This is an absolute dream of a book! Set in a world where the gods, strange monstrous creatures that lived in the ocean, fought each other to the death only a few generations ago, it follows a young thief with misplaced loyalties who has to choose between saving his best friend or saving the world. If you like steampunk I think you’ll like this, it involves weird and wonderful inventions made from the remains of gods!

Frances Hardinge has the enviable ability to write wonderful books for children that I feel are even more enjoyable for adults. The world she has created in Deeplight is wonderfully original, which is quite unusual for the genre, particularly when aimed at younger readers. It lives, fully in the imagination. Her imagined world is Myriad, dominated by islands and sea, by pirates and valuable and elusive "godware", the last remnants of ancient and brutal gods. Hark is our 14-year-old hero, an orphan who survives by his wits and becomes enmeshed in a complex world of smuggling and danger when his friend Jelt's scheme goes badly wrong. Hardinge's two main characters may be young but they are fully realised and have personalities and relationships as complicated as any adult's. When Jelt reappears in Hark's life with a much more dangerous plan to get rich Hark must consider what friendship really means and what he is prepared to sacrifice for it.

Hardinge's writing is rich, complex and full of that necessary darkness that makes the very best YA (and adult) fiction. She can create a whole sensory world with a single metaphor and she uses this to full advantage. It's a story both beautiful and unsettling, probing ideas of humanity and divinity and the spaces in between. It's full of philosophy and feeling to off-set the tension of a superbly-crafted and gripping plot.

Set in a fantasy world, the story follows Hark and Jelt. The world-building is intricate and beautifully done. Seen from Hark's point of view, you experience life at the sharp end in Myriad, and Hark's quest, to find something valuable, in the seas surrounding the island where he lives. Once ruled by sea gods, they are no more, but powerful relics live on, and Hark wants one.

Jelt leads Hark astray but he feels responsible for him, both boys are flawed characters and victims of their poor start in life. There is a cast of fantastical characters and plenty of absorbing adventure. The world is believable and vividly described.

Perfectly pitched for the teen-young adult audience, this story also offers something for an older reader who likes to experience outer world adventure.

I received a copy of this book from Pan Macmillan- Macmillan Children's Books via NetGalley in return for an honest review.

4.5 of 5 stars
https://lynns-books.com/2020/02/10/deeplight-by-frances-hardinge/
Deeplight by Frances Hardinge has to be one of the most impressive YA fantasies that I’ve read for a long time. Imagine a world terrorised by Gods that rule the Undersea, massive monsters that are a strange combination of different elements that ultimately feed on fear. Then imagine that these Gods annihilate each other in some strange cataclysmic event driven by the desire to be … well, I can’t tell you more about that without sailing into the land of spoilers. And, yes, this review is going to be chock full of cheesy, nautical and fishy references and overflowing with gushy good humour. I don’t know where Frances Hardinge has been hiding all this time but I’ve found her now and I’ll be picking up plenty more of her books. Also, take a minute to look at that cover. I loved it when I first laid eyes on it but now I’ve read the book I’m able to see all the beautiful and relevant details and it’s even more stunning.

So, Myriad is an archipelago of small islands that, since the demise of the Gods, is thriving. No longer held hostage by the whims or mercy of ruthless underwater creatures the people can sail further abroad to trade goods and with the abundance of Godware available since the cataclysm business is booming and tourists flock to the area for glimpses of godlike treasure. With this in mind we start the story with an introduction to Hark, a young boy who makes his living off aforementioned tourists, conning them into parting with their cash. Hark’s longest known and best friend is Jelt. Jelt is a little more ambitious than Hark and likes to think of himself as something of a player. Unfortunately, his latest scheme to ingratiate himself with the local pirates goes pear shaped and Hark finds himself left high and dry taking the blame for the entire operation.

I’m not going to elaborate further on the plot. What I particularly liked about this is it went in a direction I really hadn’t anticipated and that I thoroughly enjoyed.

So, the good, the good and the good?

