|127455|The Lies of Locke Lamora (Gentleman Bastard, #1)|Scott Lynch|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1386924569s/127455.jpg|2116675] straight through, beginning to end. There were a lot of things I liked about this book too. Characters I've grown to love got fleshed out even more, we get introduced to some memorable new locations, and there are new/different/interesting schemes to be played on new/different/interesting people. There's a lot to enjoy. One thematic choice kept rubbing against the grain of my personal taste though, and it kept me from enjoying the book as much as I did the first. Details below since it's hard to discuss without spoilers.

I'm very excited to read [b:The Republic of Thieves|2890090|The Republic of Thieves (Gentleman Bastard, #3)|Scott Lynch|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1406961069s/2890090.jpg|2916344]!

The one element of this book that continually hampered my enjoyment was nautical detail. Oh boy. I stress that this is a personal preference issue rather than something I perceive as a shortcoming of the book, because I'm sure other people read it and thought "Nice! Nautical terms!" My own impression went more like this:

"Locke and Jean are going to get a taste of piracy. This sounds fun, let's see where it goes."
"Mr. Lynch is not glossing over any details of seafaring here, he wants to make us feel like we're on the sea with the characters. Good on him!"
"Ok, I think I'm good now. I've had enough with the nautical detail."
"Please. No more. Start glossing over details any time now."

I liked the rest of the book so much that this relatively minor gripe stands out in sharp relief.

Tavish reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

A bit slow to start, and the ocean's eleven style heists were a bit too convoluted; some of the funniest lines and curses I have read though.

Vedang Manerikar reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

With this book, the series devolves into plain airport reading. There is nothing to be gained from reading this book, just some mental distraction for a few hours. (In fact, I read the majority of the book on a flight).

I'll read the next book when it comes out, but I won't revisit this series again and again, like I do with Lord of the Rings, Foundation, or the Kingkiller Chronicles.

Manzabar reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Good, but not as good as the first book. Also, the opening scene which really drew some friends of mine into the book annoyed me. It doubly annoyed me later in the book when we finally got the explanation of how that scene came about. On the bright side, Jean gets a lot more page time in this book.

Nikita reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

Not as good as the first one. It took about half the novel to really pick up. But whenever it moved away from the pirates it started to drag a bit.

RxBrad reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

The first one-third of the book was practically a clone of the first book. Double-crossing two powerful figures -- one of which, the main characters are very involuntarily allied with -- while trying to pull a big heist.

Then, suddenly, it's a book about pirates. Not necessarily a BAD change. Just different. Unfortunately, most of the decent parts tended to get lost in all of the uninteresting nautical jargon.

Good book overall; just not as good as the first book.

Eoghann Mill Irving reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

5 stars

Sequels are treacherous things. Can the author bottle lightening for a second time? Do the characters and the settings have the depth to stretch? Was the book not actually as good as you remembered anyway.

In this case though I was pleasantly surprised. Red Seas Under Red Skies is every bit as enjoyable as its predecessor The Lies of Locke Lamora.

The core format of the story remains the same. It is shamelessly inspired by classic caper movies. The central characters jump through multiple identities and plot ever more complex double, triple and quadruple crosses. This is exactly the sort of thing that made the first book so enjoyable.

But Lynch seems to be attempting both to explore more of his detailed fantasy world and to grow his characters. I'm always happy to read more about the settings and history of these books. They are wonderfully rich and convincing. The character growth met with mixed success.

While Locke and Jean's religious training was just touched on in the first book, suddenly it becomes a central element of their moral compass. The swing is just a little bit too abrupt for comfort. Particularly early in the story before enough events have occurred to really justify it.

At first I thought the pirate elements of the story were a similarly odd story branch, but looking back the turn out to be crucial to getting the level of emotional attachment required for the punishment that they finally dish out. And more importantly perhaps those elements are highly entertaining in their own right.

I wouldn't want to be a character in this series though. The death toll is high and the living tend to suffer even more than the dead.

Chris Hubbs reviewed Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

Review of 'Red Seas Under Red Skies' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

An entertaining con game story, but not as compelling as the first book in the series ("The Lies of Locke Lamora"). A lot of plot layers to keep track of, and while the pirate angles are entertaining, it doesn't quite live up to the original. Still, a fun read.