I really enjoyed Deeplight- the first Frances Hardinge book I remember reading with a male protagonist. I liked Hark & the way his character developed through relationships and dilemmas. Frances Harding makes the most of our anxieties about deep oceans, conjuring up gargantuan sea monsters, who rule as gods. On the islands of the Myriad, gods were once supreme until they turned on each other and ended their own supremacy. Godware (the relics of this time of powerful beings) is now a high-value commodity. Bought, sold, traded …& stolen. Hark, our protagonist, and his friend Jelt, are local rogues, who get into very deep water after a job goes wrong. When Jelt gets his hands on a palpitating piece of Godware things get very weird, very quickly. The tale serves as a warning. In the Myriad the gods were once demonstrably real- huge creatures, who fed off human fear were called ‘gods’ and revered. The ‘gods’ may be dead but the continued value of Godware, means their legacy is still huge. Rumour and misinformation about outsiders has led to xenophobia and fear of invasion, and conditions are ripe for the ascent of a new religious movement… or maybe the return of an old one… I love the deaf representation in this book and the reverence that is given to the he ‘sea-kissed’- people who have sustained damage to their ears in the deep sea and lost their hearing. There is a fascinating and authentic-seeming sign language used.

Oh how I wish I could give this book more than 5 stars! Set in an unfamiliar world where the Gods have, until recently, been a terrifying presence for the inhabitants of a cluster of islands, Deeplight is so utterly enthralling that finishing the book is like being yanked out of your world. Hark and Jelt have been best friends, almost brothers, forever. Scraping a living through deception, sometimes theft (sometimes worse) they have seen one another less and less over the years but their bond is unbreakable. Whenever Hark sees Jelt recently, his heart is torn between the joy of seeing is oldest friend and the cold certainty that Jelt is bringing trouble to his door. And he isn’t wrong. When the latest ‘favour’ goes horribly wrong it is Hark who pays the price. Serving as an indentured servant to the sharp Dr. Vyne, Hark is starting to settle into the routine despite Vyne’s mysterious agenda, when Jelt turns up with barely contained fury that Hark seems to be building a life without him. Soon Hark is hurtling towards trouble the likes of which has never been seen before. Deeplight is an explosive adventure full of the detailed characters and fully formed landscapes that Frances Hardinge is so rightly celebrated for. However it is also a hypnotisingly detailed account of coercive control and toxic relationships. This is going to win so many awards Hardinge might have to buy a bigger house to keep them in! I received a free ecopy from Netgalley, and will be buying Christmas copies for my nieces.

Well I wasn't expecting that... I read The Lie Tree back when it won the Costa and was completely underwhelmed by it. I didn't bother to read any of Frances Hardinge's backlist, didn't really give her another thought. And then this proof came along, and I thought why not? And boy am I glad I gave it a go! The world building in Deeplight is quite frankly perfect. The characters brilliantly real and nuanced. The plot tight and full of changes in current and tide. This book kept me reading til midnight, I was completely submerged in its watery world and the incredible people, machines, creatures and gods of Frances Hardinge's imagination. I now cannot wait to see what she writes next.

I read this book last Christmas, and I liked it greatly. It teaches you that you can't have everything, but you can throw away a lot of what you already have easily. I found this book very enjoyable, and the only fault I could find was that I didn't connect with the Characters as much as I should have.

I usually don't read too much fantasy but when I read about this I was so intrigued I had to! Hark and Jelt live in a time of post-gods. The Gods were to be feared, revered and worshipped... this meant sacrifices had to be made to appease them and keep them at bay. Until one day the great cataclysm ended it all, along with the Gods' reign over mortals. The world carried on and people started to forget about these once powerful beings until they knew how valuable pieces of the old gods were, also referred to as Godware. This could be a fin, a mouth, an eye, a head, anything that could have once belonged to something once so powerful and feared. Hark and Jelt are scammers, rogues, people who only have each other to depend on but that all changes when Hark ends up in trouble for one of Jelts plans. As a result Hark is sold to a bidder at a slave auction and must work off his debt to society over the next three years. Tales of the gods are slowly resurfacing and after months of silence Hark is reunited with Jelt ( not to his delight!) Due to certain events Hark saves Jelt from certain doom and in the process ends up in possession of Godware in the shape of a Heart..... Jelt soon comes to rely on this piece of Godware as he believes it is healing him and wants to use this as another mechanism for making money, and Hark sees him change over time. New alliances form and unlikely friends come together to try and keep Jelt from becoming mad with power but how much of Jelt must be lost before Hark can step in and end it all? And what if the Gods were to return to the Myriad? I adored the way the story slowly unfolded, and Francis has done an impeccable job of building a real, breathing world of deep sea, islands, gods and lore. If you are a fan of Mythology and great story telling, read this! I was captivated from the very first page.... And the Waterstones edition is gorgeous! Signed AND orange sprayed edges? Amazing!