Loyalties and self-interest collide as two best friends unleash the secrets of the sea gods
The Costa-winning children’s writer Frances Hardinge is known for the fascinating strangeness of her settings: The Lie Tree’s stifling Victorian society conceals a plant nourished by deceit, and A Face Like Glass takes place in an underworld where wines can extract memories and perfumes enforce trust. Whether they are wholly invented or rippled glass visions of familiar history, however, her worlds are navigated by characters who stay human to the marrow – flawed, cowardly, doubtful, determined, unprincipled and brave. This remains true of her latest novel, Deeplight.
In the island chain of the Myriad, gods once rose from the weird waters of the Undersea, ravaging shipping and coastlines, devouring sailors. Razor-mouthed or glass-tentacled, they were a source of fear and reverence – until one day they turned on one another, and tore each other apart. Now “godware”, the powerful detritus of their corpses, is the basis of a thriving economy for those courageous and foolhardy enough to seek it in the depths.
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