Review: Red Seas Under Red Skies

Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book was brilliant fun. Absolutely loved the ride. I enjoyed the The Lies of Locke Lamora, but I feel like Lynch really hit his stride in this book. I enjoyed the plot of Red Seas so much more than Lies. The cause of that enjoyment stems from one word--pirates! I never knew that I loved pirates and pirate stories. This book opened my eyes and now I am searching for more books that will give me a similar feel.

The characters were fleshed out well. I loved Zamira and her first mate. Almost every character on the ship was lovable and after a while I felt like I knew them--like I was part of the crew. The antagonists felt sufficiently malicious. They were doing things for their own gain and I hated them for it.

At times, the tension was thick and I couldn't stop reading because I had to see how ol' Locke and Jean would get out of this one. But then there were times when the tension wasn't heavy enough. The second pirate battle felt like that. Like Lynch dropped a Deus Ex Machina so we could just move on. I was expecting that fight to be much bigger than it was. Although the results of that battle were far reaching and a major difficulty for the characters.

Now, this is a fantasy books and while I love me a good book with a map, sometimes fantasy authors are not the most beautiful writers. Jordan cannot turn a phrase like James Joyce or William Faulkner, and some readers would say that that isn't the point to the fantasy genre. But, I'm a bit of a book snob. One has to be when you teach AP Literature and Composition as long as I have--when you are surrounded by the best writers our world has to offer. But I have to admit, Lynch is a great writer. I found myself, on more than one occasion, highlighting lines because they were beautifully written. We need more fantasy authors like this. More that can tell a good, riveting story (about pirates) and give us beautiful sentences that leave the reader thinking. For example: "It was a red moment, all the world from sea to sky the color of a darkening rose petal, of a drop of blood not yet dry." Holy crap! This sentence! This! Such a perfect, beautiful image.

I most certainly will be reading The Republic of Thieves, but not right away. It is such a rare occurrence to find an author like this. I want to savor these books.

View all my reviews

Finding Terrific Writing in Unusual Places: Red Seas Under Red Skies

 Sometimes I worry that people see me as a bit of a literature snob. My favorites include such literary giants as Fitzgerald, Faulkner, Joyce, Shakespeare, and McCarthy. But I also am a huge fan of science fiction and fantasy literature. I love sitting down and just enjoying a fast paced adventure. Recently I have been enjoying Red Seas Under Red Skies, by Scott Lynch. In many cases, fantasy books are not written very well. I mean they convey action fine enough, but the beauty of the sentence is lacking. Not true with Lynch. He is an accomplished writer that has perfected his craft, he just chooses to write fantasy novels. Here is a nice paragraph from chapter two.

"Jean cleared the barrier from the third-floor hallway, left a few more coins (from Locke's purse) with the bemused innkeeper, and bustled about the room, allowing some of the smell of drunken enclosure to evaporate out the open window. Upon reflection, he went down to the bar and came back with a glass decanter of water."

This paragraph is, in essence, two sentences. The first is far more complicated than the second. We have a list in the first sentence: Jean is accomplishing three tasks. Lynch uses the oxford comma before the conjunction--my man! The sentence becomes slightly more complicated though with the final phrase attached to the list with a comma. And he has some great 50 cent words in here: bemused, enclosure, evaporate, and decanter. If this were a lesser writer the amount of attention would not have been given to such an insignificant paragraph. I have read quite a bit of bad writing in fantasy and Sci Fi novels and it is so refreshing when you find someone who is a master of his craft. 

Not what I though Lynch would look like. See, you learn new things all the time.