Title: Deeplight
Author: Frances Hardinge
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 442
Rating: 4/5
Frances Hardinge is one of those versatile writers where every time I’ve picked up one of her books, I’ve been deeply impressed. Most impressive of all is that everything I’ve read so far has been a standalone, and yet she’s done such a great job with the worldbuilding each time that it feels like slipping back into an old favourite series.
This one is inspired by a letter she received from a kid who asked whether she could write a story with someone who was deaf in it, and so she more than obliged. There are people here who’ve been deafened by the sea and who communicate with Hardinge’s form of sign language, which differs from island to island.
The basic premise is that there used to be some gods knocking around, terrifying the people who lived in the island towns. The gods vanished a generation ago, and many of the people of the islands make a living from scavenging godware, which is basically what’s left over of the gods’ bodies.
Our story follows a kid called Hark, who’s a bit of a troublemaker and who’s very much in the shadow of his friend Jelt. The two of them are orphans who grew up together, scraping a living the best they could, and the narrative begins as they work on a job together for the matriarch of a local smuggling gang. Only things don’t quite go according to plan.
I don’t want to cover the plot any more than that, because y’know, then you wouldn’t have much of a reason to read it. It’s actually a testament to Hardinge’s worldbuilding that it took me this long to explain the basics.
The characterisation is top notch here, and there’s also a hefty dose of character development along the way. I like the way that Hardinge plays with expectations and morality to create characters that are morally grey and gods that are downright evil and destructive. You wouldn’t want to meet them in the deep, that’s for sure.
I can imagine this book making a pretty good movie, but it’s also one of those well-written reads where you can easily visualise everything that happens. I was actually a little sad when it was over because I thought there was so much more that could have been done with the world. It could even be a decent video game.
So where does that leave us? Well, I want to read more of Hardinge’s work, for a start. This is another reminder of how talented she really is.