Well, the worldbuilding is excellent and the bonus is you’re barely aware of it, it’s so inextricably linked with the overall story. No exposition, no info dumps, no history assignments, everything feels like it’s naturally delivered as the plot progresses and I just love this. It’s so immersive.

Then the characters. Let’s be clear, Jelt is an absolute jerk – in fact that was how I started to read his name he got on my last nerve so much. He is such an abusive character but Hark had too much attachment to him, this wealth of history that they shared and the protection Jelt offered Hark when they were young lonely orphans. I just wanted to punch Jelt and shake Hark! There is also Selphin. I loved her character. Like Hark and Jelt, she isn’t perfect, she makes mistakes and does things she regrets but she’s a great addition to the story. Selphin almost died in a sea incident and although she survived the underwater experience left her death. In fact being ‘sea kissed’ is common for Island people who deep sea dive and is considered with a sort of reverence by the Myriad people, in fact most of the people on the island learn how to sign as the norm. This brought such an interesting aspect to the story that I loved. It was seamlessly worked in but at the same time it made you sit up and take note.

The plot is probably the weakest aspect of Deeplight, not that it’s weak, more that the world building, the characters, the creativity at play here, the wonderful writing, well, the plot almost played second fiddle in a way – it is a good story though, don’t get the wrong impression from my ramblings.

In terms of criticisms. I don’t really have anything, maybe a slight slowing down of pace at certain points but nothing that was really noticeable. I was totally hooked.

To summarise. Unusual and fearsome Gods, smugglers, crazy scientists, monks who no longer have a vocation, lots of tentacle waving and underwater scenes that really do come alive on the page. A beautifully written, highly creative and evocative story, at its core a coming of age tale about two boys who have outgrown each other but also a story that shines a light on fear or uncertainty – better the devil you know?

I received a copy through Netgalley, courtesy of the publisher, for which my thanks. The above is my own opinion.

Having heard much about Frances Hardinge’s reputation as an author of thought-provoking YA novels, I was delighted to have the opportunity to read ‘Deeplight’. From the first page the reader is drawn into the fantasy world of the Myriad, an archipelago made up of hundreds of trading islands and steeped in a mythology so recent that its people still trade in the ‘godware’ that has been left by the terrifying gods who lived in the sea. Understandably, this godware commands high prices and is much sought after. Criminal gangs thrive and the young and the weak are exploited as they eke out a living.
The story is seen through fourteen-year-old orphan Hark’s viewpoint. His closest companion is another orphan, the altogether more abrasive and confident Jelt, to whom he feels continually beholden. In may ways, their relationship is the most compelling part of the narrative, especially if the reader is not naturally drawn to fantasy fiction. Hark is competent, thoughtful, brave and kind and yet he always feels as if he is not quite good enough, not least because Jelt, his best friend, is very good at making him feel inadequate. With an eye on the toxic kinds of relationships many young people experience, online or in real life, teenage readers might well find it interesting and illuminating to debate the nature of this friendship and explore why the two need each other so much and how they might develop without each other.
This fantasy is both a mystery and an adventure story. Thirty years before the story begins, the sea gods slaughter each other and no one seems to know how this came about. Over the course of the novel we learn how this gradually revealed information is crucial for the boys’ survival. The gods mean different things to different people and Hardinge’s presentation of an unusual belief system reminds us that people often shape religion to suit their own ends or reflect their particular concerns. As with all quality fantasy fiction written for young adults, Hardinge shapes an intriguing planet which reflects many real-world problems and dilemmas and encourages us to meditate on matters much greater than we might, at first glance, imagine. Another triumph for this excellent novelist.
My thanks to NetGalley and Macmillan’s Children’s Books for a copy of this novel in exchange for a fair review.

Hardinge is one of those authors who could be identified by a passage of her work. This is another example of a fantasy would that is painted using beautiful imagery and places you right there in the action. I especially enjoyed her chilling description of the monsters!

She is, however, not always the easiest author to read and is an author that I would almost recommend more so to adults than teens. I could definitely see this book being the type you re-read in a few years and more and more clicks.

I really like the friendship that was portrayed between Hark and Jet and how they have learnt to survive together.

