Red Seas Under Red Skies | Basic information
Red Seas Under Red Skies is the direct sequel to The Lies of Locke Lamora and the second installment in the Gentleman Bastards series. Authored by Scott Lynch and narrated by Michael Page this thieving fantasy adventure novel comes in at roughly 220k words length or just under 26 hours for the audio-book version.
Red Seas Under Red Skies | Structure and Story
Red Seas Under Red Skies follows the fantasy setting and confidence scheme centered theme established by its predecessor. The storytelling is structured around the two Gentleman Bastards, Locke and Jean, who serve as the books main point-of-view characters. Although the novel also features a few smaller scenes presented from the perspective of a couple side-characters. All of these are narrated in the third person form and in the past tense, which is consistent with the previous book.
In terms of story, the novel picks up right where The Lies of Locke Lamora left off with the Gentleman Bastards fleeing Camorr. Once they recover from their fight with the Gray King they settle in Tal Verrar. Soon enough they return to their larcenous habits and set their eyes on robbing the richest person in town. From there the story mostly follows the same general plot pattern of the previous novel, with the protagonists dreaming up ways to outplay their target, other parties getting interfering with their plan and several close shaves with death. Apart from this the novel also takes the series into a completely new direction, where the protagonists spending a lot of their time at sea. And that encompasses everything from their training from landlubbers to experienced seamen.
Red Seas Under Red Skies | Sub-genres
As to what you can expect in terms of sub-genres. The novel is definitely built around a drama based foundation, much like the previous installment in the series. This mostly made up of Locke talking people into following his schemes or out of ending his and Jean's life. Compared to the last book, there's double the number of parties the two are trying to outsmart, all at the same time. You'll also find quite a bit of conflict between the Gentleman Bastards as well. In second place I'd put action, focused mainly on Locke's first real attempts at combat. In terms of supportive elements you'll find comedy which is of a similar scope to The Lies of Locke Lamora. Next to that you'll find a very heartfelt romance sub-plot centered around on of the main characters, which rivals that of the Frontlines series by Marko Kloss or even the All Souls Trilogy by Deborah Harkness. Red Seas Under Red Skies also has an expansive historical element which delves into the ins and outs of manning a ship from the age of sail. It also dips its toes into the philosophical and suspense sub-genres with a look into the burdens of leadership as well as a horror-esque scene near the middle of the novel. Much like with the previous book, the fantasy and world-building elements are again intertwined, making up the setting of the story. Although since so little fantasy elements appear within the plot itself, the novel again feels more like a fictional history novel set in a world with a mild fantasy theme.
And with that, the only real sub-genre left out of the novel is the psychological element.
Red Seas Under Red Skies | Ratings and Conclusions
Red Seas Under Red Skies was a real blast to read, perhaps even more so in some regards than the previous installment. It basically takes all the good parts from The Lies of Locke Lamora, expands on some of them and adds a couple new ones to boot. And of course Michael Page again again does an amazing job narrating the novel and voicing the characters. While technically you could read Red Seas Under Red Skies as a standalone novel, if you're willing to skip on the character development in the last book, but I'd personally recommend that you read The Lies of Locke Lamora first.
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Writing lessons
While choosing what to analyse in Red Seas Under Red Skies, it was almost impossible not to choose this books amazing prologue.
So first off, we have to ask ourselves why anyone would add a prologue to their novel. If you’re in the fantasy genre, your first thought might be to fill it to the brim with your fictional world’s lore. I mean you spent months developing civilizations, languages and centuries of history, where else are you going to give your reader the proper context to fully appreciate your story. Well as far as I know that’s not such a good idea, because prologues like that mostly get skipped altogether or make the reader put down the book.
So then what are prologues good for you may ask? In one of Brandon Sanderson’s lectures I heard an explanation which popped into my mind as soon as I finished this novel’s prologue. His reasoning went something like this. The prologue should be a kind of promise to the reader as to what he can expect from your story. Now this can be in terms of the novel’s setting, the scale of its story, the direction of the plot, an hint to the overall feel of the book and I could go on but I think you get the point. It’s almost like you’re literally sitting down your reader and telling him or her “Look, by the third quarter of the book you’e gonna see dragons, wizards, aliens, an apocalypse or some other amazing thing that will make your brain explode, but right now we’re gonna have to do some groundwork. You’ll meet a couple characters, they’ll be busy doing things that might seem a bit random and boring at first glance. But I promise you, those really interesting things that you really want to read about are on the way, it’s gonna be awesome just bare with me for while”.
And that’s exactly what Scott Lynch does with the start of Read Seas under Red skies. To summarize the prologue, he describes that there’s a ship on fire in the bay with a hawking crowd gathered to see the spectacle, while ignoring to Jean and Locke on the dock who are locked in a four way standoff with two assassins. And before long in an unexpected twist Jean turns on Locke. Now if we go one by one, we’ll se that all of these things in a way foretell what the book’s going to be like. The burning ship could symbolize the political mayhem the Gentleman bastards will cause between the Priorii and the Archon, the ignorant crowd implies that Locke and Jean will operate under the mass’s and their targets noses, sometimes in plain view. Which also means they’re all alone, with , no friends of associates to fall back on. And the four way standoff and Jean’s betrayal could hint at the numerous parties involved in Locke’s scheme from the Priorii, the Archon, the Requin and the pirates, and of course the constant hostility between all these parties. I guess you could also say that Jean’s betrayal hints to the conclusion of the novel, with Locke spiking Jean’s drink with the cure for the poison, but I think that’s a bit of a stretch. I’d say it’s more of a red herring to keep us worried whether the Bonds magi will take control of Jean throughout the novel.
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