2019/90: Deeplight -- Frances Hardinge

Stories were ruthless creatures, and sometimes fattened themselves on bloody happenings. [loc. 113]

The gods of the Undersea are dead, but there's a thriving market in their remains, known as godware: the men and women of the Myriad archipelago risk their lives to retrieve such relics from the depths of the ocean. Since the Cataclysm forty years ago, no sacrifices have been made to the gods. The Myriddens live free of fear, and tell stories about the gods that have taken on a life of their own.

Hark and Jelt are teenage con-artists, orphans, chancers who'll turn their hands to any enterprise that might be lucrative. Hark is the more decent of the two, and doesn't always like his best friend: but 'nobody was permanent ... except Jelt'. Their toxic codependency is strained when Jelt ends up as an indentured servant at the Sanctuary -- a refuge for priests made redundant by the Cataclysm. Some of the priests, such as old Quest, have very interesting tales to tell, and Hark -- who loves stories -- is eager to learn.

But Jelt is working with 'cold-eyed' men who want to use Hark's new position -- and his access to the work of Dr Vyne, practical theophysicist -- for their own ends.

Deeplight is a marvellous example of worldbuilding: the gods, monstrous Lovecraftian creatures who dwelt in a sea beneath the sea, are vividly individual, and their legacy -- fear of invasion by the continentals now that the Myriad's natural defenses are dead; the trade in godware, and the injuries and mutations caused by diving for salvage; Dr Vyne's scientific investigations of the gods' natures -- is thoughtfully explored. There are evocative descriptions of the vasty deep, stories of the time of the gods, plenty of skulduggery and some rip-roaring adventure. And weaving through all that, there's the human debris: Hark's queasy loyalty to Jelt, the PTSD and deafness suffered by Selphin (who was a girl of ten when she nearly died underwater), and the ways in which people try to change other people. The scene where Selphin's family try to 'cure' her, against her will, is compelling and emotionally raw: Jelt chooses his (very literal) metamorphosis, while Hark's life changes course without his having much say in the mechanisms. It's how he reacts to that course-change, how he interacts with others, that shapes him. "We are all squeezed into new shapes by the people around us. If we are paying attention, though, we always have some say in how we are altered." [loc 2612]

All the characters were credible, though I found Hark a little too passive in his dealings with the vile Jelt. I especially liked Dr Vyne, who is sharp and idealistic and happens to be a woman, and exhibits a reckless joy in her work. ("... every voyage is a safety test, and it'll be scientifically fascinating if we die ...")

I wasn't wholly convinced by the ending, which Hark and company heard about at one remove; and I'm not sure there was a sufficient sense of resolution. But overall, a fascinatingly weird read.

Also, I have learnt the term for a group of jellyfish, which is a fluther.

Thanks to NetGalley for the advance review copy, in exchange for this honest review!