It may be that devoted fans will purchase enough of Mr. Lynch's books to allow him to publish his seven planned novels in The Gentlemen Bastards, but the five to follow Red Seas Under Red Skies will have to be far better than this effort if he hopes to capitalize on the excellence of The Lies Of Locke Lamora. Though the same sense of barely controlled chaos is carried over from the series' progenitor, the punishment his protagonists endure seems out of proportion to what any human can take. This is a flaw burdens the novel and keeps it from being enjoyable.
The transition into Red Seas is relatively seamless as we re-acquaint ourselves with Locke Lamora and his chaotic world. The familiar and corrupt confines of Camorr, however, are left behind in this tale which is as much an adventure as Lies was a mystery. Here, Locke experiences, first hand, powers that are completely beyond his capacity to control, powers that threaten to destroy him and his friends with no more thought or remorse than one would spare a fly. Though powerlessness is the book's dominant fixation, a comparison of Camorr, Locke's home town, with some of the other city states in the region is a theme that runs through the novel. While Camorr's ugliness and authoritarianism appalled us in the first book, here the reader is given a bitter sampling of the region's urban alternatives. And to say that Camorr comes off well by comparison is an epic understatement. These are havens of racism, classism and despair in which one does not play games. But of course, games are what Locke Lamora does best and, when presented with the ultimate heist, he cannot help himself. He must steal a fortune from a lavish gaming house, world-renowned for having never been burgled. He must do this no matter the price, no matter that his potential victims are amoral creatures lacking any notion of self-restraint. He is, after all, a gentleman bastard.
Red Seas Under Red Skies is essentially two books, the raid on the gaming house and what comes after. And though the section with the gaming house is laugh-out-loud funny, wonderfully sleazy, and delightfully clever, it is relocated to the back seat of this thriller by its concluding section, a series of machinations at sea which push Locke and his comrades far beyond their limits. I am often quick to criticize sword-and-sorcery fantasy fiction, but that genre requires a suspension of disbelief that keeps the reader from tripping over annoyances like logic and the limits of human endurance. But when one sets out to write fairly realistic fantasy fiction, as in The Gentlemen Bastard series, one must understand that realism is expected. I need my antiheroes to have breaking points. Everyone has them, limits beyond which they simply cannot endure. But not so Locke. Yes, Mr. Lynch dusts our protagonist with a tinch of madness, but I needed more of a breakdown from a man who has experienced more trauma in a year than others would in several lifetimes. Locke needs a vacation and so do I.
This is quality fantasy if you can ignore the glutton-for-punishment strain. I could not. (3/5 Stars)
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