If you have not read Children of Earth and Sky or A Brightness Long Ago, I’d recommend reading at least one of those before starting All the Seas of the World. I read A Brightness Long Ago a few years ago but forgot most of it, so I was a bit lost at the beginning of this book. This latest publication focuses on some characters and events from those previous books.

It is three years after the events of A Brightness Long Ago, and two powerful brothers have hired Nadia and Rafel to assassinate a khalif in a bid for power. Though Nadia and Rafel’s mission is successful, an unexpected turn of events completely changes these two merchants’ lives in ways they never dreamed.

The rest of the narrative follows these characters and several others in this richly detailed historical fantasy. There are many religious and geo-political factors that these characters must navigate.

It takes place in something close to Renaissance Italy. But it leans more toward historical fiction than it does as fantasy. The fantasy element is more of a whisper than anything else.

This book held my attention in stops and starts. There is a ton of info-dumping at the beginning that outlines the different religious groups and why they are at odds with each other. I found the pages in between the beginning and the end were the most compelling. The ending dragged quite a bit.

There are themes of exile, religion, identity, and memories.

The writing style is beautiful and elegant, but it is quite dense and requires a lot of focus. The POVs change abruptly, almost exclusively in the middle of a chapter.

I would absolutely recommend reading a Guy Gavriel Kay book, but maybe not this one until you’ve read the ones mentioned above.

Thank you to Viking for providing me with an arc via Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

https://booksandwheels.com

I am sorry to say that this book just could not hook me. I got lost in the beginning with so much historical detail that eventually I felt I was trying too hard to read it all the while getting distracted. I’m sure it’s a beautiful book but just not a good fit for me.

Guy Kavriel Kay is one of Canada's most accomplished and well-known authors. Starting with The Summer Tree (1984), the first volume in The Fionavar Tapestry, he has written over ten books since then, and reached commercial and critical success. His books are loosely categorized as historical fantasy, but he resists that label. The books take place in an Earth-like settings, and mirror various times in Earth history, such as medieval Spain, Tang Dynasty China, Renassiance Italy, or Byzantium. They are not truly "historical" in a strict sense, although Kay does extensive research on the eras that inspire his settings.

HIs new novel, All the Seas of the World (2022) is set in the same Renaissance-inspired world that inspired The Sarantine Mosiac (two books published in 1998 and 2000) plus Children of Earth and Sky (2016), and All the Brightness Long Ago (2019), his two most recent novels.

A Deadly Mission...

A darkened ship sails into a secluded harbor at night, anchoring out in the bay and sending a smaller ship carrying two men and a woman to shore on a deadly mission: to assassinate the khalif of Abeneven, a city in Majriti. A murder not prompted by religious fervour or personal revenge by the assassins. This was strictly business, an assignment paid for by others seeking a bold move to upset the balance of power and increase their own wealth and influence.

Thus begins All the Seas of the World. In it, Kay returns to the Renaissance-inspired world of some of his previous books, including his last two published novels. It is a stand-alone book from these others, in that you don't have to be familiar with them in order to enjoy this book. I can testify to that, as I haven't read the others.

Kay is an excellent writer, and his lyrical prose is on full display in this book. In the book he examines themes of exile, identity, faith and belonging through the lens of the two main characters, Nadia bint Dhiyan and Rafel Ben Natan, the two co-owners of the ship that bring those assassins to shore.

Nadia is more than just a co-owner, she is also one of the assassins. A woman captured into slavery as a child, she has freed herself by killing her owner and stealing some jewels by which she paid for passage on the ship owned by Rafel. Some years later she is now part-owner of the ship.

Nadia seeks revenge against the Asharites, the followers of the god Ashar. Her previous owner followed that faith, and they not only enslaved her but have engaged in a series of conquests that have made them a powerful empire in their own right. The raid that enslaved Nadia also killed her parents and separated her from her brother. After enduring these losses and the years of servitude that followed, Nadia is trying to build a new life for herself.

Rafel was also driven from his home as a child by the Jaddite rulers of his home country of Esperana. But it was not only Rafel and his family who suffered this fate. All who belonged to the Kindath faith were expelled by the Jaddites and forced into exile, for they are not exactly welcomed with open arms in any country. Rafel also seeks to create some security for himself and his parents, and he is doing that by his work as a corsair/pirate/merchant. The daring assignment that brings he and Nadia to the dark shore at the beginning of the novel is not the type of work they have done before, but it has the potential to make them very wealthy if they succeed.

