World Fantasy Award winner Guy Gavriel Kay (River of Stars, Ysabel) is known for boundary-pushing, genre-defying stories set in fictional realms that borrow from real historical periods. In Children of Earth and Sky, he brings readers into a richly layered and detailed world inspired by Renaissance Europe. Through the main characters, who include Danica, a pirate set on revenge, two spies--the elderly Faleri and young Leonora, passing as a physician's wife--and Marin, the youngest son of a wealthy merchant, Kay explores themes of family and power and independence. His empathic style allows his diverse cast of characters to become fully realized and complicated, and he deftly incorporates places and people from his other novels.
Danica dreams of retribution against those who killed her family, but an incident during a shipboard raid forces her to leave Senjan for Dubrava's hostile court life. Leonora, who desired freedom so much she agreed to spy for Seressa, a foreign government, finds her own position jeopardized when her escort is killed in the raid. Along with others, they try to navigate an unpredictable political landscape. At times the narrator is all-seeing, foreshadowing events with a knowing phrase or insinuation. Kay moves between this omniscient voice and the intimate point of view of a single character. The rhythm of these subtle shifts pulls the story along at a rousing pace. Kay's writing is so wise, knowing and beautifully arranged that readers will be left feeling drunk on its poetic richness and thrilled with the repeated discoveries of how each character's narrative influences the others. --Justus Joseph, bookseller at Elliott Bay Book Company