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caitsidhe's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
mysterious
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
judenoseinabook's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
emotional
hopeful
informative
inspiring
reflective
sad
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
Wow. I was crying by the last page. Wonderful moving story.
I have always loved Guy Gavriel Kay's books and this is no exception. I was desperate to find out what happened to everyone but bereft to have reached the end.
He writes so beautifully, with so much insight to people and their motivations loves hates and chance occurrence that change everything.
Set in early renaissance times, a quarter turn from real people and places. It is all brought so vividly to life even if the place names are different. Hope there are further such tales in the offing.
I have always loved Guy Gavriel Kay's books and this is no exception. I was desperate to find out what happened to everyone but bereft to have reached the end.
He writes so beautifully, with so much insight to people and their motivations loves hates and chance occurrence that change everything.
Set in early renaissance times, a quarter turn from real people and places. It is all brought so vividly to life even if the place names are different. Hope there are further such tales in the offing.
auora1484's review against another edition
mysterious
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
The writing and prose were beautiful but I just couldn't connect with the characters.
all_piss_and_vinegar's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.5
I love the way Kay writes and how the characters are developed. Unfortunately I found this one a little confusing; keeping track of which religion matched with which country/region so some of the nuances were lost on me.
readingthroughthelists's review
emotional
reflective
sad
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
A few weeks ago, I went to see the new DnD movie. It was an enjoyable romp, punctuated with moments of real feeling, particularly the feeling between Edgin and Holga. Their platonic, sibling-like bond was, for me, the real heart of the movie and there were plenty of scenes showing us how and why they came to have this bond.
I suspect that Kay was trying to achieve something similar with the relationship between Rafel and Lenia, but unfortunately he forgot to give them even one scene of actual bonding. Instead we are only told how much they care for each other, how much they support each other. Told, but never shown.
Instead, Rafel and Lenia spend most of the book separated on various side quests, achieving nothing, learning little. In fact the entire book begins to feel like an extended series of side quests. I had my fair share of complaints about <i>Children of Earth and Sky</i> but at least that book had a through-line--the characters were <i>going</i> somewhere; there was a goal. All of the Seas of the World has no through-line--it’s not going anywhere, not leading up to anything. It all ends up feeling meandering and rather aimless.
All of the best characters in <i>Seas</i> are the ones who already appeared in <i>A Brightness Long Ago</i>. Given that these are Kay’s original characters and this is his trilogy, it feels strange to complain about “fan service,” but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Rafel and Lenia only exist to give Kay’s other, better characters someone to react to/act off of. Rafel and Lenia are there, certainly, but they really have nothing to say, nothing to do. Like rudderless boats, they drift on the currents of time and fate until then the book ends.
And I’m still bored.
<Spoiler>Now for specifics/rants:
1. I truly loved the bond between Lenia and little Leonora. Does it make any sense? No. Does it contribute to the plot in any meaningful way? No. But for one moment, my boredom gave way to pure delight as Lenia conversed with this adorable baby mystic. 10/10 no notes.
2. What does Lenia do, actually?? It seems as though every man in the story is falling over himself to help her/guard her/protect her but…why? She doesn’t really do anything that amazing; she’s not particularly kind or even memorable. She’s just a lady that happens to use knives. That’s not…that big of a deal?
3. Rafel is a member of a severely oppressed religious minority, yet I feel that we never get a sense of the severity of that oppression. All the Jaddites Rafel meets are amazingly open-minded and friendly in a way that does not accord with the real status of Jews in the Middle Ages.
4. No significant Asharite (Muslim) characters? Not even one?
5. Why is this book set in Battiera (Italy)? We already did this, twice, in the other two books. If there was ever a time to explore other parts of this world, this was it.
6. The sex scenes are dumb and also strangely perfunctory/passionless. Why are Lenia and Reña Vidal hooking up when they literally met one second ago? Is Rafel going to keep sleeping with his sister-in-law after he’s in a relationship with Lenia?
7. That stag thing was cool I guess but whyyyyy was it there? What does it mean?
8. God, this book was so boring.
I suspect that Kay was trying to achieve something similar with the relationship between Rafel and Lenia, but unfortunately he forgot to give them even one scene of actual bonding. Instead we are only told how much they care for each other, how much they support each other. Told, but never shown.
Instead, Rafel and Lenia spend most of the book separated on various side quests, achieving nothing, learning little. In fact the entire book begins to feel like an extended series of side quests. I had my fair share of complaints about <i>Children of Earth and Sky</i> but at least that book had a through-line--the characters were <i>going</i> somewhere; there was a goal. All of the Seas of the World has no through-line--it’s not going anywhere, not leading up to anything. It all ends up feeling meandering and rather aimless.
All of the best characters in <i>Seas</i> are the ones who already appeared in <i>A Brightness Long Ago</i>. Given that these are Kay’s original characters and this is his trilogy, it feels strange to complain about “fan service,” but it’s hard to shake the feeling that Rafel and Lenia only exist to give Kay’s other, better characters someone to react to/act off of. Rafel and Lenia are there, certainly, but they really have nothing to say, nothing to do. Like rudderless boats, they drift on the currents of time and fate until then the book ends.
And I’m still bored.
<Spoiler>Now for specifics/rants:
1. I truly loved the bond between Lenia and little Leonora. Does it make any sense? No. Does it contribute to the plot in any meaningful way? No. But for one moment, my boredom gave way to pure delight as Lenia conversed with this adorable baby mystic. 10/10 no notes.
