Deeplight (Hardinge)

[cahn]

5/5. Follows a small-time-con-artist street kid living in a harbor town bordering a sea where gods used to live but have all died off and have left only scattered magical pieces of themselves behind to be found as flotsam and sold.

Whoa. This book knocked my socks off, and I wasn't expecting that -- my previous experience with Hardinge (only two books, I think?) had been that her books were quite well written but unsettling and maybe not quite for me?

This book is also unsettling and maybe not quite for me -- there were large swathes that I kind of skimmed because they were too intense -- but I was super impressed by it anyway. The worldbuilding is quite excellent, as you can maybe see even from the one-line synopsis; I'd never seen anything exactly like it before. And the unsettling quality of her writing really works with the world quite well, in a way I never quite got it to gel when reading her previous books. And the characters really worked for me too. Quest, especially, actually reminds me a lot of someone I know, a woman in her 80's who has that same quality of clear-eyed-ness. And the plot! There was a major reveal that I didn't see coming at all, and partially it's because I think Hardinge is playing a lot with the way we usually think about these kinds of fantasy worlds and our expectations for them.

I did find it a bit oddly paced occasionally (including the end); I'm not sure if that was on purpose or not. But even with all these caveats, I'm gonna have to vote this to win the Lodestar, unless the Kingfisher ends up being even better. Heck, I would vote for it to win the Hugos over everything but Memory if it had been nominated for Best Novel.

SPOILERS fair game in comments!

Comments

[skygiants]

Quest!!! Man how much do I love a morally ambiguous mentor who has murdered all his gods.

[cahn]

I KNOW RIGHT?!

So I must say that the woman he reminds me of isn't nearly as morally ambiguous, and as far as I know she has never killed anyone directly or indirectly, but she definitely has this way of seeing through cultural BS (I know her from church, where... there is a lot... of cultural BS) to what might be not-entirely-comfortable conclusions.

Oh, and also Selphin!! There's the whole sea-kissed thing, which is brilliant, but I must say what I loved most about her was that she was all, "look, how totally rational is it not to WANT TO DIE?! It is in fact totally rational!" You go, Selphin!

[schneefink]

I did nominate "Deeplight" for Best Novel, I loved it a lot.

[cahn]

<3 I do too. If I'd read it before nominations I would have nominated it for Best Novel as well.

[ashkitty]

I'm a little ashamed to admit I've still never read any of her stuff, even though she's a friend of a friend and we all had a grand day out in Oxford looking at fantasy books. In my defense I was in the hardest part of the PhD thesising at the time, but I really should get back to it and read some new things! Saving many of your posts as a rec list. ;)

[cahn]

Honestly until now I have found her books a little hard to read, although I've always thought they were good books, if they make any sense. This one also isn't the fastest read until, hm, maybe 40-50% through was where I started turning pages compulsively? But yeah, of the three or so books I've read by her, this one has been the one that super impressed me. I hope you like it! Feel free to let me know even if you don't, I like figuring out what does and doesn't work for different people :)

[lokifan]

I adore Hardringe, precisely because I love the unsettlingness. Must get to this one!

[cahn]

(Argh, sorry I apparently didn't reply!) It was so good! I feel like it takes the unsettlingness and RUNS with it :D