These two characters form the heart of the novel. They are finely drawn characters that you quickly root for. Both of them are seeking a safe place in the world and both struggle to find it. As the repercussions spiral out from the death of the khalif, they face danger, heartache, and redemption. They may lose all they have gained. Or they may gain more than they could have dreamed. We read with bated breath, waiting to see which will be the outcome for them.

But although this book has plenty of action to keep the pages turning, it is not just an action thriller. There spaces of contemplation along the way. The book's omniscient narrator intersperses the story with reflections on the themes of the book: belonging, faith, chance and circumstance, and the meaning of home. The book also follows the fate of minor characters in short interludes sprinkled as asides throughout the story. This reminds us that while these people are not important to the overall grand narrative of the book, they are still important to those they love, and indeed, to themselves. The lives of small people matter, too. It's a good reminder when viewing the sweep of epic events in our world as well.

Historical Fantasy?

The setting of the book is lush and well-described. You can tell that Kay has spent a great deal of time developing this world. It has a long history to anchor it and is full of cultural details that make it come alive. But I have to admit that this is where the book falls down for me, although I think I am in the minority on this. Kay has made a very good living on his books, most of which are set in Earth-like periods of history. As I mentioned earlier, this one is based on Renaissance Europe. The Kindath stand in for the Jews; the Asharites, the Muslim;  the Jaddites; the Christians. Esperana stands in for Spain.

It drives me slightly crazy. Perhaps it's the historian bent in me, but I kept getting distracted by trying to figure out "who" these people-groups are and "where" they were located in "real" history. Kay makes it fairly obvious, so it's not that hard, but then I end up with annoyance. I have mentioned before that I struggle to enjoy fantasy books that are set in these "faux-Earth" settings. Because I feel like if these historical eras are worthy of being explored in stories, then explore them as they are.

However, I understand the appeal of using made-up places and religions that stand in for the real ones. You can fudge through some of the harder tenets of the religion in question and avoid the tough compromises or issues of faith that real people had to work through in those real time periods. You can paint the real religion that you don't like in nasty strokes and idealize the ones you prefer. Or, you can make all religions resemble what you might think is the ideal religion. Increasingly today, that equates to one where there are no strict commandments or exclusivity but where anything goes.

Sometimes Kay falls into these traps in this book. I pick on the religious aspects because the question of how people of faith work out the living of that faith in the real world interests me. To me, this was the most glaring downside of the book. It disappoints me when authors take the easy road out in stories such as this.

On the other hand...

However, using fantasy settings and religions to stand in for the actual ones can remove readers from knee-jerk reactions and help them to examine the role of faith, prejudice, and persecution with a more objective eye. I think that is what Kay is striving for here, and in his other books. Why should a whole group of people be expelled from their homes simply because of their faith? By naming those people the Kindath instead of the Jews, perhaps it helps us to see more clearly the utter inhumanity of that action.

So, despite my slight rant on fake vs real, I enjoyed All the Seas of the World. I love Kay's prose that brings the two main characters to vivid life, and the way he uses the plot, characters, and meditative interludes throughout the book to explore the important themes he writes about.

All the Seas of the World is another solid entry into Guy Gavriel Kay's impressive body of work. Four stars from me!

All the Seas of the World will be released May 24, 2022.

Note: I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley as part of a pre-publication promotion. I was not expected to provide a positive review in return.

In 1984, I picked up The Summer Tree from the new acquisitions shelf at the Ottawa Public Library and have been a fan ever since. I leaped at the opportunity to read a pre-publication electronic copy of All the Seas of the World. As always, Kay gave me a rich, fast-moving read with seamless plotting and complex, three-dimensional characters. This latter is, I think, what he does best. Reader be warned, however; the book is extremely complex. There are a huge number of characters, some of whom appear for only one, or a few, scenes, and time leaps backwards and forwards without warning, once moving from a character's observations in the present to his reflections twenty years later for a single paragraph before moving back. A couple of times, the leaps forward felt like spoilers; for example, my hopes that one relationship would have a future were killed in one sentence when the reader is abruptly told that the two characters never see one another again. This seems like a lost opportunity for suspense. There are also many direct writer to reader commentaries about the book's themes of home and exile, healing and revenge, the sometimes suddenness of death and the way a life can hang on one choice. The author even talks to his readers about his own choices to include minor characters or make parts of the story twist or end. Some of these felt a bit long. As a writer myself, with a degree in philosophy, I love complexity and reflection, but I don't think all readers will. I even indulged in a little skimming, something I don't ever remember doing in a Kay novel before. However, that said, as with all of Kay's stories, there is enough suspense and engagement with the characters in this novel to pull the reader forward through just about anything. Thanks to the publisher for giving me the opportunity to read and review this book.

