Read-Along: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch, Part 5

This is the fifth and final post for my participation in a read-along of Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies, hosted by Dark Cargo, @ohthatashley at SF Signal, My Awful Reviews, Lynn’s Book Blog and the Little Red Reviewer.  What this means is...

Read-Along posts discuss a specific portion of Red Seas Under Red Skies and are therefore full of spoilers!  This is also a sequel of The Lies of Locke Lamora, so this post may be filled with spoilers from that book as well!  I will do a usual review post once the book is complete.

This week’s questions include through the end of Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch.  I’m surprised that everything came together so well in the end.  I was wondering how Lynch was going to be able to wrap everything up in so little time.  We even got closure on the Salon Corbeau situation!

1.       Oh my god, such a lot going on I thought the showdown between the Poison Orchid and the Sovereign was brilliantly written and they were holding their own until Utgar and his nasty device turned up.  Well a lot of you had kind of predicted it, and I suppose we’d been let off too easy so far in terms of deaths of well-liked characters  – but come on,  did you expect something like that?  And how on earth will Jean ever recover?

 Well, as was said quite a lot in the past few weeks, Ezri was Lynch’s prime choice for a dramatic death in this novel.  After the device was activated and Ezri charged after it, I felt like it was pretty clear she was going to sacrifice herself for the ship.  I would have been much more surprised (and delighted) if something like that had not happened.  This always happens when one has a romance with a main character in an adventure story… it’s the kiss of death…

2.       The deceit, the betrayal, first Rodanov and then Colvard.  Even now I’m not entirely sure I understand Colvard – Rodanov was never keen on the oath but Colvard seemed okay with it all and yet in this final deceit she was more devious than Rodanov – what do you think was her motive?

I guess the pirates aren’t really Jean and Locke’s ‘people’.  They don’t follow either of the strictures of the Crooked Warden.  They stab each other in the back and make sure not to bother the rich folks too much.  I suppose Cpt. Drakasha was different!

3.       Merrain – such a puzzle, no real answer, the mysterious tattoo, the determination to kill everyone to keep her identity and that of her master a secret.  Does anybody have any ideas where she’s from and what she’s up to exactly and who the hell is she working for??

The only idea I’ve got so far is the Bondsmagi.  I don’t know any other organization that would be involved.  Honestly, I’m expecting it to be some secret society that just hasn’t been mentioned yet.  I’m sure we’ll find out when book 3 comes out.

4.       Finally we get to the point of the GB’s latest scheme, all that elaborate planning for two years, fancy chairs, gambling, dust covered cards, abseiling lessons – all for one gigantic bluff. I loved the diversionary tactic here but having finally reached the end of the story and, more to the point, the end result – do you think the GB’s are as clever as they think they are?

I still think they’re pretty clever.  They made one mistake, where there would have been room for so many more.  It just happened to be a mistake that cut their payoff by about 90%.

5.       I must admit that I liked Requin and Selendri – particularly at the end – I don’t think Requin will go after Locke and Jean, he was even sort of cool and composed about it all, in fact he came across as a bit pleased with himself because he had the last laugh.  Plenty of good characters this time which did you enjoy reading most about this time?

Locke and Jean?  Okay, I guess you probably meant besides the two of them.  I suppose I would pick Captain Drakasha.  She was a very interesting pirate.

6.       Finally, a triple barrel question, I know I shouldn’t ask this BUT, on reflection do you have a favourite between LoLL or RSURS??  And why?  Are you going to pick up Republic of Thieves?  And, where do you think Lynch will take us to next??

At this point, I think I have a slight preference for LoLL.  I enjoyed both of them, but LoLL felt more like a self-contained story.  I was also more interested in reading about Camorr than I was about the Poison Orchid.  Maybe I’m just not a strongly nautically inclined person.  Anyhow, I will definitely pick up Republic of Thieves.  My predictions are that Lynch will take us to a faraway land where we will a) finally meet Sabetha, b) learn who’s behind Merrain, c) see Locke and Jean find a cure for the poison, and d) possibly get some more insight into the magical system of Lynch’s world. 

Read-Along: Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch, 4

This is the fourth post for my participation in a read-along of Scott Lynch's Red Seas Under Red Skies, hosted by Dark Cargo, @ohthatashley at SF Signal, My Awful Reviews, Lynn’s Book Blog and the Little Red Reviewer.  What this means is...

Read-Along posts discuss a specific portion of Red Seas Under Red Skies and are therefore full of spoilers!  This is also a sequel of The Lies of Locke Lamora, so this post may be filled with spoilers from that book as well!  I will do a usual review post once the book is complete.

