An ingenious sequel

Half Past Dead and as a mental wreck Locke escaped the battle with the Gray King and was able to defeat his enemy. But all the victories of the world are not worth anything if you really do not want to live. Only with great difficulty Jean convinces his best friend, not to give up. Sure enough, after a while Locke is ready for his next big coup: He wants the unbreakable vault Requin rob the owner of the casino of Valley Verrar. But that's easier said than done. As the Archon of Tal Verrar, Maxilan Stragos, Locke is attentive, he forces him and Jean in his services. Soon the two friends are drawn into a power struggle that is much more dangerous than we thought. And they can be found again on foreign Metier: On a ship in the middle of the ocean ...

My Opinion

Even though it is now back almost half a year ago is, since I've read The Lies of Locke Lamora, so I would not let the book since going on. Therefore, it was clear to me that I now had to read the second volume of the series. I have, as it did turn sat on the first tape, a long time what it is just that the books of Scott Lynch can not be read simply as down. They are never boring or the like, but extensive and the writing style is not without. But more on that later.

The prologue of the book can be a back with many question marks in your head. It is evident that a subsequent plot line is shown and you just wonder what will happen in the course of history, so that it comes to that. The prologue of a little shocked. Somehow no one believes what one reads there, but at the same time you know that Scott Lynch his readers gladly surprised and shocked. Therefore, of course, fueled by the eerie prologue curiosity and you really want to know what happens. The first chapter is then a giant leap and cut because it is with Locke and Jean at the casino, what the two would like to rob. They play a game that is called Carousel Hazard and be absolutely sure applies in trickery and fraud. Of course, Locke and Jean see this as a challenge and prove once again that nothing is safe from them and they can also cheat in this game.

The plot in the book includes approximately two years, with the action from the presence takes a little over two months to complete. As in the first volume of the individual chapters are repeatedly interrupted by interludes that hot in Red Seas Under Red Skies not Interludes but Reminiscence. In these chapters we learn of Locke and jeans whereabouts after the battle against the Gray King and before the present action. Locke is following the events in Camorr a real wreck - physically and mentally. He lets himself go, booze, and want to just die, because he can not live with his guilt, which he loaded up and not want to live. Meanwhile Jean will continue to try to animate Locke to train his skills to look forward to live. I found the scenes very impressive because I could understand both Locke, and Jean. Lynch describes very good and convincing the inner demons, caught hold the curl and the frustration of Jean, as he can not mobilize his best friend. First, is not apparent to the reader exactly what Locke's plans are. Even as the first band answers are only supplied piecemeal and only time the extent of the coup is clear. The inserted between Reminiscences repeatedly give additional information, but at the same time they confuse also because you wonder how everything is put together into a larger whole. The plot is not illogical and is known as a reader, that everything will eventually logically linked, but Lynch has the talent to make the reader squirm on the hook, by repeatedly piece by piece rausrückt a bit of information and at the same time for a thousand new questions makes. In addition, the action, or the plan of Locke and Lynch, interrupted halfway through the book, and they are forced to work for the Archons, a very perfidious and unsightly manner. I found it very clever from Archon, but I'd like reingehauen him when reading!
Locke and Jean have a ship hijack and set sail - something she had always been so good it was rejected. Therefore, some pages now be used in order to teach both to steer a ship and to live like a pirate. Okay, I can imagine that these pages could turn off some readers and yes, they are quite extensive and sometime you wonder what you did the first half of the book needed, when it comes to a very different story in the second half but somehow I found it quite interesting, both to accompany you, as they are trained more rough than to pirate. In between, I've also wondered how Lynch would create a bridge to the first half of the plot, because to be the first and the second half completely different. The adventure, experience the Locke and Jean as pirates but exciting and entertaining, and I must confess that I have read the second half of the book much faster than the first thing I had not thought of first.

But of course, after a while, everything comes together into a closely related storyline and the events come thick and fast. Locke and Jean have once again their bluff is called and however even if they have considered many steps and most are many steps ahead, so they are not omniscient and omnipotent, and must see that they are beaten trick and they have to make sacrifices. That is what I find so good at the books. Locke is very intelligent and subtle and can knock most people over the ear, but he makes mistakes, miscalculated, is taken by surprise. Especially the last hundred pages clearly show that Locke a little lose the upper hand, he and Jean have to pay dearly. Lynch has demonstrated in the first volume that he was not squeamish treats its characters and also in this volume he is merciless and sometimes cruel. In the end I was really flabbergasted, because Locke has finally gotten his damper, what I really found crass. And this cliffhanger, folks. Since you want to read as soon as possible the third volume necessarily.

And once again I would like to mention how much I love the writing style of Scott Lynch. I adore him almost. The language is difficult and demanding, especially for non-native speakers, but to read the books, it is a delight. Lynch plays so skilled with words, pushes things out so perfectly, for I have no words that I can only amaze. I do not know how the German translation is, but I can only recommend to read the books in the original when it is the English language quite safe because the style of Lynch is a real eye-opener!

Conclusion

Red Seas Under Red Skies was a successful sequel in my eyes. The first band I still like eating a dear, but the second volume is still one of my favorite books. The end is a really crass showdown with surprising twists, a story that (almost) binds together all the loose ends and especially the reader with one of the nastiest cliffhanger ever leaves. I highly recommend this book to anyone who already liked the first volume, like puzzled about what the protagonists have so ago. Read and especially happy pirate and privateer stories. I forgive conclusion 5 of 5 stars!