BooksCanada Reads Longlist

All the Seas of the World by Guy Gavriel Kay

A fantasy novel set in a near-Renaissance world about 'vengeance, power, and love.'

A fantasy novel set in a near-Renaissance world about 'vengeance, power, and love'

CBC Books Posted: May 31, 2022 12:38 PM EDT | Last Updated: January 12, 2023

Returning triumphantly to the brilliantly evoked near-Renaissance world ofA Brightness Long AgoandChildren of Earth and Sky, international bestselling author Guy Gavriel Kay deploys his signature 'quarter turn to the fantastic' to tell a story of vengeance, powerand love.

On a dark night, along a lonely stretch of coast, a small merchant ship sends two people ashore: their purpose is assassination. They have been hired by two ofthe most dangerous men alive to alter the balance of power in the world. The consequences of that act will affect the destinies of empires as well as lives both great and small.

One of those arriving on that stony strand is a young woman who had been abducted by corsairs as a child and sold into years of servitude far from her home. Having escaped, she is trying to chart her own course and is bent upon revenge. The man who will bring the others out from the city on his ship if they survive their mission still remembers being exiled as a boy with his family, for their faith; it is 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 Worldis a stand-alone page-turning dramathatalsooffers moving reflections on memory, fate, and the random events that can shape our lives in the past, and today. (From Viking)

All the Seas of the WorldisontheCanada Reads2023 longlist. The final five books and the panellists who chose them will be revealed on Jan. 25, 2023.

Guy Gavriel Kay is the author of 15 novels.His Fionavar Tapestry fantasy series has sold over a million copies worldwide since being published in the 1980s and has beenoptioned by the Canadian production companybehindOrphan Black.Some of Kay's other titles includeChildren of Earth and Sky,Tigana,River of StarsandA Brightness Long Ago.In 2014, he was appointed to the Order of Canada.

Guy Gavriel Kay on writing fantasy that connects with readers

"My readers have allowed me to write on different themes, different motifs, different things I've wanted to exploreand have stayed with me.

Readers understanding what you're trying to do is a really intense form of success.- Guy Gavriel Kay

"Readers understanding what you're trying to do is a really intense form of success.And on a mundane but fundamental level, success for a writer is being able to keep writing. It seems that what I do works for readers in now more than 30 languages, which is a lot of countries.That's a profound gift that readers give me because I'm able to do that, keep writing."

More interviews with Guy Gavriel Kay

Guy Gavriel Kay

13 years ago

3:58

Canadian writer talks about the new directions he sees ahead for fantasy fiction.

All in a Weekend Montreal11:16Guy Gavriel Kay: "Children of Earth and Sky"

Award-winning author Guy Gavriel Kay talks about his latest fantasy novel set in the Renaissance as well as his start in the literary world working on J.R.R. Tolkien's "The Simiarilion".

Other books by Guy Gavriel Kay

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