Read-Along: Red Seas Under Red Skies, Part 3

This is the third 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 10 of Red Seas Under Red Skies by Scott Lynch. I commented on someone’s blog last week that I kind of hoped Locke and Jean screwed up their pirate captain impersonation.  I feel a little guilty now, because they failed dramatically. It was actually kind of painful to read, but I respect Lynch for allowing his characters to fail so believably and thoroughly.

          1. Locke and Jean's ability to find themselves at the center of a serious mess

          seems unparalleled. At this point, do you think that Stragos will get the return   

          he expects on his investment in them?

I might have still believed in Locke’s ability to pull something off, if Jean had not been against it.  At this point, I don’t think Locke can complete any part of Stragos scheme without Jean’s support.  I have no idea what they’re going to do about the alleged poison.

2. Merrain's activities after our boys leave Windward Rock are interesting. What do you think her plans are?

Merrain is still a question mark to me.  I am wondering if she’s somehow connected to the Bondsmagi.

3. Does anyone know why having cats aboard the ship is so important?

Last week, Genkinahito linked me a Wikipedia page on the topic (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship's_cat).  It seems that they are typically important for catching rats and mice and for companionship.  In Lynch’s world, though, they also seem to have a symbolic religious purpose.  Either they haven’t said yet, or I just don’t remember, but I’m guessing women and cats are tied to Iono worship in some way.

4. The word "mutiny" creates a lot of mental pictures. Were you surprised? Why or why not?

I was not surprised at all.  Even Caldris saw the mutiny coming before he died.  With Caldris help, Locke was not that great of a captain.  Without Caldris, he was a disaster.  After those men died, and Locke couldn’t even give them a proper seafarer’s funeral, I knew it wouldn’t be long before the sailors turned on him.  I’m impressed Locke was able to keep them from killing him outright.

5. Ah, the Poison Orchid. So many surprises there, not the least of which were the captain's children. Did you find the young children a natural part of the story?

Captain Drakasha had a good point—Where else would she put her children?  All the crew seem to live on that ship, and they only ever disembark briefly at Port Prodigal.  I’m actually a little surprised that her children are the only ones on board.  I do wonder what happened to their father, though.

6. Jean is developing more and more as a character as we get further in to the book. Ezri makes the comment to him that "Out here, the past is a currency, Jerome. Sometimes it's the only one we have." I think several interesting possibilities are coming into play regarding Jean and Ezri. What about you?

I was just wondering last week why Jean had never been interested in anyone romantically.  I think Jean and Ezri’s budding relationship is going to be a wedge between Jean and Locke, though I don’t think any of them intend for that to happen.  I like Ezri, and I think she and Jean have a great dynamic together.  I hope she doesn’t get killed off in the next 100 pages!

7. As we close down this week's reading, the Thorn of Camorr is back! I love it, even with all the conflict.  Several things from their Camorri background have come back up. Do you think we will see more Camorri characters?

I hope we see more Camorri characters.  I think it would be hilarious if there were Camorri sailors who find out about Locke’s past.  Imagine their surprise when they learn that this failure of a fraud pirate captain is actually the Thorn of Camorr!