Scott Lynch - Red Seas Under Red Skies

Title: Red Seas Under Red Skies
Author: Scott Lynch
Pub. year: 2007
Pages: 640
Editor: Gollancz

Summary: Escaping from the attentions of the Bondsmagi Locke Lamora, the estwhile Thorn of Camorr and Jean Tannen have fled their home city. Taking ship they arrive in the city state of Tal Varrar where they are soon planning their most spectacular heist yet; they will take the luxurious gaming house, The Sinspire, for all of its countless riches. No-one has ever taken even a single coin from the Sinspire that wasn't won on the tables or in the other games of chance on offer there. But, as ever, the path of true crime rarely runs smooth and Locke and Jean soon find themselves co-opted into an attempt to bring the pirate fleet of the notorious Zamira Drakasha to justice. Fine work for thieves who don't know one end of galley from another. And all the while the Bondsmagi are plotting their very necessary revenge against the one man who believes e has humiliated them and lived; Locke Lamora.

You should know already (if you read this for example) that I am very fond of this series started quite some time ago—but no so long for myself. Last summer, I had the utter delight to meet the wonderful story maker that Scott Lynch is through his first book, beginning the adventure of the wonderful Locke Lamora and his witty mates—all of them highly talented thieves and scammers of all sorts. And I totally fell in love with them. I waited almost a year to read the second one, knowing that we should see the next coming this autumn.
And I can't believe I managed to wait that long.

I don't want to say too much about the story but it's sufficient to mention that once again, Lynch managed to have many stories inside the story without losing the main thread, and the various twists make the whole thing even more exciting than it already is. It's almost as if there wouldn't be any time to breath with this intense action, but Lynch hasn't lost his passion for long and excruciatingly detailed descriptions that quite often cut the suspense with some sunset/seagull story. But I guess it's also what makes the the whole thing so easy to visualize, so... bear with the descriptions, it's worth it.

It's becoming harder and harder not to skip the story to read the dialogues first: yes, that's how good they are. I just love (and laugh) so much when Locke and Jean talk that it's a torture to wait for their next piece of chat. After the quite heavy emotions we got from the end of the first book, here again we manage to feel as sad and we felt happy minutes before, and as excited as we felt wary. The rush of emotions, though sometimes easily anticipated, is really enticing.
And now I'm thinking, how am I gonna do to wait for the next book?! Well, after reading the extract graciously provided on the author's website, and dancing around in joy at the prospect of seeing Sabetha at last, I guess I'll just bite my nails and wait, wait, wait...

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Scott Lynch - The Lies of Locke Lamora

Title: The Lies of Locke Lamora (The Gentlemen Bastards, book 1)
Author: Scott Lynch
Pub. year: 2007
Pages: 544
Editor: Gollancz

Summary: After a devastating plague, a man known as the Thiefmaker pays off the city guard to allow him to take in thirty newly-orphaned individuals, whom he plans to train as thieves. One orphan sneaks into the group of paid children, "thirty-one of thirty". The Thiefmaker soon discovers that this one child, Locke Lamora, is extremely clever but not "circumspect", and is a liability due to his lack of foresight or restraint. The Thiefmaker decides to sell Locke to Chains, a priest of the Nameless Thirteenth god, the Crooked Warden who protects thieves. Chains uses his temple as a front to operate the Gentlemen Bastards, where they play confidence games on the city's richest citizens, in defiance of the Secret Peace.

This summary is probably not the best you've ever seen, and it certainly doesn't do justice to this book—mind you, I couldn't find anything else, and God knows I am bad at making them myself. One thing you need to know about this book: it's awesome. I know, I know, always telling you about good books... but who cares about the bad ones? Well, I don't, so here I am, telling you about something good again. Awesome even. Wanna know more?

Locke Lamora, as the title says, is what you could call a pretty good liar. But not the petty kind of lie where you try to cover a missing assignment or something: the kind where you take a false identity and set up a scam so great it's going to cost the victim a good deal of its fortune. Because like Robin Hood, Locke steals only the wealthiest, though he doesn't give to the poor; everything goes to the vault of his "church", where he and his little gang stack up all they need for their crimes. And everything could have been "happily ever after" if some Grey King didn't appear suddenly, killing garristas, blackmailing the Master of thieves and using Locke against his will to cause a great commotion that will probably cost too many lives.

Oh, here I am, making a summary after all. Well, now you know what it is really about, the gangs, the scams, the bloody Grey Kind and his mess. But one thing you still don't know is that: not only the characters living in this puzzling world are original, they also have a terrific charisma—starting with Locke, this genius, this weird gentleman that knows enough and has enough nerves to pretend being anyone in order to get what he wants (and I tell you, he does get it!), and also his crew, the devil twins Calo and Galdo, the strong Jean and the snoopy Bug. Just for the sake of this bunch, you should read this book. So if I tell you that many other characters are as much interesting, that the chapters about the Gentlemen Bastards' childhood are as hilarious as the ones about present times are gripping, that the city of Camorr is as full of mysteries and surprises as a good Fantasy book should be (though I must admit, the beginning tends to be slow and over-descriptive, you need to hang on before catching the ride), well...

I said enough, didn't I? How could you not like it? And even more: how could you know if you don't try? And like it all you want, there are still many to come, Read Seas Under Red Sky is waiting and so is the rest of the series!

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