another summer dream

1. Which book has been on your shelves the longest?

Probably The Adventures of Robin Hood  or maybe King Arthur by Howard Pyle. I think those two have been there since I was five? But of books I picked out myself... The Blue Sword by Robin McKinley. Poor thing's been read almost to death, but I have owned it since 5th grade...

( books and more books )

This is the second book in the Gentleman Bastards Sequence, sequel to the quite fantastic Lies of Locke Lamora. It opens two years after the disastrous final act of Lies, with Locke and Jean running a new game in the sort of Medieval Venice-Vegas-Monte Carlo amalgam of Tal Verrar. Like Ocean's Eleven they're going to rob the ultimate casino, called the Sinspire (only it's more like Lamora's Two now). They have been working for two years on prepping this thing and right as they're getting ready to spring the game, the military tyrant-thing of Tal Verrar, called the Archon, drags them into his awesome clockwork lair. He demands they work for him, and by demand he means he has poisoned them and if they want to live they'll work for him. But it's not just any con they're going to run: he wants them to con the entire city-state into launching him back into power with a war. A war against pirates. Jean and Locke must go forth and incite the pirates of nearby Port Prodigal to rise up again... 

So it's like if Pirates of the Caribbean met Ocean's Eleven and had one too many martinis, then woke up two days later on a beach in Maui wondering where its pants went. 

 I read Lies of Locke Lamora ages ago and I reread it last summer out of boredom. I really liked the setting and the world building Lynch had done, which to me stood out even more than the actual characters the first time through. I'm intrigued by the mystery of Locke's world: who and what the Eldren were, what caused them to disappear. That there is one group of sorcerers left in the world and they have forbidden even street illusions... there are so many little things running around that are incredible to think about. Red Seas only heightened that curiosity with its visit to the Ghostwind Isles where it is only too clear that something is still awake and lingering in the world, that is not human and never has been. 

That said, the pace in Red Seas Under Red Skies drove me nuts. I wasn't all that happy that it started two whole years after the last book, and while in Lies the flashback chapters worked as interesting breaks and to illuminate what was going on in the present, the time-jumping in Red Seas felt weird and a bit awkward. 

I was halfway through the doorstopper before I was actually interested in what was going on. I felt more affection for the villain than I did for the heroes strangely enough, and I was not much amused by Locke throughout the story. I cared more about random side characters than the main plot which felt strange to me. I wanted to hear more about what Jean was building in Vel Virazzo- quite possibly I wanted a book about that, and Locke could go fall into a shark's mouth. 

Honestly I wish I had had a warning and I could have skipped to the last hundred pages or so and just read that, as it seemed like that was where all the action and interesting reveals were at anyway. And yet, it wasn't quite annoying enough to make me give up on the series. I still giggled at some of the one liners, and even if the characters I liked weren't the main stars, I did like them. Still not convinced the series wouldn't be more fun as The Adventures of Jean Tannen, kind of like how Harry Potter (books 5-7) might be more awesome as Seamus Finnegan or Neville Longbottom or something. 

The one thing I can say is that at least Locke finally shut up about Sabetha. I was so sick of hearing about her in Lies, and the fact that she's set to appear in the next book underwhelms me. I may very well wind up loving her to bits but I doubt it. 

Apparently book three may be never coming out, much like GRRM's Dance with Dragons, so it's one more fantasy series I'll probably never see the end of. But if I learned anything from HP7 it's that I'm ok with never having the ending if the alternative is Deathly Hallows.