Red Seas Under Red Skies: Final Week

By KayNo Comments

This post contains spoilers.

My apologies for posting late! I had so much going on Saturday that I completely forgot to write up my contribution – but it’s been a fabulous time, thank you all for that. It would have taken me ages to finally pick up the book if I hadn’t heard that there’s going to be a read-along.

It’s great how I’ve also learned a lot about read-alongs, this being my first one; I could’ve done some things differently, or better. In addition to learning something, I found a whole bunch of new book blogs to read and even some titles that got added to my to read -shelf on Goodreads.

But, on to the book in question!

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Red Seas Under Red Skies: Week 4

By KayNo Comments

This post contains spoilers.

Only a week left! Time has flown past so quickly, I don’t even. Whatever will I read once this thing is over?1A purely rhetorical question, folks; I’ve got twenty library books and about fifty of my own stacked  in variously sized piles on every available surface, waiting to be read.

I found this week’s reading slightly less entertaining than previous parts of the novel, probably because of how out-of-character the “court scene” felt to me. The symbolism of the new crewmates’ initiation was apt, what with the land not wanting them and the sea refusing to claim them, but Captain Drakasha parading around in a tattered old wig and playing a judge came off as… awkward.

Fun, as far as scenes go, but awkward.

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Red Seas Under Red Skies: Week 2

By KayNo Comments

This post contains spoilers.

WELL. Can I just say, wow. Only about a hundred and fifty pages further and I’m completely confused about where this is going. Again.

Scott Lynch has this vexing habit of telling his readers 98% before the last chapter, then whacking them in the face with the last 2% and making them feel stupid because they should have known. The chairs. The sorry bandit. The sucking-up to Selendri. The rope climbing.

I feel like I should be able to see where this is going, and it frustrates me to no end that I don’t.1Might I remind you, this is my first time reading Red Seas Under Red Skies. After — and I’ll bet my copy of House of Leaves on this — the Grand Plot is revealed, I will facepalm so hard my palm is bruised for weeks.

So, yes, definitely one of those books where you have to sit on your hands so you won’t flip to the last page to see how it ends.

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Red Seas Under Red Skies: Week 1

By KayNo Comments

This post contains spoilers.

My initial impression of RSURS was mixed; on one hand, I was glad to see the return of Locke and Jean after the heart-stopping prologue, but on the other…

I suppose I’ve read too many linear books as of late. Scott Lynch’s unravelling the story along two separate timelines — one before, one after — takes some getting used to which made the first eighty pages or so a heavy read. I also found myself wanting a map of the city of Tal Verarr because it was hard to keep track of the descriptions, as beautiful as the locale sounds.1My sense of direction in real life is fairly good, but ask me to create a mental map of something and I will get lost in a round room the size of a toilet cubicle.

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Red Seas Under Red Skies Read-Along

By KayNo Comments

What sensible university students with two essays and a study diary due next week don’t do is let their friends talk them into joining a read-along.1Then again, if I’ve ever claimed to be sensible, I was probably lying. Booky Pony pointed me in the right direction if I wanted to join up2Read: went ‘squee!’ at me over a pint of ale until I relented and with utmost reluctance picked up a book with fantastical locations, excellent writing, and witty grifters. Such hardship., and Little Red Reviewer kindly did not mind my hopping on the bandwagon later than everyone else so here I am, leafing through my previously unopened (I cannot imagine why) copy of Scott Lynch’s Red Seas Under Red Skies.

It has been years since I last read its prequel, The Lies of Locke Lamora, so now is about time that I consume gorge myself on enjoy the sequel.

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