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Red Seas Under Red Skies Scott Lynch 8601415873276 Books

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Red Seas Under Red Skies Scott Lynch 8601415873276 Books

Starts strong, and really gets ripping along, but can't quite stick the landing. I love it when a plan comes together in a cool heist story, and this series has some really sweet heists in it, but the main plot has a few too many moving parts at the end and they don't all resolve as neatly as I'd have liked.


Tags : Red Seas Under Red Skies [Scott Lynch] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. In his highly acclaimed debut, <b>The Lies of Locke Lamora</b>, </i>Scott Lynch took us on an adrenaline-fueled adventure with a band of daring thieves led by con artist extraordinaire Locke Lamora. Now Lynch brings back his outrageous hero for a caper so death-defying,Scott Lynch,Red Seas Under Red Skies,Spectra,0553804685,Fantasy fiction.,Swindlers and swindling;Fiction.,American Science Fiction And Fantasy,Fantasy,Fantasy - Epic,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction Fantasy Epic,Swindlers and swindling

Red Seas Under Red Skies Scott Lynch 8601415873276 Books Reviews

For me, this was a let-down after the first Locke Lamora book. Where the first captured and held my attention from the first moment, this one was slow to gain speed, and, once it did, was so full of complexities and plots within plots and characters within characters that I had a hard time staying with it. Once the main characters get on the ship and develop interesting relationships with the interesting characters there, it speeds up and becomes interesting, but it takes half the book to get there. And then, before it's over with again, the reader is forced to return to the mind-exhausting complexity of plots within plots in order to make sense of the ending.

I still give it 4 stars because I love this character and several of the secondary characters, and the good parts were worth wading through the meh parts. However, I will probably not read the third book, as I fear it is likely to be equally or even more complex, and ... I'd rather spend time with characters than plot twists.
Book 2 is just as thrilling as Book 1. One must love Locke and Jean because while they are thieves, they are honorable, good guys who appeal to the heart. They take but give, receive and offer. They fight alongside their friends and take down their enemies. Yet, for all their thievery, they are loyal, nice guys. It's bizarre to say but they are really charming.

In Book 2, they voyage from land to sea. Their loss of friends remains heavy on their hearts but they continue on as the notorious, "Gentleman Bastards", true priests of the Crooked Warden, the 13th God. Locke leads the way as the mastermind with Jean at his side.

Jean and Locke find themselves in the company of pirates after they are forced to aid a rogue leader. The Bondsmagi are still pissed over their fingerless and tongueless comrade so they continue to plot against Locke and Jean by exposing their identities and whereabouts to men who may come across them. Their watchful eyes puts them on the archon's radar. Again Locke and Jean are taken out of their comfort zone of masterminding cons for financial gain to masterminding cons in order to stay alive. This time, the hustlers get hustled.

Brilliantly written! Great story, with two lovely and fierce female protagonists joining the men. The ending is endearing but heartbreakingly sad.

I love Locke's compassion, how easily wounded he gets when insulted and Jean's sensitivity to loss and the ease at which he cries. Their friendship is one of a kind and so very admirable. What remains present when reading their story is that both men didn't choose to be thieves, they were made thieves. They don't play honest but they play gentle unless forced into a fight. They are an unforgettable pair much like Holmes and Dr. Watson in that they are entertaining and work well together on the opposite side of the law.
I bought this book when I was less than 200 pages into The Lies of Locke Lamora. I adored it; the world, the characters, the intricacies of the cons. It was something I didn't know I was looking for until it was in my hands.

I'd regard the second book as highly if the story that was built up within the first 200 pages is the story we got. The first chapter was brilliantly written, and spurred me to shirk my adult responsibilities as I was drawn deeper into the narrative. Fans of the first book knew there was plenty of room for raising the stakes, and it seemed as though Red Seas Under Red Skies would deliver on that.

Unfortunately the main plot - as well as all the characters I'd grown to care about - were told to bugger off around 300 pages in while Locke and Jean meandered out to sea.

I'm torn. I don't hate everything about the middle section of the book, and though I wish the story had gone in another direction (primarily because there were too many plotlines and too many things that weren't followed up on or not given nearly as much development as I'd have liked), I can see why Lynch went in the direction he did.

The book's biggest problem is that you could cut around 200 pages of content and wind up with a much stronger product. All the time spent on explaining sailing and nautical terms and this and that was time I'd have rather spent reading about the intricacies of a new con, or delving deeper into Locke's backstory.

It didn't help that time skipped about however it wished. There's a particularly bad instance at the beginning of chapter eleven where the narrative jumps forward by several hours following the last chapter, but then the second scene goes right back to the end of the last chapter without warning, and it took me a minute to figure out what was happening. Confusion mixed with long passages about things I don't care about do not make for a pleasant time.

I'll say this - Lynch did a marvelous job of describing things I don't care about. He simply couldn't make it interesting in a context where it ground the main plot to a halt.

I can't help but get the feeling he felt so much pressure to up the stakes following a first novel where things went to hell in fantastic fashion that he went too far with this one and couldn't keep the plot focused as a result. It's not a bad book by any means, but the best parts largely copy the formula from the first book, and the second act lull is long and dull enough I had to flip back to earlier pages to remind myself what was going on when the plot kicked back into gear.

If you haven't read The Lies of Locke Lamora, pick it up. It's well worth your coin. If you enjoy the banter between Locke and Jean, Red Seas Under Red Skies is worth a look. The dialog is as sharp as ever, and despite my overall feelings about the tale, I love the characters more than I did going into it.

If you enjoyed Lies more for the con, the consistent pacing, the gradual escalation of the main threat, and the steady build that led to an explosive (and immensely satisfying) conclusion, you'll find some of that here, but it's not going to thrill you half as much as the first book. You could skip from chapter seven to chapter thirteen or fourteen and not miss much of importance.

Lynch is a solid writer and world builder. He has a great vision for this series, but for whatever reason things didn't quite gel in this entry. I'm going to read the third book despite seeing several middling reviews because the characters and the world are strong enough to keep me hooked despite the flaws, but I have to admit parts of Red Seas Under Red Skies were slogs nearly on par with the sections of Lord of the Rings where Tolkien was so charmed by a particular arrangement of stones or trees he had to write about them for several pages, or have characters sing for whole chapters. This isn't a book for the casual Locke Lamora/fantasy enthusiast.
Starts strong, and really gets ripping along, but can't quite stick the landing. I love it when a plan comes together in a cool heist story, and this series has some really sweet heists in it, but the main plot has a few too many moving parts at the end and they don't all resolve as neatly as I'd have liked.