Guy Gavriel Kay seems to have developed his own genre. Historical novels which take place in a near-Earth which is nearly ours but not quite. In a near_Renaissance time with analogues of the various countries, cities, empires and dominant religions of that time all described in his beautiful prose styling, perfectly adapted to capture the nuances of a sophisticated but ruthless clash of individual and cultures. This book was preceded by two others set in the same universe – A Brighness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky. I have not read them (an omission I will soon remedy) and found this to be no handicap in enjoying and understanding the motives and machinations of the large cast of characters.
I suppose the book is, strictly speaking, a fantasy in the sense that it takes place in an earth that never was but the character stay grounded in very real human situations and motivations. There is only one occasion, and a memorable scene it is, when the world of supernatural fantasy intrudes into this near-Renaissance – when a clearly magical white stag is menaced and perhaps destroyed by a monstrous form in the fog.
The characters are complex, attractive and appealing. The setting and environment is beautifully realized and the writing itself is of the highest quality. Strongly recommended.

Guy Gavriel Kay has woven a world full of characters in a rich tapestry. Revenge and war and religious persecution are strong themes. Kay introduces many characters in support of the narrative but most have a short yet influential effect on story development. It is challenging to feel empathy for the the few characters that move throughout the timeline as their backstories are thin and interactions brief. There was so much potential in this story but it felt rather like a trilogy that was afraid to become too lengthy. Even the final battle scenes failed to garner the tension expected in such a scenario and ended so quickly one might wonder what the fuss was about. Then they all lived happily ever after. Again, so much potential unrealized. It pains me to give one of my favourite authors a less than stellar review.

It had me at the first sentence.. "The memory of home can be too far away..." Growing up near the ocean and a being the daughter of a fisherman, Guy Gavriel Kay's writing had me visualizing it was as if I was back home. I wanted to know Rafel and Nadia's back story - who were they. Yes, I felt at times some of the story was just white noise, making me want to speed up my reading to get to the parts of the story where I'd have answers to my questions - Did Nadia still feel the need for or get her justice / revenge for her suffering and hurt of the past. Where was Rafel's brother? Does he and Nadia end up together? The ending was perfect.

Firstly thanks for the copy I received from Netgalley for an honest review.

3.5 to 4 stars.

With that out of the way, it has been years since I’ve read a book by Guy Gabriel Kay, and the premise of this book was interesting enough to catch my attention and have me wanting to give this author another go as I have enjoyed his previous books immensely. That said, I wasn’t quite sure how I felt about this book for a lot of it.

Not to say it was bad by any means, I still enjoyed it or I would never have pushed through such a lengthy novel. It just wasn’t quite what I was expecting and didn’t hold my attention as much as I would have liked.

Yet it was still an engaging novel and left me wanting to find out where these characters would end up. The beginning alone had my attention immediately starting out with such a bang. There’s an assassination attempt that turns into something of a heist and I loved this part.

I also loved how character oriented this book was as character based storylines are so important to me and something I get really invested in. This book did that well, revealing backstory about main characters bit by bit so the reader understood more of their actions, and allowing said characters to grow throughout the book and their journeys which is so important to storylines that focus more on character development like this.

However, I will say that at times the plot seemed very slow, perhaps because of this. There were long stretches where it felt like a whole lot of nothing was happening which is where my attention tended to wane. And yet, as I said I still kept reading and never considered giving up, so this was only to a point an issue. I just would have liked to see more actual plot taking place to make the story more investing.

