Hardcover, 512 pages
Published Nov. 5, 2019 by Harvill Secker.
FAR BENEATH the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable certainty that he is meant for another place. When he discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his campus library, he begins to read and is entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly, a turn of the page brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood, impossibly written in this book that is older than he is.
A bee, a …
FAR BENEATH the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable certainty that he is meant for another place. When he discovers a mysterious book in the stacks of his campus library, he begins to read and is entranced by tales of lovelorn prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly, a turn of the page brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood, impossibly written in this book that is older than he is.
A bee, a key, and a sword emblazoned on the book lead Zachary to two people who will change the course of his life: Mirabel, a fierce, pink-haired painter, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting alliances. These strangers guide Zachary through masquerade-party dances and whispered backroom stories to the headquarters of a secret society, where doorknobs hang from ribbons, and finally through a door conjured from paint to the place he has always yearned for.
Amid twisting tunnels filled with books, gilded ballrooms, and wine-dark shores, Zachary falls into an intoxicating world soaked in romance and mystery. But a battle is raging over the fate of this place, and though there are those who would willingly sacrifice everything to protect it, there are just as many intent on its destruction. As Zachary, Mirabel, and Dorian venture deeper into the space and its histories and myths, searching for answer and one another, a timeless love story unspools, casting a spell of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a Starless Sea.
This description comes from the publisher.
I enjoyed this book, but it didn't really go anywhere.
It presented a warm, sometimes interesting world that I wanted to spend more time in but left me wondering what the point was.
I suppose not everything needs a point. It made me want to draw or paint some of the settings.
Not much to say, it was fantastic. Stories within stories, sometimes meta but not obnoxious about it. The prose is poetic and nebulous at times, so that can be a no go for some, but I love it. I got lost in it a bit, but most likely my own fault for forcing myself to keep going when my mind was buzzing.
Fantastic book. Very complicated (I would not recommend it as a light read) but very engrossing and leaves a lot for you as the reader to reflect on.
Lorsque Zachary Ezra Rawlins, étudiant en jeu vidéo, trouve un vieux livre non référencé intitulé Doux Chagrins à la bibliothèque universitaire, sa curiosité est attisée. Et lorsqu’un chapitre de ce livre décrit une scène qu’il a vécu enfant et dont il n’a parlé à personne, il veut comprendre d’où vient ce livre. Son enquête le mène vite à une fête donnée par une mystérieuse organisation dont les membres se reconnaissent à des pendentifs ornés de trois symboles : une abeille, une épée et une clé. Cette fête se révèle pleines de découvertes pour Zachary : un beau et étrange garçon qui lui raconte une histoire puis lui propose d’aller cambrioler le local de cette organisation, une femme tout aussi mystérieuse qui lui accorde une danse et surtout une porte, première étape vers de nombreux univers au centre desquels se trouve le port de la mer sans étoiles.
Sorti d’abord en …
Lorsque Zachary Ezra Rawlins, étudiant en jeu vidéo, trouve un vieux livre non référencé intitulé Doux Chagrins à la bibliothèque universitaire, sa curiosité est attisée. Et lorsqu’un chapitre de ce livre décrit une scène qu’il a vécu enfant et dont il n’a parlé à personne, il veut comprendre d’où vient ce livre. Son enquête le mène vite à une fête donnée par une mystérieuse organisation dont les membres se reconnaissent à des pendentifs ornés de trois symboles : une abeille, une épée et une clé. Cette fête se révèle pleines de découvertes pour Zachary : un beau et étrange garçon qui lui raconte une histoire puis lui propose d’aller cambrioler le local de cette organisation, une femme tout aussi mystérieuse qui lui accorde une danse et surtout une porte, première étape vers de nombreux univers au centre desquels se trouve le port de la mer sans étoiles.
