Red Seas Under Red Skies

I was told Red Seas wasn't quite as good as Lies, but it was still pretty great. I very much enjoy Lynch's style of writing, his slow reveals, and determination not to pull any punches (save one which is the reason this book is going at 4 rather than 5).

Most of this book could stand under the same review as Lies: Locke is great. Jean is great. This book also reminds us that cats are great. The new characters are a fun bunch, and I absolutely love how Lynch decides to completely upend the “Women are Bad Luck on Ships” to “Go out to ship without a woman and you are DOOMED!” He cadre of lady pirates (which does make me think of that Muppet Babies episode with the PiRETTES! Anyone remember that? No? Awesome) are great not only because they are fabulous examples of buccaneers, but because not once does anyone every question their skill or authority because of their gender. Too many times, women are brought into “manly” roles to just have it pointed out how special they are for achieving these roles against the odds. In Lynch's world, there are no odds. People in their roles got them through skill or luck or bribery or whatever, but never because or in spite of their gender. Lynch even makes a point of mentioning both male and female extras among the guards, crews, and other Redshirts that appear throughout the book. As messed up as Locke's world can be, this part they got right.

Thrilling adventure, fast pacing, convoluted schemes. If you like Lies (and are okay with letting the Bondsmagi plotline sorta drop off for a novel), you'll enjoy this one.

The only thing that really bugged me was the teaser scene. You get this great lead in to the story and then slowly build up to that point over the course of the novel. We know Jean would never turn on Locke as sure as we know Locke is not going to die of poison anytime soon in this 7 book series. What we don't know is why he is faking it. The answer seems obvious, but Locke goes out of his way to say that Jean is giving him no hand signals. NO clue. This is getting real, y'all. Then we build and build and build and find that Locke just missed Jean's hand signal. Locke, master of observation missed this hand signal? That just doesn't pan out and was such a let down. Maybe if there'd been some sort of Bondsmagi trickery that made Locke miss the hand signal ... maybe... but that is never explained. I'd even forget it if Lynch hadn't used it as the teaser for the whole book, setting it up as some huge epic turning point only to end up an utterly forgettable moment. Boo hiss.

Rant aside, the story still stands, the world still stands, and I'm looking forward to the series continuing, though I may wait a bit to read three until four is closer on the horizon.