The gods, powerful, terrible, and dangerous undersea beings, disappeared from the islands of Myriad thirty years ago in a great Cataclysm, but remnants of godstuff are worth a fortune to anyone lucky enough or brave enough to dredge it up from the terrifying undersea. Hark and Jelt are a couple of teen survivors, running scams or stealing to live. When Jelt joins up with a ruthless smuggler gang he draws Hark into a scheme which is doomed to failure. Jelt gets away, but Hark is caught and sold, actually landing on his feet with a professor-type-woman who is willing to teach him so he can be more useful to her. It's much better than ending up in the galleys or the mines. He also does drudge work at an isolated home for priests who, bereft of their gods, need looking after. After three months to get used to his bonded status and his new life Jelt finds him and cajoles him into a dangerous attempt to use a stolen bathysphere to hunt for godstuff. What they find is a game changer. This particular relic leads Jelt, and therefore Hark (still a follower) into a terrible danger neither could have imagined.

This is published as a children's book, but it delves deep into the nature of friendship. Hark and Jelt are friends, but it's an uneven friendship. As long as Hark does what Jelt wants they are buddies, but Jelt is effectively gaslighting Hark. This deliberate manipulation made me very uncomfortable in the first part of the book, and then it developed into one of the main themes of the story. Loyalty runs deep, but Hark must think for himself. Even though he still considers Jelt a friend he has to make some hard decisions. The worldbuilding is excellent, the writing tight and effective. However, this is not an easy or comfortable read for an adult, so I don't know how children will react to it. I would have classed it as YA (at least) in my library days.

Frances Hardinge is one of the most consistently interesting and enjoyable children's fantasy authors currently writing, and having already read all of her previous novels, I was chomping at the bit to get my hands on her latest: Deeplight - a steampunky, nautical fantasy adventure. I always struggle to succinctly sum up a Hardinge novel, as she packs them with so many ideas that it's hard to know where to start, but I'll give it a go.

Deeplight is set on a chain of islands called The Myriad a generation after the Cataclysm, which saw the islands' gods - very real monsters of the deep - destroy each other in a calamitous battle that took many lives and caused huge damage. Since the Cataclysm, an economy has sprung up around *godware* - potent bits of dead god - that underwater scavengers dredge up and sell for vast sums of money, to collectors and inventors who use them to create strange new technologies.

The main character is an orphan boy called Hark, a young hustler with the gift of the gab. His relationship with his best friend Jelt is an interesting - if not always easy to read - exploration of toxic relationships. It's hard to say too much more without entering spoiler territory!

The world of Deeplight is immersive and fleshed out, but also strange and unsettling. The further I read, the more I was drawn into the world, the story and the characters.

Going into this book I was a little skeptical, I didn't think I would dislike it as such, but I did keep the possibility in mind that I might have had to DNF. I know a few people who have said that about Frances' other books so I kept my expectations quite low. And although it wasn't one of my favourite books I read last year, I was actually pleasantly surprised with how much I enjoyed the entire story.

I loved how she built up the world and throughout gave us more and more of the history behind the world. It was dark and mysterious, which to be honest is half of what I want from a fantasy book. Humans hunting for 'Godware' to make a profit is exactly what humans would do (I mean some humans think it's okay to kill innocent animals just for fun, so it's not far off real life in that sense). I'm glad that Hark's friendship with Jelt was a main focus of the story, as I think it's definately important to highlight what toxic friendships look like. Although, I can completely understand Hark's struggle with actually figuring out how terrible a friend Jelt is. As a reader you see it practically the instant Jelt is introduced at the beginning of the book, but the further I got into the book, the more I disliked Jelt, and hoped Hark would see him for who he really was, and not who he wanted him to be.

This was a well written and interesting fantasy novel that focused on the sea. The writing was beautiful and i really liked the characters overall but the book was missing something that i needed. The two boys were not the most interesting character, instead that was Quest and I wish that the book did not leave him as much as a side character that helped fight the final boss and had him in the book more from the start. I liked the premise and thought it was different and offered a new taste to the fantasy genre.

