The Quartered Sea

By Tanya Huff

Benedikt Sings the most powerful water in the kingdom, but water is the only Quarter Benedikt can sing, which isolates him from the Bardic Captain and his fellow Bards. When the Queen of Shkoder outfits a voyage to discover the lands across the sea against the Bardic Captain’s objections, Benedikt is the only Bard willing to brave the Captain’s wrath and volunteer.

In uncharted waters, a storm strikes and the kigh of the deep seas rise. All of Benedikt’s skill is unable to save ship or crew. Shipwrecked in an unfamiliar country and unable to send word to Shkoder of the ship’s fate, Benedikt must play the part he’s been given: a pawn in the game of politics and religion between brother and sister — who both intend to use his Song to their advantage.

As the Queen waits for word, the kigh of the deep seas rise again...

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jabberwocky Literary Agency, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 3, 2015
• ISBN: 9781625671257

Tanya Huff

Tanya Huff lives in rural Ontario with her wife Fiona Patton, five cats, and an increasing number of fish. Her 32 novels and 83 short stories include horror, heroic fantasy, urban fantasy, comedy, and space opera. Her BLOOD series was turned into the 22-episode Blood Ties and writing episode nine allowed her to finally use her degree in Radio & Television Arts. Many of her short stories are available as eCollections. She’s on Twitter at @TanyaHuff and Facebook as Tanya Huff. She has never used her Instagram account and isn’t sure why she has it.

Reviews for The Quartered Sea

[jamespurcell · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Struggled to finish. Expected a better ending to this interesting series

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Huff is hit or miss for me, and I think it’s because her Id Vortex is located somewhere very different from mine. Benedikt is a bard of Shkoder who can only sing water, not the other elements, but he’s better than anyone else at water. Still, he’s super insecure about it, and when an exploratory trip beyond the known waters goes wrong, he becomes essentially a slave in a foreign land. His passivity was annoying to me, but there are heroics and last-minute rescues if you like that part

[jeremypreacher · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I am sort of torn on this one. On the one hand, it's refreshing to read about fantasy-medieval Central America instead of Europe, nice to examine how the magically chosen culture guardians can go badly wrong, and look at some of the ways personal insecurity can have larger-scale consequences. On on the other hand, fantasy Aztecs are almost invariably portrayed as coldblooded sociopaths, hidebound bureaucrats are very nearly my least favorite characters to read about, and insecure and amoral but irresistible pretty boys are my least favorite characters to read about.

So... yeah. It was a decent read, I suppose, but not a main character I enjoyed spending time with and not exactly the comfort food I was looking for.