I liked Scott Lynch’s debut novel, ‘The Lies Of Locke Lamora’, so much that I went and picked up ‘Red Seas Under Red Skies’, its successor, in trade paperback, which is a bit of an extravagance now that I’m being careful with my money. ‘The Lies Of Locke Lamora’ was a great combination of urban fantasy, heist yarn and buddy tale. In a complex and corrupt city, with remnants of ancient, magical times everywhere, Locke Lamora and his gang, the Gentleman Bastards were the smartest crooks in town, fooling the authorities, fellow-criminals and of course their victims as they wove a web of complex, lucrative confidence tricks often carried out just for the joy of virtuoso trickery rather than because they needed the loot. And then things went completely pear-shaped.

In the sequel, Locke and his sole surviving accomplice, Jean Tannen, have returned to their old trade, after an interlude during which Jean has to shock Locke out of self-pity and alcoholism. They’re now in another city-state, Tal Verrrar, carrying out an elaborate scam on the Sinspire, the wealthiest and most well-guarded gambling house in town. However, old enemies – the Bondsmagi, powerful sorcerers, one of whom Locke thwarted in the previous volume, have brought them to the notice of potential new enemies, such as the Archon, the military leader of Tal Verrar. Soon, they are caught in a suitably complex web of intrigue and counter-intrigue as they attempt to double-cross the Archon, Requin, the proprieter of the Sinspire, and anyone else who comes their way in the process. Through a series of events to complex to repeat here, they become unwilling tools of both, and wind up being shipped out to sea to become pirates, giving the Archon the deadly enemy he needs to defeat to show Tal Verrar how much it needs him. The Archon maintains his hold on them through a combination of slow-acting poison and blackmail – a device that is repeated from the earlier novel, and the point at which my rapt enjoyment was shaken a little for the first time.

Lynch quickly discards the more intrusive elements of his narrative style in the previous volume, but only really hits an even stride halfway through. By then, Locke and Jean are on the high seas, having fallen in with a lot of pirates who just as devious, larcenous, clever and loyal to one another as the two Gentleman Bastards. The rogue with a heart of gold is a time-honoured fantasy archetype, but Lynch is beginning to play that card a little too often. Much piratical action follows, and betrayal, and reverses and tragedy and a great many lachrymose moving moments of solidarity between Locke and Jean, another card Lynch overplays a bit.

Still, even if I’ve given the impression that the plot here is a tangle, it’s a gloriously chaotic and exciting tangle. While the succession of cliffhangers can get repetitive, the conclusion, apart from the increasingly saccharine declarations of loyalty, has just the right note of amusing anti-climax and of course a huge cliffhanger to be resolved in the next volume, as it seems that Locke faces certain death. I’m not overly worried though – Lynch has planned to write 7 volumes in this sequence, and I’m confident Locke will be around for a while yet. In a way Lynch has painted himself into a corner, making the Superman error – creating a character who is so invulnerable that there is little conflict for him. Locke might be physically mediocre, but he has a great mind, and invaluable allies – the muscular, loyal Jean Tannen and of course a writer who isn’t about to kill off his cash cow so soon. This can reduce this series to a series of foregone conclusions, so it’s becoming increasingly important that Lynch continues to exhibit the absorbing world-building and knack for stock, but beguiling secondary characters and witty, deadpan dialogue that he has displayed so far. Also, in future the stakes probably need to be less of the same-old life-or-death and more of something else altogether if Lynch seriously expects us to buy into his protagonists’ perils.

One thing’s for sure – while I enjoyed this book, the next one is going to have to be pretty special, because I can see the specter of Series Malaise looming pretty close. Lynch may have raised the stakes too high, too soon for his Gentleman Bastards. When they’ve snatched victory, and survival, from the jaws of defeat twice so many times already, what can they do next that simply won’t be more of the same?