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| Trade paperback, 442 pages Published 2020 (originally 2019) Acquired May 2020 Read July 2020 |
I've read two previous novels by Frances Hardinge, The Lie Tree and A Skinful of Shadows, and found them both strong books, deeply immersive and captivating, full of dark magic and dark truths. I expect to love this too.
Unfortunately, I didn't. Deeplight has an interesting premise: it's set in a fantasy archipelago that was once terrorized by gigantic sea creatures the islanders worshipped. A generation ago, the "gods" all died, and now the islanders harvest their scraps. The novel mostly follows a young street kid who ends up indentured on an island where a scientist in prying into the secrets of the gods, while at the same time he's come into possession of a powerful piece of "godware" himself.
I don't know what it is, but this never grabbed me like Hardinge's other novels did. I was never creeped out or unsettled as I was in those books. We're told that gods were terrible, but with some exceptions, the dark atmosphere that suffused her earlier books just isn't here. This is a perfectly serviceable fantasy adventure novel, but thematically, it never came together. There's this idea of storytelling running through the book, but it still doesn't quite cohere; one understands intellectually that there's a connection between the stories of the gods and the stories the narrator tells to get himself out of trouble and the stories we all tell ourselves in order to feel better, but you never feel it. The end just kind of becomes an action climax against cartoon villains.
(I wonder if it's because this is secondary-world fantasy, whereas the other two I've read are historical fantasy? Maybe she's more adept at the latter?)
That sounds like I hated it. I didn't. It's got neat worldbuilding (geographically, culturally, and historically), and some great ideas. But I would say it's a decent book and I know Frances Hardinge can write-- and I wanted her to write-- a great one.
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