2. What does Lenia do, actually?? It seems as though every man in the story is falling over himself to help her/guard her/protect her but…why? She doesn’t really do anything that amazing; she’s not particularly kind or even memorable. She’s just a lady that happens to use knives. That’s not…that big of a deal?
3. Rafel is a member of a severely oppressed religious minority, yet I feel that we never get a sense of the severity of that oppression. All the Jaddites Rafel meets are amazingly open-minded and friendly in a way that does not accord with the real status of Jews in the Middle Ages.
4. No significant Asharite (Muslim) characters? Not even one?
5. Why is this book set in Battiera (Italy)? We already did this, twice, in the other two books. If there was ever a time to explore other parts of this world, this was it.
6. The sex scenes are dumb and also strangely perfunctory/passionless. Why are Lenia and Reña Vidal hooking up when they literally met one second ago? Is Rafel going to keep sleeping with his sister-in-law after he’s in a relationship with Lenia?
7. That stag thing was cool I guess but whyyyyy was it there? What does it mean?
8. God, this book was so boring.
daytonasplendor's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
sad
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
whatcassiedid's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I wish I had reread Children of Earth and Sky as well as A Brightness Long Ago before reading this because there are some previously introduced characters who I couldn't quite remember, but it didn't affect my enjoyment. Guy Gavriel Kay just gets it.
jandi's review against another edition
4.0
* Thanks to Penguin Random House Canada/Viking and Netgalley for an advance copy for review purposes *
It took me a while to finish this book, the pace is deliberate and the writing style begs to be savored rather than devoured. I also struggled a bit to get into this world, partly because I did not know this is a world the author has been building over several other books, but also because it is set on a fictional world loosely based on the Mediterranean around the Renaissance, and my mind kept trying to tie together the fictional places and characters to the historical ones (Florence, Rome, Venice, Marseille, Algiers, Tunis, Istanbul,...), pulling me out of the story. There were no fantastical elements of relevance to the story, so my expectations for fantasy were thwarted. Once my mind was able to make a peace with a world that is almost like but not quite like our own, I was able to get immersed into this book.
There are many beautifully constructed characters in this epic story. The two main ones, Rafel and Lenia, are a pair of merchants thrown into a life at sea after great losses. Rafel is an exile from Esperana, forced to leave his home as a child in an event eerily similar to the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Lenia, initially known as Nadia, is a Jaddite (Christian) woman, captured in a raid and enslaved as a child, and now escaped and looking for revenge against any of the people of her former captors.. An ambitious contract way beyond their usual trading deals throws them into a whirlwind of action that shapes their world, and themselves.
The book explores the themes of religious identity, belonging and exile. Many of the characters are displaced and the path they are on was not necessarily their choice (specially for women and religious minorities).. Throughout the story, wandering characters encounter each other in different places and circumstances, with each encounter playing a pivotal role in the shaping of the world of that time. And I can see how breaking away from the real history through the different naming helps explore those themes without all the baggage that comes with them.
In a nutshell, I really liked this book because of its characters and lovely writing, but I found the quasi-historical setting distracting at first (it kept pulling me out of the story for the first couple hundred pages), and the random musings of minor characters on their death felt a little out of place. I would read more books in this world now that I feel more immersed in it, I am quite interested in reading the Sarantium books and anything where Folco d'Acorsi appears.
It took me a while to finish this book, the pace is deliberate and the writing style begs to be savored rather than devoured. I also struggled a bit to get into this world, partly because I did not know this is a world the author has been building over several other books, but also because it is set on a fictional world loosely based on the Mediterranean around the Renaissance, and my mind kept trying to tie together the fictional places and characters to the historical ones (Florence, Rome, Venice, Marseille, Algiers, Tunis, Istanbul,...), pulling me out of the story. There were no fantastical elements of relevance to the story, so my expectations for fantasy were thwarted. Once my mind was able to make a peace with a world that is almost like but not quite like our own, I was able to get immersed into this book.
There are many beautifully constructed characters in this epic story. The two main ones, Rafel and Lenia, are a pair of merchants thrown into a life at sea after great losses. Rafel is an exile from Esperana, forced to leave his home as a child in an event eerily similar to the expulsion of Jews from Spain. Lenia, initially known as Nadia, is a Jaddite (Christian) woman, captured in a raid and enslaved as a child, and now escaped and looking for revenge against any of the people of her former captors.. An ambitious contract way beyond their usual trading deals throws them into a whirlwind of action that shapes their world, and themselves.
The book explores the themes of religious identity, belonging and exile. Many of the characters are displaced and the path they are on was not necessarily their choice (specially for women and religious minorities).. Throughout the story, wandering characters encounter each other in different places and circumstances, with each encounter playing a pivotal role in the shaping of the world of that time. And I can see how breaking away from the real history through the different naming helps explore those themes without all the baggage that comes with them.
In a nutshell, I really liked this book because of its characters and lovely writing, but I found the quasi-historical setting distracting at first (it kept pulling me out of the story for the first couple hundred pages), and the random musings of minor characters on their death felt a little out of place. I would read more books in this world now that I feel more immersed in it, I am quite interested in reading the Sarantium books and anything where Folco d'Acorsi appears.