Red Seas Under Red Skies

Title: Red Seas Under Red Skies
Author: Scott Lynch
Series: Gentleman Bastard #2
Read: March 2, 2014

Summary: Locke and his trusted sidekick, Jean, target the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele—and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior... and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire.

But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough. goodreads

Review: The boys are back! And this time, they are going out to sea to live the pirate life. From the very first pages in the prologue, Scott Lynch rips your heart out, dances all over it, and then feeds it to his dog. If those first handful of pages don't just kill you, you should put this book back and quit reading altogether because you will never be able to connect with a story or a set of characters if you can connect with these guys. Just quit know.

If you haven't quit, then you will jump back a couple of years in the first few chapters to pick up where Lies left off. Locke is recovering and Jean is doing his best to take care of him. Pretty early on, we start to see the relationship between these two start to fray. They are both overwhelmed by recent events and are handling it very differently which causes some friction. Luckily, they get past it and begin their next con. This story started out following the boys on a con at a gambling house but quickly veered off to a story of Tel Verrar politics and the life of a pirate.

I really enjoyed the story pretty much up until they became pirates but then I kind of fell off. Don't get me wrong, I still loved it and Jean and Locke and some of the new characters but I couldn't care less for the life of a seaman and all of the details that were included regarding how to man a ship. Didn't care. Eventually the boys pick up their con in Tal Verrar again which I enjoyed but it was relatively anti-climatic.

I guess I'm a Gentleman Bastards purist and I want to learn about the cons and the stealing and the relationships more than technical ship information. While the story didn't do as much for me as Lies did, I really felt like Jean and Locke's relationship was tested and grew during this book, which of course I loved. I'm currently reading the third book and I've officially met Sabetha so I can't wait to see where the story goes.

Not as entertaining as Lies of Locke Lamora but still damn good!