ryan

The problem here is one of pacing.

It's a delicate balance, to be sure, when you're writing a book about a blossoming romance between teenagers: the difference between why-haven't-they-kissed-yet and whoa-there-hold-your-horses. Especially in something as constrained in form as a young adult romance, there are only so many plots. This is not a unique problem.

I can admire the decision to dive headlong into things right out of the gate; that's not the problem. What happens after, though, is... not much. Which is, frankly, inexplicable. They never get to have the space to just be together, nor is there enough happening outside of that to move their characters along any sort of arc. Both leads do eventually get put in their place, but it never gels together in a thematic whole.

Which is a shame, because there's a lot to like in the book. The characters' love for music shines through everything, first and foremost. You could consider the music a character in its own right, if you were so inclined. Even the secondary cast gets time to shine (I especially love the ex-boyfriend, who is straight up a disaster).

But by giving so much time to that expanded cast (and there are a lot of characters) we don't get a chance to properly invest ourselves in the leads. What about them works? Why are they together, really, if not as a rebound and a publicity stunt? And the answers proffered are unsatisfactory, the ending unearned. It is a sweet story, though, if ultimately hollow – a piece of candy you think is filled, but when you bite down there's just air inside. There's that lingering disappointment that it could have been just that much more than it is.

All the Seas of the World is a novel by Guy Gavriel Kay – and, if you are familiar with any of his work, that should already tell you a great deal about the contents of this book. Lots of characters. A rotating cast of limited third-person points-of-view (and one first-person). Brief interludes in an omniscient voice. Chekhov's guns you never even noticed paying off 400 pages later. Characters and places from previous novels showing up. The two moons, the sun, the stars. It's all there.

Somewhat unusually for Kay, this book serves as an almost direct sequel to his previous work, A Brightness Long Ago, taking place merely a few years later and featuring many of the same characters and locations. This is, effectively, the middle entry in a trilogy-of-sorts, with Children of Earth and Sky serving as the ultimate conclusion.

As is often the case with Kay, however, the conclusion isn't the point. There's a reason he has most of his characters tip-toe around actually being involved in the story – his own, quarter-turned version of history – instead of being straight up heroes. They each have their own lives separate from what will be written down as history, and their stories matter.

Unfortunately, All the Seas lacks that special something to elevate it above “a good Guy Gavriel Kay novel” - which is hardly a slight, coming from me especially. This book simply never reaches one of those heart-achingly beautiful highs for which he is loved. A Brightness Long Ago made me cry, several times. All the Seas of the World didn't. Simple as that. Perhaps it's a case of my own biases here (the theme here, home, never resonates with me the way A Brightness's theme of loss does). That doesn't mean it's not a good book, though.

It has some interesting ideas, and while I appreciate the central thesis of trying to make math fun, I don't think the book ever really coheres into a compelling vision for the classroom.