Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch

I'm not sure why I didn't immediately pounce on the second Locke Lamora book, considering how much I enjoyed the first, but for whatever reason it never became a priority on my shopping list. Was it a lack of interest in pirates at that particular time? Fear that the book wouldn't live up to the first one? I don't know. Nevertheless, I knew I would get to it eventually, and now I have.

Red Seas Under Red Skies follows Jean and Locke as they flee the events of the first book and resettle elsewhere to lick their wounds and pull themselves together. The book is told with chapters that alternate between the present day and flashbacks into about a year or two in the past, until we're caught up, and then it sort of bobbles between the present and the very recent past to make sure we see the setup of the con. The two main characters find themselves very much not in control over the events of this book, to their vast irritation. Powerful figures attempt (and sometimes succeed) to play them like puppets, they have an elaborate structure of lies towering over them that they have to remember, and they operate under two or three different names while they try to do it. There are politicians and pirates and elaborate games of chance. It has all the hallmarks that we've come to expect after reading Lynch's first book, but unfortunately it's not pulled off with the same sleekness that The Lies of Locke Lamora accomplished.

What the book is, is overstuffed. It could have easily made two books, or been ruthlessly trimmed down to one, and I think either would have served it better. There are digressions, long explanations and scene-setting for relatively unimportant actions in the plot. There are unnecessary convolutions, and time spent with people who never appear again and who we really didn't have to meet in the first place. Lynch retains his flair with dialogue and description, but ye gods, there's just so much of it, and by the time I got to the last quarter of the book I was just tired. And when I finally put the book down, I had the sense of being at a party too long. Sure, I liked these people, but maybe it was time to just go home and sit quietly for a while.

I've heard that the next book has been delayed for unknown reasons. I hope things go well eventually, and that the next Locke Lamora book does come out soon. But I also hope that some of Lynch's authorial flourishes have been trimmed back, so the shape of the story stands out a bit more clearly than it has here.

RIP David Eddings

james_nicholl is reporting that David Eddings has just passed away, at the age of 77.

RIP, Mr. Eddings. I devoured your books with unholy glee when I was in high school. They were a big part of my life, and I used to spend quality time on the school bus discussing them with friends and casting the movie during sleepovers. You'll be missed.