This week’s questions include through Chapter 13 of Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. The cliffhanger at the end of Chapter 13 was painful!  It took quite a bit of willpower to set the novel aside for reading after this week’s discussion.  There are so many secret agendas and betrayals, I can hardly keep them all straight!

1) I was much relieved when Jean and Locke made up, which started with Locke's gesture of a cup full of honesty with Cpt. Drakasha. Do you think that was hard for Locke? Or was he using this bit of honesty like any other weapon in his arsenal to get what he wants in the end? 

I didn’t think it seemed too terribly hard for Locke.  After all, he only told the truth up to a point, so he is still using the withholding and providing of information as a tool.  However, he could have just let Cpt. Drakasha make up his motivations for him.  I think Locke would have been more comfortable lying to the pirates, but he deferred to Jean’s judgment.  I think that was a very decent thing to do for his friend.

2) The Parlor Passage: We still don't know Locke's true name, but whatever was in that mist does. What do you think it is? 

It appears to be some other form of magic in Lynch’s world!  I’m wondering if the voices have anything to do with the Eldren.  Or perhaps they could be spirits?

3) There was an interesting section of the book that started about where Locke assisted Drakasha in selling the Red Messenger; he put on the persona of Leocanto Kosta and used the alias Tavras Callas and then Drakasha was still thinking of him as Ravelle..... Did using all those various aliases in such a short amount of time have your mind spinning a little? Do you think Lynch did this on purpose to give the reader a sense of Locke's mind? 

I thought it was really cool that Jean and Locke had established various characters that they could slip into at need.  Maybe Lynch is hinting towards a future identity crisis on Locke’s part.  It puts another spin on why he might not have told Cpt. Drakasha the name ‘Locke Lamora’.  After all, it’s just another alias—one of a young thief in Camorr who grew up to be a master con artist J.  We don’t even know Locke’s real name, though he’s worn ‘Locke Lamora’ for most of his life.

4) That was a sweet little kiss between Cpt. Zamira and Cpt. Jaffrim at the end of the Captains' Council. Do you think they have some history, or is it just innocent flirting that's been going on for some time? 

Maybe it’s just me, but I didn’t read that as flirting.  Somehow, I got the impression that he was much older than the other captains (maybe in his 60s?), so I saw it more as affectionate teasing.  It seems like they’ve been friends for a long time, but I didn’t feel any sparks of romantic chemistry between them. 

5) Jean and Ezri. Cue dove-cooing and little winged hearts with sparkles. Do you think Jean will stay with the Poison Orchid or that Ezri will leave her ship to pal around with Jean and Locke? 

I’m guessing the series is following Locke, so I would hate for Jean to stay with Ezri.  We would never see them again!  I think Ezri could be quite a decent Gentleman Bastard if she set her mind to it.

6) What is Utgar up to? What are his motivations? 

I hadn’t paid any attention to him at all, until that scene with Cpt. Rodanov.  From what I can gather, he’s been in Rodanov’s employ for a while.  It seems like Rodanov was very unhappy with the pirate’s actions that led to their thrashing by the navy of Tal Verrar.  I assumed that he had spies on each ship to make sure such a thing didn’t happen again. 

With Cpt. Drakasha backing Locke and Jean’s plan, Rodanov must be caught between his affection for her and his desire to protect the Ghostwinds.  I’m guessing Utgar is tasked with making sure Cpt. Drakasha doesn’t start a war, and with killing Locke and Jean if they seem to be taking too many risks.

As for Utgar’s motivations?  Probably money.

7) So last week we hashed over that Merrain killed some of Stragos's guards on Windward Rock. But when Jean and Locke visit him, he doesn't mention it. What is up with that? 

No idea.  I don’t feel like I have enough information to make any realistic predictions about this subplot.  Maybe Merrain killed the guards and had them replace with Bondsmagi doppelgangers, so the archon hadn’t noticed that they were dead?  Maybe she’s planning a coup d’etat with her mages embedded invisibly in the hierarchy of Tal Verrar?  I really don’t know. 

8) This week's section left us where the book began - Jean pointing a crossbow at Locke's throat. Do you think Jean knows who sent these crossbowers? Is he on their side? Is it a clever ploy to get him and Locke out of this predicament? Did you find it excruciatingly hard to stop here?

Considering Jean and Locke’s conversations just previous, and the fact that Jean killed one of their pursuers, I think it's a clever ploy.  However, I don’t know if it’s a trick or not!  It was very, very hard to stop reading here.  I can’t even decide who I think the crossbowers might represent.  The list of people screwing with Locke and Jean is so long! 