Frances Hardinge is a master at worldbuilding. This is a rich full world filled with history and lore, so different from our own. It is completely encapsulating, dark, to the point of being chillingly creepy at times. It is very intriguing making you want to learn more and more about it. The characters are as skill fully fleshed out with complex stories and actions.

The plot itself is focused around realising that friendships can also be toxic and dangerous in the most fantastical of settings, but the setting is not whimsical it suits the dark subject matter perfectly. Ancient sea monsters, absent gods, scavenger gangs and unreliable friends, all mixed into one. It can be slow to get started but once you find yourself engrossed in the world it really speeds up and you will find those pages flying by.

A beautiful part of this book was the integration of deaf characters, many of the inhabitants of this world were deaf or had partial hearing, including a major character. The MC himself uses sign language to communicate with his friend.

It is a enjoyable read. I would also recommend it, while marketed as YA would also suit advanced Middle grade readers. I think they would find the message important and the world dark and exciting.

Hark lives in civilisation who used to worship creatures of the sea, each with their own stories and folklore. However now the Gods are no longer feared and worshipped but hunted and when he comes across an usual piece of Godware it changes his life – but will it be for the better?

Deeplight is a fantasy book unlike any other I’ve read. It’s a very unique premise and it does a really good job of drawing you into the world without giving away too much at once. Sometimes with fantasy stories you can feel like you are just given an information dump instead of a proper backstory but Deeplight slowly draws you in before revealing more of its secrets until you are hooked.

I enjoyed the main character of Hark who is a troubled boy on the wrong side of the law but has a heart of gold and a love of a good story (I can certainly relate there!). I also really liked his troubled friendship with Jelt and thought the book really showcased the abusive relationship between them really realistically. I also enjoyed the fact there is no love interest in the story – Selphin could have easily become a typical female fantasy character with no personality only there to give motivation to Hark, but instead we got to learn all about her as a well defined and spiky character. I also enjoyed the fact that this is a standalone fantasy book with a self-contained plot which is refreshingly rare for the fantasy genre. I have seen the book is labelled ‘Young Adult’ which is a little confusing – I would say it doesn’t feel focussed on young adults in particular – it’s just a good fantasy story that anyone can enjoy.

The story itself is a little slow to start but soon the pace really ramps up and I found myself flying through the pages. The story itself is really interesting and the imagery created of the claustrophobic and murky Undersea where the large sea monsters breathe fear to survive was truly haunting. I liked the fact the deaf community is celebrated with one of the main characters communicating in sign language throughout which made for a really inclusive read.

Overall Deeplight is a really refreshing take on the fantasy genre and one that I recommend to all readers – young and old and is one of my Kindig Picks for 2019! Thank you to NetGalley & Pan Macmillan for the chance to read the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

This is my favourite book of Hardinge's so far. I'm a sucker for anything to do with gods and mythology, so this book was always going to hit the spot for me, but the storytelling is just perfect. The relationship between Hark and Jelt is very relatable and heart breaking. Hark's coming of age arc is also done very realistically, and it's great to see a book normalising deaf characters and making them not only a positive thing but a key part of the narrative. I'm sure this is a shoo-in for the Carnegie again in 2020.

Thank you to Netgalley, Frances Hardinge, and Pan Macmillan for my copy of Deeplight in exchange for an honest review. 

Synopsis: From the beautiful writing of Frances Hardinge comes a new fantasy novel. Deeplight is set on a series of islands which were once ruled by enormous gods, who lived under the sea. For years the people of the Myriad islands worshipped these gods, tried to please them and gave in to their whims. But when a great battle between the gods wipes them all out, the islanders are left picking up the pieces in a godless world. Quite literally as the islander's survival now depends on deep sea dives to collect pieces of the gods for sale.
Hark is a young boy who finds it easy to get himself into trouble, or rather, easy to let his friend Jelt get him into trouble! And he finds himself in the deepest trouble yet as something pulsing below the waves looks for someone to rescue it.

