I enjoyed traveling with these people. ( )

Another story set in and around Batiara.

Still very introspective, the story focusses on a Kindath and Jaddite captain and co-owners of a corsair ship. Commissioned by the equivalent of our world's Redbeard to assassinate the ruler of a 'Magrebi' city, the story follows their subsequent careers.

I did feel the story featured rather too much introspection, but it was still a good read.

Recommended.

A little too deliberately reflective--as if Kay felt he needed to tie up every single minor story line and turn it into a parable--for it to be one of my favorites of his works. But not-my-favorite Kay is still a very good book. ( )

All the Seas of the World tells the story of Rafel, a maritime Jewish merchant, and his partner Lenia, an escaped Muslim slave, as they navigate their way through the tense politics of the Mediterranean after the fall of Constantinople. The story begins with the protagonists abetting the assassination of one Muslim ruler by another--a scheme that is at the same time wildly successful and also not. Their involvement, and the spoils thereof, gets the attention of many of the notables of Italy, and soon the once-outcasts are hobknobbing with condottieri and dukes who find their presence useful for their own schemes. As with most of Kay's works, the strength of this story lies not in the plot itself but rather in the depth of the character development and the immersive political settings. While this one started a bit slow as the reader learns about the characters, it ultimately did not disappoint as I found myself intensely interested in the doings of even the minor characters. ( )

A little too self indulgent to be one of his truly great books.
All the seas of the world takes place in the same universe as the Serantium books, The Lions of Al-Rassan, and Kays most recent books A brightness long ago and Children of earth and sky. As the two latter, it takes place in a renaissance Europe around the Mediterranean, mainly the city states of Italy.

The book has quite a lot of (unnecessary) in-universe references, to the point that it interferes with the reading. Maybe it is meant as a sort of hat-tip to the regular readers, as a kind of fan service, but it comes across as self-indulgent, and as if the book is propped up by its predecessors, and may not be strong enough to stand on its own.

The editorial asides are also rampant in this book. Long and frequent passages containing musings of the author that does not progresses the story, and becomes disruptive of the immersive reading experience.

The plotline is also quite unrealistic, in a very Mary Sue kind of way. The main characters manage to be in just the right place at the right time again and again, and get indulged by powerful allies in ways that does not make sense.

All that said, even though this is not Kay at his finest, the worldbuilding and characters are still engaging, and he did make me shed a tear at one point. ( )