Locke Lamora and Jean Tannen, the eponymous Gentleman Bastards of Scott Lynch’s excellent sequence, return. This time, not only are they con men and thieves, they are pirates. As in the previous novel, the Gentleman Bastards are thrust between opposing forces, with very little wiggle room to eke out a profit, or their lives for that matter. The novel follows shortly on the heels of the previous novel, The Lies of Locke Lamora, though to his credit, Lynch makes this Red Seas Under Red Skies easily accessible to readers who have not read Lies. Still shame on them since the book was great and, as great as it was, Red Seas is an even better novel.