Review Day: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

There are no major spoilers in this review.

Red Seas Under Red Skies is the second book in The Gentleman Bastards series, by Scott Lynch. The book takes Locke Lamora and his compatriot, Jean Tannen, to the island city of Tal Verrar, where they recuperate from the events of Book One and come up with a plot to rob an extravagant casino known as the Sinpsire.

The flashbacks focused on Locke's recovery from Book One's traumas and his growing awareness of the class inequalities in this world are the strongest parts of the book. The main plotline itself, however, is much less interesting and effective. The book suffers from a convoluted "road trip" structure that pulls the reader further and further from its initial premise.

By the midpoint, Locke and Jean are sailing with pirates a long way from the Sinspire because of a plot within a plot within a plot. While the nautical sections are fun to read, they're orthogonal to the original heist in Tal Verrar. The hard pivot to sailing and swashbuckling makes the final resolution of the heist feel like a disappointing afterthought.

I struggled a bit with the way the plot and characters developed in this book. I felt like the Gentleman Bastards relied far more on luck than skill and cleverness in this outing. I also felt like the author set up some interesting potential conflicts between Locke and Jean that were resolved too easily and not given the weight they deserved. After the overwhelming maleness of the first book, I did appreciate the addition of interesting women characters, like Selendri the disfigured casino agent and Zamira Drakasha, captain of the Poison Orchid.

Red Seas Under Red Skies dampened my enthusiasm for the series to the point where I'm not sure if I'll continue on to Book Three, The Republic of Thieves. Still, I enjoyed this book more often than I didn't, and would say it's worth giving it a try if you were a fan of Book One.

Final Grade: B-