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Dec. 5th, 2019 11:07 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
skygiantsFrances Hardinge's latest, Deeplight, is not yet out in the states, but izilen sent me a copy from the UK so I could get my fix!
This is the rare Frances Hardinge book that does not feature a more or less monstrous teen girl as the protagonist, but a lying Dickensian urchin lad is a reasonable substitute. (shati and I have been having a whole conversation about Hardinge protagonist patterns over in her post about the book, so I will not rehash it here, but I do think it's very clear that Hardinge has different things to say about her heroines and her heroes.) Anyway! Hark the urchin lad lives on a set of islands that used to worship great and terrible monsters of the deep, which have all died in an unspecified calamity within living memory; the islands are now grappling with the holes left by the absence of the gods, and, relatedly, the potentially ominous arrival of foreign trade from the mainland. On the bright side, the islands have developed a thriving deaf culture as a result of the boom in commercial diving!
Among all this cultural upheaval, Hark is perfectly content with his life of small-time crime; unfortunately, his best friend, Jelt, is a.) determined to do bigger time crime and b.) equally determined that Hark will be doing the bigger time crime with him. As is often the case in Hardinge books, things spiral very rapidly out of control! Eldritch ocean horror ensues!
Aside from Hark, other major characters include:
Jelt: a meaner Dickensian lad rapidly exiting urchinhood; Not A Good Friend
Rigg: A Pirate
Selphin: Rigg's daughter; a feral girl, because this is a Hardinge book; afraid of the sea as a result of a diving accident, which is, unfortunately, a major drawback for a pirate's daughter
Dr. Vyne: morally ambiguous mentor #1, a brilliant research scientist performing experiments using leftover bits of god-carcass
Quest: morally ambiguous mentor #2, a dying priest with Secrets
The Hidden Lady: a dead god with a human torso and crab-legs; Hark has a bit of a crush on her, because Frances Hardinge has apparently been on tumblr and understands what the youth are into (it's great and terrible monsters of the deep)
It was a good time for me to read this book; I don't know if I would have liked it as much as I did if I hadn't already been primed by Heaven's Official Blessings to have a lot of thoughts and opinions about power and divinity and the way humans relate to those things. I ... love Quest? Nobody is surprised by this. "The things we worship are powerful but not intelligent or benevolent and therefore any amount of sacrifice is worth it to be free of them so we can be as awful as we want on our own terms" is such a fantastically ambitious motive and I appreciate that he sticks to his guns about it. I mean, it is probably bad that thousands of people died in the process and also the troubling prospect of colonialism was introduced as a result. Nonetheless: respect! Also I found his relationship with Hark heartwarming. On a character level it's probably not my favorite favorite Hardinge, but the way it handles its worldbuilding and themes overall puts it pretty well up there for me.
izilen sent me a copy from the UK so I could get my fix! This is the rare Frances Hardinge book that does not feature a more or less monstrous teen girl as the protagonist, but a lying Dickensian urchin lad is a reasonable substitute. (
shati and I have been having a whole conversation about Hardinge protagonist patterns over in her post about the book, so I will not rehash it here, but I do think it's very clear that Hardinge has different things to say about her heroines and her heroes.) Anyway! Hark the urchin lad lives on a set of islands that used to worship great and terrible monsters of the deep, which have all died in an unspecified calamity within living memory; the islands are now grappling with the holes left by the absence of the gods, and, relatedly, the potentially ominous arrival of foreign trade from the mainland. On the bright side, the islands have developed a thriving deaf culture as a result of the boom in commercial diving! Among all this cultural upheaval, Hark is perfectly content with his life of small-time crime; unfortunately, his best friend, Jelt, is a.) determined to do bigger time crime and b.) equally determined that Hark will be doing the bigger time crime with him. As is often the case in Hardinge books, things spiral very rapidly out of control! Eldritch ocean horror ensues!
Aside from Hark, other major characters include:
Jelt: a meaner Dickensian lad rapidly exiting urchinhood; Not A Good Friend
Rigg: A Pirate
Selphin: Rigg's daughter; a feral girl, because this is a Hardinge book; afraid of the sea as a result of a diving accident, which is, unfortunately, a major drawback for a pirate's daughter
Dr. Vyne: morally ambiguous mentor #1, a brilliant research scientist performing experiments using leftover bits of god-carcass
Quest: morally ambiguous mentor #2, a dying priest with Secrets
The Hidden Lady: a dead god with a human torso and crab-legs; Hark has a bit of a crush on her, because Frances Hardinge has apparently been on tumblr and understands what the youth are into (it's great and terrible monsters of the deep)
It was a good time for me to read this book; I don't know if I would have liked it as much as I did if I hadn't already been primed by Heaven's Official Blessings to have a lot of thoughts and opinions about power and divinity and the way humans relate to those things. I ... love Quest? Nobody is surprised by this. "The things we worship are powerful but not intelligent or benevolent and therefore any amount of sacrifice is worth it to be free of them so we can be as awful as we want on our own terms" is such a fantastically ambitious motive and I appreciate that he sticks to his guns about it. I mean, it is probably bad that thousands of people died in the process and also the troubling prospect of colonialism was introduced as a result. Nonetheless: respect! Also I found his relationship with Hark heartwarming. On a character level it's probably not my favorite favorite Hardinge, but the way it handles its worldbuilding and themes overall puts it pretty well up there for me.
