All the Seas of the World

by Guy Gavriel Kay Book 2 in the Children of Earth and Sky series.

First published 2022

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4.3(6,641)

Rafel ben Natan commands the merchant vessel Silver Wake with Nadia bint Dhiyan, a woman abducted by corsairs as a child who has survived enslavement and reclaimed her freedom. Hired by two formidable warlords, they land an assassin on a lonely coast to kill the khalif of Abeneven. The operation succeeds in setting events in motion, but its political and personal consequences quickly exceed the intentions of those who planned it.

Rafel carries the memory of his family’s expulsion for their faith, while Nadia is determined to punish the corsair power that shaped her life. Their voyage brings them among merchants, rulers, soldiers, healers and exiles in the years after the fall of Sarantium, when rival religions and maritime states compete for control of trade and territory. The novel uses an Ottoman–Venetian and Mediterranean setting to examine captivity, diaspora, revenge and the possibility of choosing a future not wholly governed by inherited violence.

Historical Periods

Expulsion of the Jews from Spain and Sephardic Diaspora1492–c. 1700 CE Barbary Corsairs and Mediterranean Captivityc. 1450–1830 CE Ottoman–Venetian Wars1463–1718 CE