Review: Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Way Station by Clifford D. Simak

Published: Galaxy Science Fiction, 1963

Awards Won: Hugo Award

The Book:

“After the Civil War, the soldier Enoch Wallace returned to his family farm and rural hometown.  After his parents’ death, he maintained a solitary lifestyle in that home, enduring for over a century with no apparent physical change.  He lives peaceably, causing no trouble and existing only as a mild curiosity to his fellow townsfolk.

The secret of his eternal youth is technology, not magic.  The truth is, Enoch has been recruited by an alien he named ‘Ulysses’ to run Earth’s first galactic way station.  Unable to reveal his secrets to the world at large, he carefully records all the knowledge and wisdom he can gain from the many aliens with which he is able to converse. Now, however, people are starting to notice his unusual longevity, and it seems that he may not be able to keep the secrets of his strange life from being finally revealed.” ~Allie

I first encountered Clifford D. Simak in middle school, through a tattered copy of City that I miraculously discovered a tiny classroom library.  I hadn’t read any of his work since then, but WWend’s Grand Master’s Reading Challenge gave me the necessary push to finally read his Hugo winning novel! 

My Thoughts:

Simak’s writing style in Way Station is very simple and clear, and it reminds me a bit of Asimov’s style.  I think the simplicity of the writing might annoy some readers, but I felt like it fit well with the tone of the novel.  It is a slow-paced novel featuring a lonely near-immortal in a rural area. Despite the comings and goings of aliens, Enoch was a fairly unsophisticated man who had been leading an uncomplicated, if unusual, life.  I found the character of Enoch very refreshing. He spent a lot of time carefully thinking through questions of morality and loyalty, as he slowly made peace with his own life.  There were not all that many other developed characters in the novel, but it was very easy to empathize with Enoch’s thoughtful loneliness.

Most of the other characters, such as the coffee-drinking alien Ulysses, the well-meaning government agent, and the negative-stereotype-redneck Fisher family, were not deeply characterized beyond their initial impressions.  The most developed secondary character, Lucy Fisher, seemed to be a little potentially problematic. Lucy is a deaf-mute who is portrayed as having a kind of spiritual and magical purity and goodness born of her detachment from the modern world.  Besides being a bit unlikely, Lucy’s portrayal did not bother me too much, but I imagine that it could be insurmountably irritating to people who have more personal experience with hearing disabilities.

Simak’s aliens and technology have a much more mystic and magical cast than most science fiction I’ve read.  For instance, instead of having the aliens abolish religion, Enoch learns that all the aliens believe in a spiritual force.  Many of the trinkets Enoch is gifted with, and the technology of the way station itself, are never completely explained.  While some are clearly advanced technology, others appear to actually be mystical in nature.  Since we see everything through Enoch’s point of view, we can only read what he is able to understand.  I thought this was effective in communicating the idea of the massive wealth of knowledge of the universe, only a small fraction of which Enoch can ever truly grasp.  

The story of Way Station moved rather slowly, and tended to go off on digressions and subplots that had only a tenuous connection to the main plot.  Some of these subplots were actually quite interesting in their own right, but they did start to make the book feel a little unfocused.  One in particular, concerning ‘shadow people’ that Enoch created from his own thoughts, seemed almost to be a criticism of traditional pulp characters.  The conclusion of the subplot seemed to state that neither a wish-fulfillment version of oneself, nor a woman created solely to fill one’s romantic needs constitutes a believable person.  Another tangential plot was the imminent threat of nuclear war, which dated the novel a bit.  Many different subplots appeared to be coming together for the ending, but the conclusion ending up to be a disappointing one of the deus ex machina variety.

My Rating: 3.5/5

Way Station is the simply written account of a rural man, Enoch Wallace, who is tasked with running Earth’s only traveling station for aliens from all over the galaxy.  It is a rather slow, contemplative novel, filled with Enoch’s thoughts and observations.  I enjoyed seeing the various aliens and the alien artifacts through Enoch’s viewpoint, and I liked that the reader was almost never presented with a complete explanation for any of them.  I found it interesting that Simak’s galactic empire still had room for mysticism and spirituality. One flaw of the novel was its occasional lack of cohesion, as the story sometimes wandered down side paths that were not particularly relevant to the central story.  Other problems concern the frustratingly simple ending and a problematic portrayal of a young girl with a hearing disability.  Way Station is a novel that shows its age, but I think it is still worth reading.