Red Seas Under Red Skies (Gentleman Bastard, #2)

by Scott Lynch

Benjamin Carre (Artist), Catrina Barquist (Artist), and Francisco Vegas (Illustrator)

Escaping from the attentions of the Bondsmagi Locke Lamora, the estwhile Thorn of Camorr and Jean Tannen have fled their home city. Taking ship they arrive in the city state of Tal Varrar where they are soon planning their most spectacular heist yet; they will take the luxurious gaming house, The Sinspire, for all of its countless riches.

No-one has ever taken even a single coin from the Sinspire that wasn't won on the tables or in the other games of chance on offer there.

But, as ever, the path of true crime rarely runs smooth and Locke and Jean soon find themselves co-opted into an attempt to bring the pirate fleet of the notorious Zamira Drakasha to justice. Fine work for thieves who don't know one end of galley from another.

And all the while the Bondsmagi are plotting their very necessary revenge against the one man who believes e has humiliated them and lived; Locke Lamora.

• ISBN13: 9781399625319
• Publish Date: May 2024 (first published 1 January 2007)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Edition: Broken Binding Exclusive
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 630
• Language: English
• Special: Numbered Signed Sprayed Edges

Reviews

[Melanie]

Review originally posted at RabidReads.ca.

After finishing The Lies of Locke Lamora, I was excited to pick up the second book. The first book ends on interesting note with not everything working out according to plan. I was curious to see where Lynch would take us in the second book.

This story picks up a few years after the ending of the first book. Locke and Jean have left the town where they’ve lived almost their entire life. They are in the new town of Tal Verrar. They are still up to their shenanigans. They have their set on a very large con, bigger than anything they’ve ever done. They’ve been building up to this for two years.

Everything doesn’t go according to plan, once again, for our duo. The Bonds Mages haven’t forgotten about how the pair wronged one of their own (though in my opinion, the mage had it coming). Jean and Locke are getting blackmailed by more than one person, while dodging the death threat presented by the Bonds Mages.

I had a lot of fun with this second story in the series. Jean and Locke are really likable characters. I really love this pair. There are some other great characters in this book. The one I liked to most is a pirate that Jean and Locke end up working with. Zamira Drakasha is a black woman around 40ish years old with two toddlers. She runs her pirate ship like you would expect any pirate to run one. She does it all while raising her two kids, with the help of her other female shipmates. I love her cutthroat attitude. She is loyal to her family and her shipmates and no one else. She was just an amazing character.

This story is a little slower at times compared to the first book. I again listened at increased speed compared to my normal listening speed. I’m really interested to see where this story goes next. I’m sure that Jean and Locke will continue to find themselves in trouble. They will never seem to learn out keep themselves out of trouble.

Narration
Again, I enjoyed the narration of this series. Michael Page did a good job. There were more women in this story that the first book. Women aren’t his strong suit, but they weren’t bad. I look forward to listening to the last book in this trilogy.

[adamfortuna]

Building on the first one, I felt that I enjoyed the heist side of this one much more. It reminds me of the movie "Lucky Number Slevin" (which wasn't as good as this book), where our heroes are thrust into situation after situation where they are being exploited for their unique set of skills. The main arc with the Sinspire was the the one I was most interested in, but felt the resolution wasn't as strong. Leaving off much more in the middle of the story than the first book, I'll need to read #3 to know where this one goes.

[KitsuneBae]

The boring outweighs the interesting stuff. .

[Amber]

After the masterpiece that was The Lies of Locke Lamora, I wasn’t expecting this sequel to top it. Sequels rarely do, especially when the first book is just so flawless that nothing can improve it. And that’s probably the best way to go into Red Seas Under Red Skies. I loved it. I wasn’t underwhelmed. I didn’t expect too much. It’s simply a fantastic fantasy book about people who are essentially ex-crime lords and, oh, some women who could technically be referred to as PIRATES.

Red Seas Under Red Skies does a marvellous job of building up and expanding the world that we’re introduced to in The Lies of Locke Lamora. In this sequel, we see more cities and come across different world (or, rather, city) leaders, and we also see the ocean. Because in Red Seas Under Red Skies, Locke and Jean become PIRATES. Yes, I will probably continue to capitalise that word.

So anyway, all of these female PIRATES are introduced and they’re badass. Locke and Jean… not so much so. They’re not great at sailing the seven seas. But, luckily, we have an awesome female captain and her second who kick them into shape.

Red Seas Under Red Skies also looks into Locke and Jean’s relationship a lot more. As the world continues to expand, Locke/Jean does too. And if you’re not a shipper then that’s fine, you can view it as a platonic best friendship all you like. But, if you’re reasonable, like me, and ship the hell out of both of them, then you can revel in their love because they are legit the OTP of the entire series and nothing can tell me otherwise. JEAN LOVES LOCKE AND LOCKE LOVES JEAN.

This review took quite the turn, but just know that Red Seas Under Red Skies is hilarious, witty, feminist, and simply brilliant. I’ve fallen even more in love with Jean and Locke, and I will definitely be rereading this series when I find the time. Hopefully before the fourth book comes out next year!

[g2pro]

A great 2nd book.