Recommended Reading: “Deeplight” by Frances Hardinge
As with Diane Setterfield’s Once Upon A River, discussed in detail here two weeks ago, I also gave Frances Hardinge’s Deeplight a quick headsup prior to Christmas: that is, I indicated that I had read and really enjoyed it but wouldn’t have time for a dedicated post prior to Christmas-New Year, and the summer holidays kicking in. (Yep, Southern Hemisphere here, so December-January is the long summer holiday. 😉 )
But today is Deeplight day—and I’ll begin by reiterating just how much I enjoyed this book. It’s a very different read to Frances Hardinge’s Costa Award-winning The Lie Tree, so if you’re expecting more of the same, then best to rewrite your expectations now. You can keep the one about it being really good, though. 🙂
Deeplight is an “otherworld” Fantasy that I consider to be Junior-YA crossover, but in fact suitable for readers of all ages who like an exciting, well-told story with layers to it, and a cast of interesting characters. The locale is The Myriad, an archipleago of islands in a larger world. The worldbuilding has steampunk elements in terms of its deep-sea diving and bathyscope-style technology, an aspect of the story that certainly appealed to me.
Deeplight is also characterized by a world within a world: in this case the Undersea that exists beneath the more usual ocean of The Myriad. An Undersea that spawns gods and monsters that dominated and terrorized The Myriad until just 30 years before the current story, at which point they turned upon each other, tearing each other apart until none were left. The aftermath of the gods’ death is a newly formed society of independent island states in which salvage of the dead gods’ remains is both legitimate and smuggling business, and their redundant priesthoods are slowly dying out in island sanctuaries.
Fascinating, isn’t it! Well, I certainly found it so—and thought the underlying premise of the Undersea and the dead gods an innovative example of Fantasy worldbuilding.
No book works by worldbuilding alone, however. Deeplight is also a coming of age story, centering on the friendship between Hark and Jelt, both orphans and fringe-dwellers skirmishing for survival amid the rough and tumble of the island called Lady’s Crave. Although their relationship lies at the heart of the story, Hark’s fate also becomes bound up with that of a scientist, Dr Vyne, a former priest called Quest, and Selphin, a smuggler’s daughter—particularly when his survival, and Jelt’s, leads them on a desperate mission to the Undersea.
One of the aspects I really liked about Deeplight is that the story, and Hark’s survival, are not just about the mystery and the adventure, but depend on Hark learning to think and decide for himself, not least where his trust and loyalty (both commodities in short supply among the back alleys of Lady’s Crave) should lie. But it is also a great adventure and imaginative fantasy.
So if you’re a fan of Neil Gaiman (The Graveyard Book and The Ocean At The End Of The Lane), Scott Westerfeld (Leviathan), Philip Reeves (Mortal Engines), Paolo Bacigalupi (Shipbreaker), or Kage Baker’s The Hotel Under The Sand, then I believe it will be worth your while investigating Deeplight.
Disclosure:
I read an uncorrected proof copy, 437 pp, supplied by our local Pan Macmillan rep. “But” I also liked the book enough to buy it as a Christmas present for my niece (age 13). 🙂