This book is beautifully written, no surprises there considering everything Frances Hardinge writes is beautiful. The story was captivating and kept me turning the pages until I reached the end. I really liked the characters and the way the main story is entwined with that of friendship, toxic friendships and recognising and trying to defeat it. Most, if not all of the characters in this book are morally grey, and have their own motives and it feels at times that Hark must keep the balance and equilibrium between them all, when he is in fact only a boy! There is a great adventure element and fantastic world building and plenty of lore and mystery. Altogether a brilliant read that I would highly recommend. I went straight out and bought the beautiful signed waterstones edition as soon as I finished reading. (Photo to follow).

I was unsure when I first started this book whether it would be for me, luckily at around the 30% mark it picked up and I was swept away on a journey I wasn't prepared for. The world building is sublime and the author manages to build her world so completely that you struggle to grasp that it isn't real. The mythology and magic she creates make the world utterly believable and I loved learning all about its history while not taking anything away from the plot.
The characters are believable and you can't help but feel for their situation. Hark and Jelt were brilliantly written and I loved seeing their character growth as the plot progressed.
I found myself with the chills sometimes when reading this, especially when Harding was describing some of the old Gods of old, her descriptions were one of my favourite things about the book and I just couldn't get enough of them.
This is my first book by Harding, but I have already added most of her others to my TBR based on this one alone.

I own a couple of books by the author but have never got round to reading them yet. I have no idea why. If Deeplight is anything to go by, I’ve clearly missed out. This is a brilliant book. I loved every word of it. I love books that explore myth and legend in a new light. Deeplight ticks all of the boxes. This brilliant book explores what happens when ancient sea gods are determined to rise and seize the land from humans. The world building is amazing. I loved every word. I really need to read the other books by the author that I have now.

3.5 stars

First off - beautiful cover!

This is my first Frances Hardinge book, although I do have a couple of hers on my shelf to read. From the very beginning I was blown away by the world building. Hardinge has created a world that oozes magic and mystique, is so rich in its history that it almost felt familiar to me. But at the same time, this is like no book I've ever read before. The island setting, the Gods of the past, all of it was so very original and so obviously meticulously planned out. There was history and culture and depth to this story, it is quite honestly a work of art.

Hark and Jelt match that description too. They have history, not just in character but in their relationships - there are jokes and shared experiences, many which almost got them both killed - and you get that knowledge of them both by reading their scenes. Their friendship was the kind of tense and emotional that you get after going through a hell of a lot of shit with someone, and making it out the other end. That was evident throughout the whole book, and it made me root for them and their friendship but also their own lives individually.

My one gripe is that at times, the pacing was off, and the story felt like it was dragging its feet, trying to get to the good bits when stuff would pick up again. I know every story has it's ups and downs with pace, but this was just a bit too slow for me.

Overall, I really enjoyed Deeplight. I loved the worldbuilding and the atmosphere, and I'm really excited to dive into Hardinge's back catalogue and see what other weird wonders she's written.

Deeplight is a fantasy novel. It is set In a world in which the Gods have destroyed themselves. The novel follows the attempts of a group of humans to survive in this new world. The novel was interesting. However, I couldn’t connect with either; the setting or the characters. So, I lost interest and couldn’t gain the motivation to keep reading.

Deeplight is not just my book of the year – it’s right up there with my favourites of all time.

We start with Hark, whose whole life is a hustle to scrimp by and whose best friend and only ally – Jelt – takes advantage of his good nature time and time again. Reading about Hark’s daily struggle had me immediately on edge, before the main plot even got fully underway! I really empathised with him, as he made one poor decision after another; all rooted in his inability to say “No” and stick to it.

The worldbuilding here is spectacular too. Hark lives on a kind of pirate-island, in an archipelago where it is each island for itself. The seas used to be ruled by the gods of the Underneath, but those glory days are gone and all that remains are the pitiful-yet-powerful body parts that are scavenged to create steampunk-esque tech for those who can afford (or steal) it.

There are familiar political undercurrents beneath the surface story of survival, as xenophobia is slowly building and more islanders fall to the fear of invasion from outside influences, without their gods to protect them.

