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(SFF Bingo): Deeplight, by Frances Hardinge
Sep. 28th, 2025 02:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
primeidealSaw this as a recommendation for the pirates square, enjoyed Hardinge's "Unraveller" enough to try her again!
Premise: an archipelago setting (the "Myriad') where, until thirty years ago, terrifying and unknowable sea monsters ruled as gods. Now, the gods are dead, and humans are trying to move forward, mostly by salvaging the dead gods' corpses and using them as fantasy tech. So in that "arms race" respect, it's very reminiscent of "Shadow of the Leviathan," and having read those books kind of primed me to guess a couple of the twists along the way.
Because of the pervasity of diving, salvage, plunder, etc. on the Myriad, divers needed to evolve a rudimentary signing system. And then being underwater for long periods of time can cause hearing loss, so the signs evolved into full-fledged sign languages; there are a lot of people with various levels of hearing loss, and a thriving Deaf culture. The other main character, Selphin, is the daughter of Rigg, the pirate captain; Selphin is deaf, and as fearsome and swashbuckling a pirate as any other, except that her misadventures have left her with a phobia of water.
There are a lot of layers of complexity here. Some deaf people can read lips, some remember how to speak spoken languages well, someone who has a community of fellow signers around them is not necessarily socially disabled, but there are times when Selphin resents not being able to hear and wouldn't mind being "cured" of this condition. On the other hand, she's very averse to having any treatment for her mental health issues; it feels like it would be altering her deepest self. All of this felt very thoughtful and true-to-life.
About halfway through the book, one of Hark's priest friends challenges him:
But for fast-paced adventure, cool worldbuilding, and nuanced disability rep, overall this is a fun read!
Bingo: Pirates, probably Biopunk, Gods and Pantheons?
Premise: an archipelago setting (the "Myriad') where, until thirty years ago, terrifying and unknowable sea monsters ruled as gods. Now, the gods are dead, and humans are trying to move forward, mostly by salvaging the dead gods' corpses and using them as fantasy tech. So in that "arms race" respect, it's very reminiscent of "Shadow of the Leviathan," and having read those books kind of primed me to guess a couple of the twists along the way.
Frecht was the old word, a harsh word ragged with superstitious awe. It was an ugliness and otherness that could only be holy, a breach of the rules that echoed those that no rules could bind. The ancient, sacred buildings aspired to that sublime distortion. Frecht transcended beauty and carried you into a realm of awe and terror. It demanded your slavish devotion. Nobody used the word anymore, for it dripped with the memory of the gods. However, sometimes people said beautiful and meant frecht.
Our protagonist is Hark, a teenager who comes from poverty and makes his way in the world by scamming and bluffing people.He’d never been captain of anything in his life. He hadn’t even been captain of his own life.
Hark's parents died when he was young; his best friend/found family is Jelt, a boy his age who keeps dragging him into schemes. Unfortunately, they have what to the readers is clearly a horrifically abusive relationship. Pretty soon, a scheme goes awry, and Hark winds up being sold into slavery/indentured servitude, a way of life that the characters are all cheerfully blase about. His con artist skills come in handy, though, and he winds up as the part-time assistant to a mad scientist (there are shades of Ana and Din if you squint, although I probably wouldn't have made that parallel if I hadn't already been primed by the setting to think of "Shadow of the Leviathan"), and part-time caretaker at a nursing home for elderly priests who couldn't cope with the "Cataclysm" a generation ago.
Because of the pervasity of diving, salvage, plunder, etc. on the Myriad, divers needed to evolve a rudimentary signing system. And then being underwater for long periods of time can cause hearing loss, so the signs evolved into full-fledged sign languages; there are a lot of people with various levels of hearing loss, and a thriving Deaf culture. The other main character, Selphin, is the daughter of Rigg, the pirate captain; Selphin is deaf, and as fearsome and swashbuckling a pirate as any other, except that her misadventures have left her with a phobia of water.
There are a lot of layers of complexity here. Some deaf people can read lips, some remember how to speak spoken languages well, someone who has a community of fellow signers around them is not necessarily socially disabled, but there are times when Selphin resents not being able to hear and wouldn't mind being "cured" of this condition. On the other hand, she's very averse to having any treatment for her mental health issues; it feels like it would be altering her deepest self. All of this felt very thoughtful and true-to-life.
About halfway through the book, one of Hark's priest friends challenges him:
“Perhaps you need to work out which parts of yourself are essential to your nature. Who are you? What aspects of yourself would you fight to protect, as if you were fighting for your life?”
Hark’s mind went blank. What could he say about himself?
Hark is Shelter-bred. Hark tells stories. Hark lies. Hark can haggle in fifteen languages. Hark is Jelt’s best friend, closer than blood. Hark holds the Shelter record for the longest time holding a racing crab with bare hands . . . None of these sounded right. They were true, but they didn’t describe the heart of him.
But we, the readers, don't really have any better answer than he does. Basically most of what we've learned about him so far is "Hark tells stories, Hark lies, Hark is Jelt's best friend, closer than blood." By the end of the book, he finally seems to have figured out what's most important to him, and I'm not sure that was entirely earned.Hark’s mind went blank. What could he say about himself?
Hark is Shelter-bred. Hark tells stories. Hark lies. Hark can haggle in fifteen languages. Hark is Jelt’s best friend, closer than blood. Hark holds the Shelter record for the longest time holding a racing crab with bare hands . . . None of these sounded right. They were true, but they didn’t describe the heart of him.
But for fast-paced adventure, cool worldbuilding, and nuanced disability rep, overall this is a fun read!
Bingo: Pirates, probably Biopunk, Gods and Pantheons?