All the Seas of the World
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4.2 • 31 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Returning triumphantly to the brilliantly evoked near-Renaissance world of A Brightness Long Ago and Children of Earth and Sky, international bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay deploys his signature ‘quarter turn to the fantastic’ to tell a story of vengeance, power, and love.
On a dark night along a lonely stretch of coast a small ship sends two people ashore. Their purpose is assassination. They have been hired by two of the most dangerous men alive to alter the balance of power in the world. If they succeed, the consequences will affect the destinies of empires, and lives both great and small.
One of those arriving at that beach is a woman abducted by corsairs as a child and sold into years of servitude. Having escaped, she is trying to chart her own course—and is bent upon revenge. Another is a seafaring merchant who still remembers being exiled as a child with his family from their home, for their faith, a moment that never leaves him. In what follows, through a story both intimate and epic, unforgettable characters are immersed in the fierce and deadly struggles that define their time.
All the Seas of the World is a page-turning drama that also offers moving reflections on memory, fate, and the random events that can shape our lives—in the past, and today.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
World Fantasy Award winner Kay sets another outstanding fantasy in the Renaissance-like universe previously visited in Children of Earth and Sky and A Brightness Long Ago, offering a mosaic of captivating story lines within a mesmerizing narrative frame. The sections are linked by the omniscient narrator's observation that "there are many different ways for a home to be lost, and for the world to become defined by that loss" and musings on the inherent subjectivity of storytelling. The first tale, for example, seemingly begins where it does because of this storyteller's random observation of "a ship in the night, sailing without lights." Aboard this vessel is Nadia bint Dhiyan, who, with no home to return to, is bent on carrying out an assassination—though her plan does not unfold as she intends. Other threads, which feature a captive diplomat and the head of a ruling council overseeing a spy network needed to maintain his city-state's trade, similarly explore family, memory, and belonging. Kay constructs a rich world that easily draws readers in. Historical fantasy fans will be wowed.
Customer Reviews
Beauty
I found Kay between his first offering, the Fionavar Tapestry and Tigana, and what I love most about his writings is how deeply human they are. There’s a rich love of humanity, an unflinching willingness to bring the truth of the human condition to the written page. He writes complex characters with grace, truth, and confidence- if you’re really lucky, you may know people who remind you of his protagonists. Kay’s words are finely crafted, woven into sumptuous, lyrical stories that can be read and re-read on multiple levels.
Another amazing book
Pure GGK joy! Another amazing adventure through his historical fiction world