Sorti d’abord en grand format chez Sonatine, éditeur plus habitué aux thrillers grand public, La Mer sans étoiles est un pur roman de fantasy utilisant la mise en abyme comme moteur principal. Le livre dans le livre, Doux Chagrins, dont les histoires alternent avec les chapitres consacrés à Rawlins, est composé de contes qui, petit à petit, se connectent avec ce que vit Zachary lors de sa quête. Trimbalant son personnage principal de sa petite vie tranquille d’étudiant à un univers fait de légendes et d’univers parallèles, Morgenstern trouble ce qui pourrait être un récit d’apprentissage classique en y ajoutant une bonne dose de méta. Cela donne un récit dense et touffu dont les liens n’apparaissent pas tout de suite de manière évidente et on peut par moment se sentir un peu perdu dans cette œuvre luxuriante qui n’est pas sans quelques longueurs. Mais Erin Morgenstern maîtrise son roman et intègre toutes ses histoires à la trame principale, formant un tout cohérent.
Roman d’une richesse impressionnante, déclaration d’amour au pouvoir des livres, à mi-chemin entre le réalisme magique d’Haruki Murakami dans La Fin des temps et le jeu avec la littérature et les univers parallèles d’Alix Harrow dans Les Dix milles portes de January (coïncidence, Les Dix milles portes… et La Mer … ont paru en même temps), La Mer sans étoiles captivera les lecteurs et lectrices friands de jeu littéraire et de récit hors norme bousculant les formats habituels de narration. Un régal.
I simply could not get over the impression that the fantastical realm the characters spent most of their time in seemed very much like a boutique hotel, at least at first, and that led to a preoccupation about whether or how the (concededly human) characters went to the bathroom - was there one attended by similar invisible house servants (or magical self-cleaning toilets), or did they just magically not excrete despite all the food and drink they consumed over a long period of time down there? Also, the titular sea being made of honey was just gross.
my ultimate comfort read and go-to audiobook at bedtime
This is an incredibly beautiful book, inside and out. The design of the physical hardcover book itself is exquisitely beautiful and the writing is intensely vivid, luxuriantly picturesque, and evocative with sumptuous descriptions of one of the most magical places ever dreamt into fictive existence. And yet…
I just couldn’t get into it. You know that old breakup cliché, “It’s not you, it’s me”? That can be applied to all sorts of things beyond relationships, books included. I eagerly pre-ordered The Starless Sea as soon as it was available. It was published and arrived at my home while I was completely grief-stricken, so I didn’t touch it until the following year. Fast forward to 2020 and we were smack in the middle of a global pandemic, urgent nationwide protests, and I was deep into intense work on myself. Yet I decided to reach for it anyway. And… it took me …
This is an incredibly beautiful book, inside and out. The design of the physical hardcover book itself is exquisitely beautiful and the writing is intensely vivid, luxuriantly picturesque, and evocative with sumptuous descriptions of one of the most magical places ever dreamt into fictive existence. And yet…
I just couldn’t get into it. You know that old breakup cliché, “It’s not you, it’s me”? That can be applied to all sorts of things beyond relationships, books included. I eagerly pre-ordered The Starless Sea as soon as it was available. It was published and arrived at my home while I was completely grief-stricken, so I didn’t touch it until the following year. Fast forward to 2020 and we were smack in the middle of a global pandemic, urgent nationwide protests, and I was deep into intense work on myself. Yet I decided to reach for it anyway. And… it took me nearly a year to read it.
What should, by all rights, have been a magical escape from harsh reality felt…too enchanted and too beautiful juxtaposed with a waking world and physical self that both felt anything but enchanted. Instead of soothing and distracting, it vexed and hurt. It made me miss New York City as a whole, and Sleep No More specifically, even more than I already did. And so the book that took me a year to start ended up taking me another year to finish. The Starless Sea, you were achingly beautiful from start to finish, I dearly love the very idea of this book, and yet my heart never opened to you. It’s not you, it’s me.
