A review by whimsicallymeghan
All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay

3.0

Two people have been sent ashore to assassinate and change the balance of power in the world by two of the most dangerous men in the world. One of those people is a young woman who was abducted by pirates as a child and sold into slavery far from home. She’s now trying to set her own destiny, but revenge plays heavily on her mind.  Meanwhile, the other person, a man, has demons of his own he lives with as they try and complete the mission. First of all, this novel had gorgeous writing and the reader could see that Kay is a very talented writer and that his world building is expansive, but this novel just didn’t do it for this reader. They had a hard time connecting to the characters or the plot; every time they would get close to connecting, especially to the characters, they would soon lose that. Even with the plot, as soon as they would start to get immersed into the world, it wouldn’t be for long – it was like a perspective would shift, because they did that quite frequently, and the reader just wouldn’t care anymore about what was happening to another character because they just got used to the one they were reading about. The fantasy elements were good and the being at sea was interesting to read about, even the love and loss that could be glimpsed in this was good, but it was really the writing that carried the reader to the end of this. After reading other people’s reviews, this reader found out that, you can read his novels as a standalone, but his books are set in this same universe and are connected to one another, which makes the reader wonder if they had read at least one of the previous books, they would have appreciated this one more. The reader wanted to like and enjoy this, but they just couldn’t. The writing was really beautiful, so this does leave hope about reading more from Kay. But overall, this wasn’t for this reader.