Another fault with this book was that I felt like so many side characters got lost in the sheer number of them and lack of importance that made them stick out. I could not keep them straight more often than not and sometimes failed to understand why they even needed to be a part of the story because it just seemed to take me out of it more than anything.

However, again, to be more positive, having little bits and pieces of the main characters actions that seemed super insignificant play out in other characters lives as something so important to their realities was a very cool addition to the story which I enjoyed. It was thinking about how such small actions of people can have such an effect on others that really made these side stories pop out more. As a quote from the book states, “We can be changed, sometimes greatly, by people who come only glancingly into our lives and move on, never knowing what they have done to us.” (Chapter XIII) This resounded with me because it’s so relevant even in reality; the most insignificant actions can have the most profound effect on someone else, and this idea really latched onto my brain because of this book.

All together a solid read and makes me want to pick up more of this authors books in future

I tried. I really did. I've never read Guy Gavriel Kay, despite hearing rave reviews, so I was excited to try this. But I just didn't like it. The cast of characters was complex and a short way into the book I found it difficult to keep them straight.

I also struggled to find a reason to be interested or care what happened. Perhaps it was the opening exposition before the story actually happened, I'm not sure.

A disappointment. I will not be finishing this book.

DNF @ ~21%

Thank you, Netgalley, for the ARC!

I want to preface by saying this book has loads and loads of amazing reviews with high praise. Take my opinion with that in consideration. This review is a very clear case of "it's not you, it's me."

Here’s the thing. I don’t do well with historical or fantasy books, but there’s often certain ones that steal my attention and keep it forever. And for this one, I was intrigued by the vengeance and assassination plot.

Right from the start, I was taken away by the beautiful writing. Everything felt so poetic and whimsical. Although at times it felt too technical and flowery for my simple mind. It felt like a classic that bored me in high school. I wanted to get over the world-building aspects and just meet the characters and the plot. I got to the point where I wasn’t retaining any information.

All the Seas of the World is an immersive, complex, and realism-based fantasy with interesting characters and a sprawling plot that serves to show how all decisions, even minor ones, have impacts we can’t predict.

I had no idea going into this novel that it takes place in an already developed world from two other novels, and while I don’t think this was detrimental to my understanding of the story, it did feel like some exposition was lacking. For example, because the blurb I read on NetGalley didn’t say it was set during an approximation of the Renaissance, I wasn’t sure what the time period was supposed to be based on. This wouldn’t have mattered at all, until later on in the novel when guns and cannon show up and I was like … wait … guns? Cannon? What type of guns? Why are there guns? No one used one before …

Likewise, while by the end I really enjoyed the novel and there were many times when I had trouble putting it down, it took a little bit for me to get into it. The reason was that the novel has two particular stylistic choices that take some adjusting to. The first is that the book serves to give up a lot of its backstory in rather long info-dumps, and the second is that it invokes this “two-sentence wrap up of the result of a scene” before actually describing what happened in the scene. I eventually realized both of these were due to the narrative style but I found the latter ruined some of the tension for me.

Don’t get me wrong, the novel is so rich in detail, packed with fascinating and fun characters, and has beautiful prose. I would argue it’s almost a literary fiction because the novel definitely uses a stream-of-conscious style, in that the point of view will shift to another person and pretty much tell their life story before jumping back into the main storyline again. I think it’s just hard to get into it at first because I wasn’t expecting it and I hadn’t read the other books this world was based on so it was adjusting to both the depth of the worldbuilding and the prose.

While there are action scenes in the novel, it’s definitely not a “sword and sorcery” fantasy, but one that uses the backdrop of fantasy to delve into themes of revenge, self-identity, home, and purpose. It's deep and complex and enchanting.

I liked the characters. Nadia is tough, guarded, aloof, and determined, but her tragic backstory shapes a lot of her personality and it’s great to see her grow and learn how to deal with her past. Rafel was likable albeit a bit boring of a person, but not everyone has to have an over-the-top personality, especially when there were other characters with tons of charisma. He was reliable, which is why Nadia liked him too, I suppose!

The story is too complex to give even a cursory overview without spoilers, as it’s less a straightforward plot than showing how small decisions can spawn large consequences. As such, the story feels authentic to real life and you’re never sure what is going to happen. It’s not a thrilling plot, but it’s addictively interesting. It’s both a serious and safe story, as you can tell by the tone that there aren’t going to be graphic descriptions like in a grimdark fantasy yet it still deals with the effects of slavery and assault.