This story truly has everything I look for in a fantasy novel. There is an unsettling, eerie beauty in the mythology described, that can only be labelled with Hark’s own descriptor: ‘frecht’. I found myself haunted by the world beneath the waves, by Jelt’s emotionally abusive hold on Hark, by the broken priests and bitter pirates, and most especially, by the gods themselves – reduced to a jumble of undignified parts, yet still retaining the horrific majesty of the ‘other’.

I seriously cannot recommend this book enough, or do it adequate justice with my words. I can only recommend that everyone reads it; as I head off to buy a beautiful hardcover copy for my personal favourites shelf – have you seen that cover?!



They say that there is a dark realm of nightmares that lies beneath the true sea. When the Undersea arches its back, the upper sea is stirred to frenzy.

They say that the Undersea was the dwelling place of the gods.
They say many things of the Myriad, and all of them are true.

– Frances Hardinge, Deeplight


Review by Steph Warren of Bookshine and Readbows blog

Deeplight

written by Frances Hardinge

cover design by Aitch

published by Macmillan Children’s Books

on Halloween 2019

448 pages in hardback



dark, strangely beautiful and perilous

Synopsis from publisher

From Frances Hardinge, the Costa Award-winning author of The Lie Tree comes Deeplight – an underwater adventure as dangerous as the gods themselves . . .

The gods of the Myriad were as real as the coastlines and currents, and as merciless as the winds and whirlpools. Then one day they rose up and tore each other apart, killing many hundreds of islanders and changing the Myriad forever.

On the jumbled streets of the Island of Lady’s Crave live Hark and his best friend Jelt. They are scavengers: living off their wits, diving for relics of the gods, desperate for anything they can sell. But now there is something stirring beneath the waves, calling to someone brave enough to retrieve it. Something valuable. Something dangerous.

Nothing is quite as it seems, and when the waves try to claim Jelt, Hark will do anything to save him. Even if it means compromising not just who Jelt is, but what he is . . .
A Reader’s perspective:

The moment I heard just the title of Frances Hardinge’s new novel Deeplight, I knew I would have to read it. Then I saw glimpses of Aitch’s weird and decidedly wonderful cover. Friends and readers of this blog will know I am besotted by the sea, so a new marine fantasy from one of my favourite authors excited my grabby little hands to itching point. I admit I did some begging to get a proof copy – I’m not proud.

It was well worth a grovel.

I realise ‘immersive’ is a cliché when talking about a thick, complex book set in an alternative world, but it couldn’t be more appropriate for Deeplight. It takes the reader into the benthic depths of a strange ocean – and like the BBC’s Blue Planet series, you are amidst an extraordinary ecosystem. Frances Hardinge takes you on a long voyage with many a shock, a twist or a surprising revelation – but if you’re anything like me, you won’t want it to end.

There’s a wealth of remarkable characters with their own tales on the landward side, but it is the strained and shifting friendship of scavengers Hark and Jelt that features most. Everyone changes – even you, dear reader – among the strange currents of The Myriad. Distortion, danger and deceit are inevitable here – but there’s courage, resourcefulness and honesty as answers. Deeplight deals with larger-than-whale-sized ideas and makes no concessions on that front.

Recommended for experienced readers with stamina, imagination and curious minds. If you don’t like reefs of weirdness, if you don’t like huge themes passing by and shoals of strangely-coloured words, it’s probably not for you. Oh, I wish I’d had books like this to read in those curious straits between child and adult – so glad to read it now.

Front and back of proofs – image via author
Comments from a Writer and Editor:

Deeplight triumphantly breaks the so-called rules. It happily contains

a prologue full of ‘telling’ – which works ( so hard to do)
huge ideas in a long story – with enough pull of drama to make you read on
uncompromising intelligence – it is not an easy read
older characters who are essential players in a tale for teens – and it works
a profoundly unfamiliar setting – not one reference to popular culture or anything like
not entirely ‘likeable’ central characters – though they become utterly credible
debates about politics and religion; fear, science and technology
deep emotions and thoughtful reasoning
an epilogue

and gives intense hope to any writer whose work does not resemble the usual expectations for YA.