Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch

In his highly acclaimed debut, The Lies of Locke Lamora, Scott Lynch took us on an adrenaline-fueled adventure with a band of daring thieves led by con artist extraordinaire Locke Lamora. Now Lynch brings back his outrageous hero for a caper so death-defying, nothing short of a miracle will pull it off.After a brutal battle with the underworld that nearly destroyed him, Locke and his trusted sidekick, Jean, fled the island city of their birth and landed on the exotic shores of Tal Verrar to nurse their wounds. But even at this westernmost edge of civilization, they can't rest for long--and are soon back to what they do best: stealing from the undeserving rich and pocketing the proceeds for themselves. This time, however, they have targeted the grandest prize of all: the Sinspire, the most exclusive and heavily guarded gambling house in the world. Its nine floors attract the wealthiest clientele--and to rise to the top, one must impress with good credit, amusing behavior...and excruciatingly impeccable play. For there is one cardinal rule, enforced by Requin, the house's cold-blooded master: it is death to cheat at any game at the Sinspire. Brazenly undeterred, Locke and Jean have orchestrated an elaborate plan to lie, trick, and swindle their way up the nine floors...straight to Requin's teeming vault. Under the cloak of false identities, they meticulously make their climb--until they are closer to the spoils than ever. But someone in Tal Verrar has uncovered the duo's secret. Someone from their past who has every intention of making the impudent criminals pay for their sins. Now it will take every ounce of cunning to save their mercenary souls. And even that may not be enough....From the Hardcover edition.

After a my unfortunate run of unimpressive reads, this finally felt like coming home. I've put off reading this book for a while because I loved the first book so much I didn't want to ruin my memories of it, but those worries were proven to be unfounded. The second instalment to the Gentleman Bastards series is just as fantastic as the first.

A heist story in a fantasy setting done RIGHT.

How Scott Lynch balances intrigue, suspense, drama, and humour so masterfully is beyond me.

The structure, the writing, is all meticulous and effective, but somehow also never fails to be exciting and entertaining (EVERY. SINGLE. LINE.).

Not a second of it was boring. It knew when to be light, when to be heavy, and when to be both.

The dialogue is truly the star of the show, the way these characters swear should be considered an art-form. It's almost poetry.

Word of warning: this man has a way of making you fall in love with characters just to murder them in the most brutal ways. I learned that in the first book and this one just served as an unfriendly reminder.

Building on the first one, I felt that I enjoyed the heist side of this one much more. It reminds me of the movie “Lucky Number Slevin” (which wasn't as good as this book), where our heroes are thrust into situation after situation where they are being exploited for their unique set of skills. The main arc with the Sinspire was the the one I was most interested in, but felt the resolution wasn't as strong. Leaving off much more in the middle of the story than the first book, I'll need to read #3 to know where this one goes.

Full review at SFF Book Review.

This is just a very quick impression. I could talk about Scott Lynch for days.
If you loved The Lies of Locke Lamora as much as me, you will feel an equal reluctance in returning to that universe of awesome fantasy places, quippy con men and a group of guys who are like brothers. Too much has been lost at the end of book one, too many things were still resonating with me and so I took a break.

The break lasted until now - another publication date set for The Republic of thieves (October 2013) and my boyfriend reading Locke Lamora for the first time, chuckling and shouting “That is so awesome” on every other page.

Scott Lynch has managed something very few authors do. To bring back a sense of the known and beloved characters and world he set up in book one, and to add something entirely new, to thrown even more difficult situations their way and have them get out by the skin of their teeth - if at all.
This swashbuckling adventure on the high seas and in the vibrant city of Tal Verrar was possibly even more fun than our first stop in Camorr. Please don't make me choose!

If you're just looking for a hint whether to pick up the second book at all: DO IT!
It's the same humor we learned to love in book one, the same great characters, just new adventures, cleverer tricks, cons within cons and - a special bonus for me - kittens!

9,5/10 stars

The beginning was confusing as hell because so many things were going on at once, but then again the characters were confused too. Enjoyed this a lot. Didn't think it'd be so much fun with just Locke and Jean but omg it totally was. The new characters were amazing, especially the Poison Orchid crew, but I also really liked Selendri.

—Audiobook notes (spoilers galore)—

• Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen were getting beaten like a dusty carpet.