Product Description

In his highly acclaimed debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora, 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, nothing short of a miracle will pull it off.

After a brutal battle with the underworld that nearly destroyed him, Locke and his trusted sidekick, Jean, fled the island city of their birth and landed on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilization, they can’t rest for long—and are soon back to what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves.

This time, however, they have targeted 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.

Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors…straight to Requin’s teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb—until they are closer to the spoils than ever.

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.…

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #154308 in Books
• Published on: 2007-07-31
• Released on: 2007-07-31
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Hardcover
• 576 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Like its roguish protagonists, Lynch's colorful sequel to 2006's The Lies of Locke Lamora is charming, unpredictable and fast on its feet and stands surprisingly well on its own given its convoluted plot. Initially poised to rob the Sinspire, the notoriously thief-proof casino where the penalty for cheating is death, Locke and his partner, Jean, are unwillingly sidetracked into joining and then leading a pirate crew, swindling their way across the sea as they had previously done on land. The cinematic influences on Lynch's fantasy setting are evident, the borrowing is mostly ingenious and the prose frequently enthralls, but tone and pacing suffer from odd inconsistencies. A handful of dark moments clash uncomfortably with the overall devil-may-care atmosphere. Most frustrating of all is the handling of key secondary character Ezri Delmastro, who shines too briefly as an energetic romantic interest for Jean. The ending promises at least one more installment, but fans may be unhappy if the saga strays too far from its amiable roots. (Aug.)
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From Booklist
*Starred Review* The science-fiction caper novel constitutes a small genre to begin with (Keith Laumer and Harry Harrison may be its best-known names), but Lynch added something entirely new to it with his debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora (2006). That novel, which told the story of a young boy taken under the wing of a master thief, was set on a distant planet but at a stage in the planet's history roughly equivalent to our own pirate age. Now Locke, the talented boy who became a world-class thief, returns with a caper so big it defies all reason—to penetrate the vault of the Sinspire, the most protected casino on the planet, and take its contents. If the first novel had undercurrents of Oliver Twist, this one is more in the vein of Ocean's Eleven or The Sting: fast paced, colorful, funny, with a fiendishly intricate plot containing plenty of right-angle turns. Locke and his partner, Jean, trade banter like Redford and Newman and work their light-fingered magic with charm and panache. Lynch hasn't merely imagined a far-off world, he's created it, put it all down on paper—the smells, the sounds, the people, the feel of the place. The novel is a virtuoso performance, and sf/fantasy fans will gobble it up, though they'll have to fight with caper novel aficionados for every crumb. Pitt, David

About the Author
Scott Lynch was born in St. Paul, Minnesota, in 1978 and currently lives in Wisconsin with his wife and a small menagerie of household critters. He moonlights as a game designer and volunteer firefighter. This is his second novel.

Customer Reviews

For Locke fans, this won't disappoint...
Was Red Seas as good as Lies? No...but that only makes it about the second-best book I've read this year.

Red Seas finds Locke and Jean licking their wounds after their battle with the Grey King. They have sailed to Tal Varrar, the Monte Carlo/Las Vegas of Lynch's created world, to escape the mess they left behind in Camorr. After a few months of regrouping (and Jean pulling Locke out of a major funk) the two are back to their old games--this time with their sights set on The Sinspire, a grand tower casino ruled by a ruthless Mafioso-type who kills anyone who he finds cheating in his establishment.

As you would expect, Jean and Locke soon find their neat little plan to cheat the Sinspire goes awry--so awry, in fact, that they find themselves forced to learn how to sail and lead a pirate war.

A large chunk of the book takes place at sea, and the nautical terminology is plentiful. Coming from someone who has absolutely no knowledge of sailing, I found the generous use of terminology to be a little head-clogging, but in all honesty, you could skim over the technicalities and still understand what was happening. I do have to question the benefit of this--after I'm skimming through three or four pages of "Turn that line to the larboard over to the oar mast, and make sure the front sail isn't upsideover from the side-sail..." etc., but it does lend an air of authenticity, so I'll give it that (of course, not knowing anything about sailing, I'm not one to ay how authentic any of it really is!)

The things I loved about Lies were still in this book for me--the masterful, witty dialogue, the many plot twists and turns that were blessedly impossible for me to predict. It doesn't tie up as neatly as Lies; the ending is a definite cliffhanger on multiple fronts. Of course, all that means is I'm chomping at the bit for February!

Scott Lynch does it again!!
I absolutely loved this book! Our favorite thieves, Locke & Jean, up to their old tricks...and some new ones. Yes, the pirate aspect was unexpected, but it was simply a lot of fun. I enjoyed seeing more of Lynch's world and meeting some new and interesting characters. Trust me, if you liked Lies, you'll enjoy this book. I cannot wait for book 3 next spring!

Good. Truly. And yet...
When you set out to write seven books, it turns out you have to find a way to fill seven books. And that's the basic problem with Red Seas Under Red Skies, the second book in Scott Lynch's...septology?

Lynch left himself with a lot to work with from the first book, The Lies of Locke Lamora. What is all that Elderglass? How will the bondsmagi try to take their revenge on Locke and Jean? How the heck does that magi stuff work in this world anyway? What has happened to Camorr after their caper's semi-success? Who's going to run the underworld now that the Grey King and Capa Barsavi are both gone? When will we get to find out more about that gal that Locke's pining after?

Rather than answer any of those questions, Lynch gives us two books in one: a pirate-romance novella sandwiched inside Locke and Jean's main caper, an elaborate attempt on the Sinspire, the most opulent den of iniquity in the city-state of Tal Verrar. Characters march on and off stage as if by rote, ideas are dropped almost before they're begun, and multiple machinas are elevated to deus status at various points to keep the plot creaking along.

Fortunately for the reader, Lynch's sarcasm and propulsive prose eventually overbalance what turns out to be basically an 800-page diversion, and the book, despite itself, is pretty enjoyable at that level. So long as you don't expect the larger arc of the Gentleman Bastards to move very far down the track, Red Seas Under Red Skies can be the kind of readable romp that makes for good vacation or airplane material.