Greatpilgrim's Full Review: Scott Lynch - Red Seas Under Red Skies
Hype hype hype. That’s the name of the game for Scott Lynch’s “Gentlemen Bastard” series, which premiered in the U.S. in 2006 with The Lies of Locke Lamora and has landed Lynch a nomination for the John Campbell Award (the sci-fi/fantasy Hugo medal for best new author). When I read the first book of the series, I brashly suggested it was the best fantasy of 2006, but had little to compare it to then. Now, reading the sequel published in 2007, I’m left wondering if the hype was even deserved in the first place.
Red Seas Under Red Skies brings our ruthless con artists Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen, recently escaped from their homeland of Camorr, to Tal Verrar’s most wealthy and dangerous gambling hall, the Sinspire. Here their latest scheme is being hatched – to trick the house lord Requin into letting them stage a vault break-in – but before they know it Locke and Jean (under handy new aliases that come faster than the latest bamboozles can keep up with them) are working for and double-crossing and running from not one but THREE different employers/causes as they hit the open seas and join the swashbuckling scene of piracy. Who’s on whose side? Who knows anymore…
~My take~
I found this book tough going on both the reading *and* reviewing front, not because of any terribly difficult writing or mind-boggling complexity, but because I had trouble mustering any enthusiasm for its tale or characters. Scott Lynch tells a pretty exciting story in a less-than-effective manner, jumping around early on with frequent flashbacks that didn’t pay off for me – although the opening pages made me come to attention! He then proceeds to unfold hijinks that are *meant* to have you on the edge of your seat but inspired more of a measured determination to keep moving for me, thanks to jumpy scenes during the action parts and sluggish storytelling in between.
I don’t mean to totally trash Red Seas Under Red Skies, because it still has a fun Ocean’s 11 meets Pirates of the Caribbean with a generous helping of Master and Commander mash-up going on. If the narrative had had a little more polish and tightening, the suspense and uncertainty of the ever-changing alliance and “how-are-they-gonna-get-out-of-THIS-one?” straits that the characters find themselves in would have been truly fantastic. I felt like the entertainment factor of the book in general needed to be kicked up a notch – my MIND knew that the twists were exciting, but my pulse didn’t. Bad news for a swashbuckler!
Lynch’s characterizations rely a lot on what’s gone on before in the first book (as does the story in general, putting this firmly in the “read the series in order” camp); I would have enjoyed a little more progression in Locke and Jean’s characters, an openness or intimacy that we aren’t allowed much here at all. I also had trouble keeping up with the scores of new important characters who are introduced with little fanfare and then change the whole dynamics of the story while I was left scrambling to figure out where a name came from and who the heck they are. The cast has more of the caricature/archetype feel of Pirates of the Caribbean characters than flesh-and-blood people roaming the high seas and back alleys of Tal Verrar’s underworld.
Rather than being full-fledged fantasy, Red Seas Under Red Skies confirmed its predecessor’s genre of caper adventure tinged with the barest smidges of magic, as gods are believed in to guide the fates of thieves and sailors, wealth is influenced by alchemical creations of metals, and other “realistic” appearances of vague religious references. This world is unusual and fresh but also confusingly presented, without even a “name” for the world as cities and islands are traversed with a wild abandon and not even a pretense of trying to orient the reader. Gritty seedy locales trump any etherealness of the fantasy genre, which may or may not recommend this book to you.
I’m wondering if Scott Lynch has what it takes to improve as an author or if the “beginning novelist” flaws of this sequel will continue on if Lynch continues to bask in the glow of hype. His writing isn’t bad – above average for a swash-buckler, in fact, with a sophisticated tone contrasted with crude profanity in the dialogue – but lacks the intensity or polish of an accomplished novelist. This particular example of his skills reveals some foreboding characteristics – most noticeably an uneven ability to clinch tense scenes with emotional impact – and leaves me somewhat unimpressed. Fellow new author Brandon Sanderson displays much better authorial chops in Mistborn (oddly enough, another caper-influenced fantasy debut series of 2006) and keeps the momentum of his series rolling much more convincingly.
~Bottom line~
If I’ve made Red Seas Under Red Skies seem like a worse novel than it is, it’s probably because I enjoyed parts of it but found more specific things to criticize than amazing improvements to praise. What worries me is that Scott Lynch has decided to make this a seven-book series, so this is only the SECOND of what could prove to be a long and tortuous – perhaps torturous – series. I will reserve judgment on whether the “Gentlemen Bastards” are worth following until a book or two more has elapsed, but the best I can offer for this installment is three stars and a tentative recommendation to those who enjoyed The Lies of Locke Lamora.
The acclaimed author of The Lies of Locke Lamora returns with a dazzling new tale as wily con artist Lamora takes the exotic city of Tal Verrar by sto...More at Buy.com Marketplaces
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