The novel has normalized queer rep, some moments of humour, poignancy, and gorgeous lines of prose. I do highly recommend it, but it’s not a novel you can just turn your brain off to read. Then again, that's one of the many great things about it!

This is not my usual genre to read, but I was attracted to the history. The story is well written and the characters are exceptional. The plot made me keep reading and I thought the climax was a little under par. It can be read as a standalone but I think that not having read the previous books may have made it a bit less compelling.. I received a free advance copy of this book and I am voluntarily leaving my review.

i really enjoyed this book. the writing style is superb, yet easy yo follow. i liked also the 2 pages of maps in the beginning . it helped it visualize and being transformed into that world.
loved the endings in italic style, they alwats had some sort of wisdom you can take from it for your own way of life.

As a reader, Guy Gavriel Kay’s books always make me cry. And move me to re-read them for pleasure, many times. As a writer, Guy’s books fill me with awe. He’s that good. All the Seas of the World is another classic in a bookshelf of classics he’s given us, and left me with only one regret: that I now have to wait for his next one!
--Ed Greenwood, internationally bestselling author and creator of The Forgotten Realms

I hate to say it but this book was just not for me, I am not the right audience for it, I really struggled to get my head around the vast amount of characters. I also did not know that this was the third book in a series, which probably contributed to my struggles. I think if you had read at least one of the previous books in this series you would probably fare better than I did. I would like to thank Netgalley and the publisher for the ARC.

This book was information overload at the start that has really impeded my reading. It did not pull me in from the start so I won't be able to give it a fair rating as I know it's not something I will enjoy reading. I wish I would have liked it, but I just can't get past the beginning. Sorry :(

I've been meaning to check out something by Guy Gavriel Kay for years now and read this description and saw the beautiful cover and knew I wanted to read this. Unfortunately, I just could not get into it. Maybe the writing style was just not for me, maybe I'll go back and try to read it again sometime, but for now it was a DNF.

Thank you NetGalley for this advanced copy of All the Seas of the World! I had never heard of this author before (I know...shock!) and this was a glimpse into his wonderful writing. Although I may have been disadvantaged by not reading his other books, I did really like the characters especially Nadia. I love that she was a strong female who was the bodyguard protecting the man and not the other way around. I liked her relationship with Rafel too. Interesting read! I'm not sure it was my total taste, but good experience!

Don't get me wrong here, the author's prose and world-building were immaculate, and that in and of itself was my issue, however. This was was simply just too expansive for me to follow along with, my first warning sign being the massive list of characters at the beginning. I just wasn't able to get my brain to stay focused on what was happening, but that is not to say this was a bad book. As I said, already, it is written extremely well but was just too much for me.

I was also under the assumption that this was a standalone, as it was marketed as such, but it is part of a larger series and universe. Thus, it didn't feel fair of me to read and review this book having not picked up anything by the author before.

As I ultimately ended up putting this book down, I gave it a middle rating as it seemed most fair. Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher nonetheless.

It took me a while to really get into this book. I found the story really interesting from page 1 and the writing is very beautiful, but I didn't really connect with any of the characters. Now having said that, I haven't yet read A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky, and wish this book wasn't advertised as a standalone. I feel I would have gotten so much more out of this if I had read those earlier books, especially since some of those characters appear in it.

I cannot stress enough how beautiful the writing is in this book. GGK is able to frame stories and themes in such interesting and compelling ways and can show different perspectives and make you feel entirely different about the same scene from each perspective. It's seriously wonderful to read his writing. The world-building was fantastic, but at times could be hard to follow with all the different city and character names, but again, this might have been easier to follow if I had read the other two books.

But I just found that despite the writing being incredible and the world being fascinating, I didn't deeply connect with this book. I found it didn't always feel like it was building to the climax in the most exciting or riveting ways. And even when I got to the climax, it was good and interesting but I didn't feel much emotional connection to anything that was happening.

All in all, this book was beautiful and GGK's writing is worth reading always, but I'm giving it 4 stars since I didn't connect to the story the way I hoped I would considering it's a GGK book. But with that being said, I will 100% be rereading this book after reading A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky.

Many thanks to Penguin Random House Canada for the ARC!