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The Starless Sea

core novel 2019 The Starless Sea

Record

First published2019
Original language EN
Work typenovel
Canon statuscore
Reader rating3.84 (242,896 ratings, collected 2026-09-14)
Page count498
First-edition ISBN9780385541213

Synopsis

Zachary Ezra Rawlins, a graduate student more drawn to stories than to his actual coursework, discovers a strange, unattributed book in his university library containing a collection of short stories, one of which describes, in startling and impossible detail, something that actually happened to Zachary himself as a child, an incident he had never told anyone about. His obsessive search for the book's origins and author leads him first to a masquerade party in New York and then into a hidden underground realm called the Starless Sea, a vast, labyrinthine sanctuary built and maintained across centuries for the preservation of stories and for the people, known as Keepers and Acolytes, devoted to storytelling itself. As Zachary ventures deeper into this world of doors, keys, and buried libraries, he begins to realize that the boundary between the stories he reads and the story he is living has grown dangerously thin.

Where it sits

Awards (verified)

  • Dragon Award (Best Fantasy Novel (Including Paranormal)), 2020: won
  • Locus Award (Best Fantasy Novel), 2020: finalist; Locus reader poll, ranked 10th -- registered per the no-cutoff Locus-poll convention. Winner: Middlegame (Seanan McGuire).

Notes

  • A secret underground library-harbor world reached through hidden doors, entwining Zachary Ezra Rawlins' story with a myth from his own childhood. Portal fantasy with mythic and romantic elements.

Sources

← The Starless Sea dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.