I feel that Lynch dropped the ball with this one. There is still the good natured banter between Locke and Jean, but the book is overlong. Cutting parts of the plot would probably have made the book a better read. Reading Red Seas Under Red Skies is a lot like watching one of newer action films: there is really substance for a 1h 30min film, but it drags on over the 2h mark. The ending still managed to seem a bit hurried, when everything came together in one big flurry.
What stuck out in this one was the abundance of female fighters. It seemed a bit silly as some of them were described as small in stature and size and mass does play a big part in melee. I understand that this was one of the matters where Lynch tried to distance his world from the Europe in a similar time, but that just seems too much occasionally. I’m not trying to say that women can’t fight, but physically men are usually a lot stronger simply due to testosterone. Well, perhaps it just depends on the society that is portrayed, in Lynch’s there seems to be less division between women’s jobs and men’s jobs.
Anyway, Red Seas Under Red Skies continues where Lies of Locke Lamora left of and offers similar reading experience in a clunkier form. It just isn’t as good, but then again I didn’t like Lies as much as some. I do applaud Lynch for bringing this style of novels to a fantasy setting.
More thoughts on this later.
[...] stars out of 5, first impressions, not as good as Lies of Locke Lamora, but if you liked it you’ll like this one too. [...]