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A review by mxsallybend
All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay
4.0
Guy Gavriel Kay has always had a style of his own, but I believe this make be the ‘folksiest’ telling yet. That’s not a bad thing, it’s just a notable one. There’s very much a sense of a storyteller behind the novel, a kindly figure who is relating the events the story. Once in a while he lifts his head from the story to tell us what will happen to a secondary character over the course of their long life, and more often he nods and winks, teasing us with the likes “if only.” In many ways, this is a story about those secondary characters, about the chance encounters upon which the fates of nations can turn, and that’s the second most fascinating part of it.
As always, this is a heavily character driven novel, focused primarily on Rafel and Lenia, partners in business and the business of killing. They’re both deeply wounded souls, cut off from not just their families but their very cultures, making them deeply sympathetic. The story meanders from the main narrative in several key places to follow their pursuit of family, and it’s those side stories that I felt were the most fascinating part of the story. Empires and tyrants may rise and fall, but it’s families that break, hearts that heal, and passions that intersect that give this such life.
GGK continues his theme of highlighting slave/prostitute/concubine characters, something that I know grates on some readers, but I felt was handled better here than in previous books, and he takes some interesting steps forward with his LGBTQIA representation, giving us POV characters that don’t immediately die because they’re gay. In fact, there’s a lesbian relationship flirted with in the first half, and it’s quiet resolution is both the most beautiful and most sad paragraph in the book.
For those keeping track, there are several references to events in The Lions of Al-Rassan (a favorite of mine) and the two-part The Sarantine Mosaic (not a favorite of mine), in addition to this being a continuation of Children of Earth and Sky and A Brightness Long Ago. You don’t need to have read them to enjoy it, but you will appreciate it far more for having done so.
https://sallybend.wordpress.com/2022/09/03/book-review-all-the-seas-of-the-world-by-guy-gavriel-kay-fantasy/
As always, this is a heavily character driven novel, focused primarily on Rafel and Lenia, partners in business and the business of killing. They’re both deeply wounded souls, cut off from not just their families but their very cultures, making them deeply sympathetic. The story meanders from the main narrative in several key places to follow their pursuit of family, and it’s those side stories that I felt were the most fascinating part of the story. Empires and tyrants may rise and fall, but it’s families that break, hearts that heal, and passions that intersect that give this such life.
GGK continues his theme of highlighting slave/prostitute/concubine characters, something that I know grates on some readers, but I felt was handled better here than in previous books, and he takes some interesting steps forward with his LGBTQIA representation, giving us POV characters that don’t immediately die because they’re gay. In fact, there’s a lesbian relationship flirted with in the first half, and it’s quiet resolution is both the most beautiful and most sad paragraph in the book.
For those keeping track, there are several references to events in The Lions of Al-Rassan (a favorite of mine) and the two-part The Sarantine Mosaic (not a favorite of mine), in addition to this being a continuation of Children of Earth and Sky and A Brightness Long Ago. You don’t need to have read them to enjoy it, but you will appreciate it far more for having done so.
https://sallybend.wordpress.com/2022/09/03/book-review-all-the-seas-of-the-world-by-guy-gavriel-kay-fantasy/