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Deeplight

Deeplight

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Distinctive appreciation for the inclusion of sign language. And also for the refreshing exclusion of any ham-fisted romantic plot line. Russell Williams, Imogen (30 October 2019). "Deeplight by Frances Hardinge review – a rich and strange island adventure". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 30 October 2019 . Retrieved 18 September 2021. The gods of the Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Then one day they rose up and tore each other apart, killing many hundreds of islanders and changing the Myriad forever.'

Hardinge’s intricately textured world, peopled by smugglers, fanatics and priests, is filled with absorbing detail So, setting and story are fantastic - characters too, as through Hark we meet a range of people. There's an exceptional portrayal of a truly toxic friendship - they're hard to do right and I thought Frances Hardinge handled it beautifully. There's some parts of the book that revolve around deafness and a deaf character that were really well-done too; then I found the author's note at the end and learned this book was actually inspired by a young woman who wrote to the author asking if she'd ever include a deaf character in a book; Ms Hardinge pondered and found herself with a storyline; and then invited the reader to serve as a consultant on writing that aspect of the book. So it makes sense on why it was right, but I also thought that was just a really cool inspiration for the book. When Frances Hardinge writes fantasy, it is a true fantasy indeed, in the most sincere meaning of the word - a crazy flight of imagination, an inventiveness of the strangest kind.

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Whilst I've rated Deeplight 4* reads, I'd probably recommend it as highly as I do many of my 5* reads. It's got some beautiful, aquatic world-building and Hark's developmental journey, as he discovers the bounds of friendship, is masterfully handled. This is the newest fantasy adventure by this author and the 4th of hers that I've read. It's also instantly one of my favorites.

However, 14-year-old Hark has more to fear from people than from the sea. Hark and Jelt have been friends, close as brothers, working together to survive on the islands. Jelt however keeps demanding more and more from Hark, and to see Hark slowly become more certain of himself and his unhealthy bond with Jelt is very admirable and brave. That said, this book is a slow burn, and does take quite a while to get going. The story takes its time to develop, the characters are slowly drawn until they feel lifelike, the world is vividly painted in all its weirdness until it feels real and lived-in, the stakes are established and the chessboard is set for the payoff. And the entire second half provides a great payoff to all the careful and elaborate set up. But what else would you expect from a Hardinge story?And also as usual, while not embracing grimdark or lingering over violence, Hardinge refuses to sugarcoat messy, morally ambivalent reality and the way that growing up helps you to see just how messy things are. stars. “No stories were complete anyway. They were all really just parts of a bigger tale that could only be told by many different voices, and seen through many different eyes. There was always more of the story to learn.”

Deeplight gets better and better every time I read it. The story is so exciting, and I love how the Deaf community are the elite warriors of the world. Hark is a troubled young orphan being constantly led astray by his best buddy, Jelt. They're living in a world where the gods are dead and pieces of them can still be found in the ocean. These pieces can be used for technological advancement - or sold to the highest bidder. Naturally, one particular piece might just be lurking, waiting to get Hark into an ocean of trouble ...I have so much love for this book that I cannot express it properly and I urge you to read it. It's beautiful inside and out. The governor probably wasn't a good man. It would probably be better to have a ruler who didn't sell people or bend his own laws. For the moment, however, this man was perhaps just the best of the wrong answers available. The Myriad, island chain once home to oceanic gods, is now home to a people left bereft by the Catalclysm - a week of terror where the gods rose from the depths and tore each other apart. These weren't abstract gods, either, these were nightmares of the deep and all too real and present in the lives of those living on the islands. That kind of thing leaves a hole in the lives of the people who once lived in feat of them.

It does get quite dark in places and there's not really any humour in it, but it raises some really interesting ideas and provides some wonderful characters for us to judge with all of our perfect righteousness (note sarcasm). I feel quite justified in calling Jelt a jerk, though. It's been a while since I hated a character this much. These were boxes of memories he had not allowed himself to open for many years. Now at last he did, and found their colours still fresh. He was looking at them one last time as he gave them away. Berry, Michael (5 May 2020). "Deeplight - Book Review". Common Sense Media. Archived from the original on 22 April 2021 . Retrieved 18 September 2021. Deeplight was without a doubt one of my favourite books of 2019. This is the kind of book that made me fall in love with fantasy in the first place: magical, unforeseeable, one of a kind, entirely addictive. The world building in this story is incredible. It's limited to the Myriad, and while there is talk of 'the continents', they don't feature in this book. This is all about Hark's tiny world and it is full of the most amazing details. It's an interesting blend of science and mythology - I want to say magic but it doesn't feel like the right word here. It's more like ... the science in this world is just really different to the science of our world. These gods were real things and their makeup has provided advanced technology to those who have scavenged parts and experimented with them. It provides a lot to ponder.

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The writing was as pretty as I'm used to by this author as well. On one hand, you have the action of running / hiding from "the law", of trying to find a cure for Jelt and of trying to save the world from the gods returning. On the other, you have Hark's lies and the almost magical way he tells them. Because this is also a story about the power of stories. Not lies, necessarily, but the worlds a good storyteller can spin around his or her words. As such, Hark might be a (partial) representation of Hardinge herself even. Jelt had saved Hark’s life, but that didn’t mean Hark owed Jelt his life. Maybe you couldn’t ever owe somebody your life, not really. You couldn’t let anyone else decide what you did with it. You had to live it yourself, as truly as you could.” The marine magic, lore and setting kept alternately reminding me of Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea, Rivers Solomon's The Deep, and strongest of all Robin Hobb's Liveships. All of which have in their part helped keep one encouraged to dwell into these fantastical realms for the occasional catch. This now included. I'm glad I went to the trouble of getting the signed Waterstones Exclusive edition as it is nothing less than what this tale deserves.



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