Red Seas Under Red Skies

I am so conflicted about this book.

Let me start with the extraordinary - the author's writing style and skill with words, especially when it comes to sarcasm and creative insults, is worthy of praise. I do not enjoy crass language in books, yet I find it tastefully executed in the books from this series.

I also love our main characters, as well as some of the supporting ones (captain Zamira Drakasha for example) - they have managed to carve themselves a place in my heart and I am deeply interested in what happens to them.

However, the plot of this book was a total mess, to say the least.
We have a saying here - the author brought water from 9 different wells, trying to create a web of mystery, only for it all to make no logical sense at the end.

We begin with the fallout from book one and this part I actually enjoyed, to the point that I started predicting a new favorite.

But then, the author seemingly decided that this is not grand enough and threw another plot line with another villain.

And then, at about 40% of the book, all of sudden he changed his mind on what the book will be about and introduced a whole new setting and yet another plot line. It felt so abrupt and, in my opinion, completely unnecessary, to the point that I lost all interest.
Then a chapter before the end, we are back to the original plot line, which made it feel disjointed and rushed as though it was an afterthought.
And just to clarify, I did like the place where the characters ended and the cliffhanger that was introduced, but getting there was exhausting.

I also didn't like the fake morality the author tried to inject. I mean, you are writing a book about two thieves who steal for the fun of it, sir. One of them literally overtook a gang by beating little kids to assert his dominance. Any financial and social morality you'd like to share rings hollow in this context. Locke isn't Robin Hood - he is literally a “priest” of the god of thieves. He steals for the sake of stealing. He is not interested in doing honest work who benefits honest people. I don't care that he steals from rich people, he has no high horse to sit on. And I liked him in book 1 because he didn't pretend to be anything else.

All in all, the book is okay, but I had very high expectations and am definitely disappointed by it.

I do plan to continue with the series and hope for going back to greatness in book 3.