In Great Waters
Apr. 10th, 2010 18:20![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
starladyWhitfield, Kit. In Great Waters. New York: Del Rey, 2009.
I know I heard about this book somewhere on the DWLJ-verse, but I don't remember where anymore. Still, I'm really glad I took the chance on this book despite the fact that it's about merpeople, because it's really quite good, and fairly original to boot.
In Great Waters tells the story of Henry, a half-human, half-merman (or landsman and deepsman, as they are called) "bastard" whose status as a true hybrid renders him a political threat to the weakened Crown of England, whose deepsman-descended tenants have intermarried too closely and are in danger of dying out. The book also tells the story of Anne, the younger princess of England, whose desire for security, and for mercy, leads her to great things of which no one, least of all she herself, thought her capable.
In the world of this book a half-deepswoman walked out of the waters around Venice in the 9th century and founded an empire which utterly changed the world: all the royalty of any country in Europe which borders the sea is descended from that woman, Angelica, and her half-breed descendants, for only half-breeds can treat with the deepsmen off shore, guaranteeing security for the country's sailors and merchants. To keep the bloodlines pure, it is a crime for men to breed with deepswomen, a crime which Henry's father obviously committed.
Really, this book is marvelous in many ways--the high medieval, quasi-Plantagenet setting feels a welcome change from other time periods, and Whitfield has put a great deal of thought into the worldbuilding that the book's concept requires, from the canes with which all royalty ambulate to the litters in which they are carried to the language the people use (rife with maritime and nautical metaphors) and what brings nobles power: not their lands in themselves but the waterways that run through them. Henry and Anne too are both marvelous in different ways--Henry a fascinating portrait of stranger in a strange land, belonging fully to neither of two worlds and navigating uneasily between them, Anne a girl who plays dumb but whose piety and intelligence eventually win out, and the day, not despite but because of herself.rydra_wong mentioned recently that she found some commonality of themes between this book and N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which I can understand to a point, I think. Both Henry and Anne share aspects of that book's heroine: Henry the one who comes to save the realm, Anne the one who allows herself to be underestimated to the brink of ruin, only to triumph in the end.
Yeah, mermaids: not for children! Really, this is quite a good book.
I know I heard about this book somewhere on the DWLJ-verse, but I don't remember where anymore. Still, I'm really glad I took the chance on this book despite the fact that it's about merpeople, because it's really quite good, and fairly original to boot.
In Great Waters tells the story of Henry, a half-human, half-merman (or landsman and deepsman, as they are called) "bastard" whose status as a true hybrid renders him a political threat to the weakened Crown of England, whose deepsman-descended tenants have intermarried too closely and are in danger of dying out. The book also tells the story of Anne, the younger princess of England, whose desire for security, and for mercy, leads her to great things of which no one, least of all she herself, thought her capable.
In the world of this book a half-deepswoman walked out of the waters around Venice in the 9th century and founded an empire which utterly changed the world: all the royalty of any country in Europe which borders the sea is descended from that woman, Angelica, and her half-breed descendants, for only half-breeds can treat with the deepsmen off shore, guaranteeing security for the country's sailors and merchants. To keep the bloodlines pure, it is a crime for men to breed with deepswomen, a crime which Henry's father obviously committed.
Really, this book is marvelous in many ways--the high medieval, quasi-Plantagenet setting feels a welcome change from other time periods, and Whitfield has put a great deal of thought into the worldbuilding that the book's concept requires, from the canes with which all royalty ambulate to the litters in which they are carried to the language the people use (rife with maritime and nautical metaphors) and what brings nobles power: not their lands in themselves but the waterways that run through them. Henry and Anne too are both marvelous in different ways--Henry a fascinating portrait of stranger in a strange land, belonging fully to neither of two worlds and navigating uneasily between them, Anne a girl who plays dumb but whose piety and intelligence eventually win out, and the day, not despite but because of herself.
rydra_wong mentioned recently that she found some commonality of themes between this book and N.K. Jemisin's The Hundred Thousand Kingdoms, which I can understand to a point, I think. Both Henry and Anne share aspects of that book's heroine: Henry the one who comes to save the realm, Anne the one who allows herself to be underestimated to the brink of ruin, only to triumph in the end.Yeah, mermaids: not for children! Really, this is quite a good book.