Daughter of Deep Silence Review

Remember the TV show Revenge? It was a show with a wacky but compelling first season, about a young women on a mission of... revenge. I'm pleased to say that Daughter of Deep Silence is very similar to Revenge, both in subject matter and tone, but doesn't approach copycat status.  Well done, Carrie Ryan, if the nod to Revenge was intentional, which I kind of hope it was.

Daughter of Deep Silence follows Frances, a girl who was fourteen when unmasked gunmen boarded the cruise ship that she and her parents were passengers on.  Everyone was slaughtered, except Frances and her friend Libby, who escaped by hiding on a forgotten dumbwaiter.  Adrift on a life raft, the girls are discovered by Libby's father's own ship, but too late for Libby to survive.  While convalescing in a hospital, Frances discovers that Grey Wells, a fellow passenger that she had a brief, yet powerful, romance with, and his father, a U.S. Senator, survived the gunmen as well.  Only Grey and his father don't mention any gunmen... they blame an enormous wave for the disaster.  Figuring the Senator, and possibly Grey, had something to do with the attack, and that she is still in danger, Frances goes into hiding. Then, years later, hardened and formidable, Frances plays her own retaliatory hand.

First, let's get some issues of the way.  Much like Revenge, Daughter of Deep Silence has plot holes galore.  There were a ton of things that made no sense.  Fortunately for me, these plot holes didn't bother me so much.  This may not be the case with all readers, but I gave this book a lot of leeway, perhaps because I wanted to enjoy it.  However, I do acknowledge that the plot holes are a legitimate weakness of the book.

Secondly, Frances' actions can be maddening at times.  She waffles at moments, vacillating between being too hard and too soft.  These actions are consistent with her character, however, which is highly conflicted.  I can readily see how some readers would be very put off by Frances.

Thirdly, I have this feeling that the book had quite a bit of unrealized potential.  The novel had a very nice concept and solid characters, but wound up drawing back instead of moving forward a number of times.  I realize that this criticism is quite abstract... What I mean is, is that Ryan could have pushed the envelope a little further to make this book even better.

Now for the things I liked.  The flashback scenes were very effective, I thought.  The contrast between the young girl Frances used to be, and the hard woman she is now was striking.  Her memories are poignant and sepia-toned, knowing as we do how those blissful moments at sea before the disaster were Frances' last happy times.  The romance between a young Grey and Frances was pretty darn sexy, for them being so young.  I mean, wowza.  A standout scene in the book was a memory of Frances and Grey swimming together, playing around with his water-proof phone.  The scene is blissful and passionate and then Ryan transitions that phone into the future with cymbal-crashing shock.  It was my favorite moment of the book.

So, while I'd like to give Daughter of Deep Silence a higher rating, I'm more than aware of its shortcomings.  However, I did legitimately enjoy this book and I look forward to Carrie Ryan's future offerings.

 

 

Half a King Review

Truth is, I had to battle with myself to get through Half a King.  Some of my most respected reviewers gave this book high praise, but there were long stretches during my reading where I was not feeling it.  However, I'd been seeing absolute raves over the second book in the Shattered Sea series — Half a World.  I resolved to work through Half a King, because forgoing its sequel seemed foolhardy.  As it turns out, Half a World was, indeed, so worth it.  I gobbled the book up and already have an itch to re-read it.  I'll get to that review in a bit.  For now, I'm going to parse out the strengths and weaknesses of Half a King.

The book has a single narrator — Yarvi, the younger son of the king of Gettland. Yarvi has a nasty attitude, which stems largely from his insecurities over his badly deformed left hand.  He's training to be a minister, a sort of jack-of-all-trades advisor to royalty, but the murder of his father and older brother forces him onto the throne.

At this point, I would have expected Yarvi to stumble through his first months of kinghood, making terrible blunders and chafing under his newfound responsibilities, but gradually getting his legs under him, and slowly winning the respect and admiration of his guard, his ministers, and his people, ultimately becoming a triumphant, if unorthodox king.

The book... does not go in this direction.  That is not to say that Half a King defies all well-worn plot lines.  But it does have an unexpected twist at the onset of the narrative that sends the book spinning into a more unexpected direction.  I won't get into the details, because spoilers!  But we do get to meet a great cast of characters and experience a number of diverse settings.

My main complaint with Half a King has to do with my dislike of our main character, Yarvi.  I've read enough reviews of the book to know that many readers disagree with me.  I totally understand where they're coming from.  I typically love a good underdog hero as well.  Yarvi, however, got on my nerves.  Abercrombie is fond of dirty realism, and lingers over Yarvi's human weaknesses — Yarvi shirks, whimpers, whines, and cries aplenty.  Abercrombie toes the line between making Yarvi realistic and making him a hero readers can get behind.  It's a thin edge, and I fell on the side of disliking the little bastard for his failures.

Fortunately, there were enough good elements in Half a King to distract me from my distaste for the protagonist.  The supporting cast was great.  Abercrombie, although a man, can write some seriously compelling female characters. (Thank you, Joe Abercrombie!)  There were great heroes and villains, as well, and even more in-between characters.  Near the end of the book, there is a totally unexpected and thrilling twist.  It was so much fun to read; my mouth hung open in delighted shock for a good while.

All in all, I can't see myself re-visiting Half a King, but I'm so glad I read it because of its sequel.  Half a World rests on all the world-building and plot set-up of its predecessor and far surpasses Half a King.  I can honestly say that I can't wait for Abercrombie's next installment.  Count me hooked.