Red Seas Under Red Skies
This is the second volume in Scott Lynch's Gentlemen Bastards series, following on pretty much directly after the first, The Lies of Locke Lamora.
Well, sort of. We kick off a couple of years later, as their next big project swings into action, and over the intervening years in flashback, showing how Locke and co. deal with the aftermath of the events of the previous volume.
Initially, the story focuses around the impregnable vault of a casino, and Locke's plan to rob the owner by means unspecified until the very end of the story, but as before, there are other forces at work: the casino's in the city of val Terarr, a long way from Camorr, yet the city's leader (the Archon) knows all that has befallen them, and coerces them into his own plan. Locke has to juggle their own con and the Archon's, and keep them alive at the same time.
Much of this story revolves around piracy on the high seas, since that's the focus of the Archon's plot, and there's a frustrating sequence when Locke and Jean are trying to pass as captain and first mate of a ship to a crew of pirates, after only a few weeks of education on the basics of seamanship. I cringed through all of this. Thankfully, that passes, leaving Locke and Jean in the company of real pirates, and able to do what they do best: lie and steal with style, panache and humour.
I wouldn't put this as high as the first volume, but still great fun and I'm looking forward to the next. Especially since there are, once again, massive hints about Things To Come in a future volume.
Well, sort of. We kick off a couple of years later, as their next big project swings into action, and over the intervening years in flashback, showing how Locke and co. deal with the aftermath of the events of the previous volume.
Initially, the story focuses around the impregnable vault of a casino, and Locke's plan to rob the owner by means unspecified until the very end of the story, but as before, there are other forces at work: the casino's in the city of val Terarr, a long way from Camorr, yet the city's leader (the Archon) knows all that has befallen them, and coerces them into his own plan. Locke has to juggle their own con and the Archon's, and keep them alive at the same time.
Much of this story revolves around piracy on the high seas, since that's the focus of the Archon's plot, and there's a frustrating sequence when Locke and Jean are trying to pass as captain and first mate of a ship to a crew of pirates, after only a few weeks of education on the basics of seamanship. I cringed through all of this. Thankfully, that passes, leaving Locke and Jean in the company of real pirates, and able to do what they do best: lie and steal with style, panache and humour.
I wouldn't put this as high as the first volume, but still great fun and I'm looking forward to the next. Especially since there are, once again, massive hints about Things To Come in a future volume.