Ambience is the one word I would use to describe this book. The setting is so prevalent that I ended up wanting to read just to feel like I was in the Harbor by the Starless Sea, amidst the books reading by quiet, warm candlelight. Of course, it wasn't all soothing, there is danger as the characters struggle against forces they don't entirely understand, bringing a mythic scope to the plot alongside tangled romances. Overall, this was a rewarding book to be read slowly and ponder all its intricate connections.
For a full review, check out my blog: strakul.blogspot.com/2020/11/book-review-starless-sea-by-erin.html
It took me a long time to warm up to this, which made me run out of time on my library loan in the end. I need to catch those lat 40 pages that I was only skip-reading, some other time.
The Night Circus would make a good ballet. The Starless Sea is more of a shaggy monster - Alice in Wonderland meets the Arabian Nights. Morgenstern writes well for the most part - indeed she sometimes seems to be more interested in the writing than the story. Sometimes it verges on cute. But I'd put it on a shelf alongside The Bear and the Nightingale, or Mike Carey at his best. Or Diana Wynne Jones at her weirdest.
Oooo, Erin Morgenstern writes so beautifully. This was a book where the words swirled around my mouth as I read. That's not all though, the story itself was wonderful too.
I liked some sections of this book, and was curious enough to see it through to the end. The story packs in a bunch of layers/mystique/symbolism and seems very proud of that. It all started falling flat for me though, and I couldn't stay engaged. I'm not deep enough to hang with this one.
It's hard to put what I thought about this book into words, but that's all I have so here we go!
I'll start off by saying that I REALLY liked this book. It was just... so beautifully written. I'd say it falls into the familiar genre of "young adolescent stumbles upon a beautiful magical world right under their nose and gets involved in a life changing adventure" expect it dials that up to 100. It contains the mystical whimsy of a fantasy world that calls back to Narnia or Hogwarts, but this is very much written for a more adult crowd. The storytelling is beautiful, specifically the interlaced fairy tales that seem to be novel to this book, which add both context and magic to the setting.
With all of that being said, I can't ignore the shortcomings of this book. It is a CUMBERSOME read. Once the book fully …
It's hard to put what I thought about this book into words, but that's all I have so here we go!
I'll start off by saying that I REALLY liked this book. It was just... so beautifully written. I'd say it falls into the familiar genre of "young adolescent stumbles upon a beautiful magical world right under their nose and gets involved in a life changing adventure" expect it dials that up to 100. It contains the mystical whimsy of a fantasy world that calls back to Narnia or Hogwarts, but this is very much written for a more adult crowd. The storytelling is beautiful, specifically the interlaced fairy tales that seem to be novel to this book, which add both context and magic to the setting.
With all of that being said, I can't ignore the shortcomings of this book. It is a CUMBERSOME read. Once the book fully transitions from the "real" world to the "fantasy" world in Act 2ish, I found it INCREDIBLY hard to follow what was happening. Everything was so tied up in metaphors and imagery, there was no real plot, or story, or motivation for why the characters were doing anything. The characters themselves felt underdeveloped. Certain characters of the magical world were definitely designed to be aloof and mystical, but even the characters who were supposed to be more "grounded" didn't feel very fleshed out. There was almost zero character growth among the entire cast, and really, the story just happened TO them, rather than having an active role in any of it, which I found lazy. The pacing was very strong in the first two acts, moving from the real world, then "dabbling" in the new magical world, to fully immersed in the story of the magical world. But this is ripped away in the rest of the book, pulling you back to reality for seemingly no reason.
All of these flaws would generally have diminished my love for a book but DAMN if the writing didn't save it. At the end of the day, the setting and overall story was just so beautiful and inspiring, that I couldn't help loving it.
Gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. One of the most captivating stories I've read in a long time. Lush language and an intricate plot. I'm already planning when I can reread it.
Like Night Circus, the setting here is lovely and the prose is terrific. Needed more plot? Lots of good ideas and the stories-within-the-story were often quite good.
Might pick this up again just to read the mini-fables.
