Red Seas Under Red Skies

by Scott Lynch
558 pgs

Ever since finishing The Lies of Locke Lamora, I've been looking forward to reading the second book in Lynch's Gentlemen Bastard series. However, since Lynch has apparently taken a cue from George R.R. Martin as far as his writing pace is concerned, I figure I'm going to need to pace myself with his series as well--which is unfortunate. Both books so far have been so good that I would have loved being able to pick up the next book as soon as I finished reading them.

Red Seas Under Red Skies begins two years after the conclusion of Lies. This time Locke and Jean have set their sites on robbing Sinspire, the impenetrable casino in Tal Verrar. Their plans, however, get sidetracked when they become unwilling pawns for the head of the city's military force; who wants to ensure his position's relevance going forward, and needs Locke's and Jean's skills for creating mayhem and discord in order to do that.

There are enough plots and subplots in this one to keep you on your toes till the end, and the number of aliases used by both Locke and Jean are nearly enough to require a cheat sheet at times. But as convoluted as things tend to get before Lynch deftly unravel them at the end, the story is as entertaining as you could hope for it to be.

The next book in the series (and the last one written so far), The Republic of Thieves sits appetizingly on my bookshelf right now. I'm anxious to pick it up, as Lynch left a critical thread untied at the conclusion of this one, and I'm anxious to see it resolved. But I plan to wait till I know book IV is coming, so I'll have something solid to look forward to. Otherwise the wait becomes intolerable.

★ ★ ★ ★ ☆