304 pages
English language
Published June 4, 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Bloomsbury Publishing.
For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a riveting, roaring adventure novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power.
When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet.
But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, …
For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a riveting, roaring adventure novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power.
When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet.
But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung's cutthroat retributions create problems all their own. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life.
A book of salt and grit, blood and sweat, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is an unmissable portrait of a woman who leads with the courage and ruthlessness of our darkest and most beloved heroes.
Neat inspiration to learn more about Chinese pirates.
This is primarily historical fiction, with just a dash of fantasy / magical realism. It follows events leading up to the Opium Wars, but these characters are not hugely involved in these big events. This is the story of a pirate fleet and their pirate allies with the political events a backdrop for them to operate within. The scale is small and focused on Shek Yeung and her efforts to keep her fleet safe and successful. Because the main characters are pirates who are at odds with the Chinese Emperor for his failures to care for the common folk and his strict policies against pirating, the colonizers are primarily just set dressing and occasionally prey for pirating. As the book progresses, there is more intrigue about the Europeans' motives in the South China Sea, but the story remains focused on Shek Yeung. My history knowledge is too sparse to really …
This is primarily historical fiction, with just a dash of fantasy / magical realism. It follows events leading up to the Opium Wars, but these characters are not hugely involved in these big events. This is the story of a pirate fleet and their pirate allies with the political events a backdrop for them to operate within. The scale is small and focused on Shek Yeung and her efforts to keep her fleet safe and successful. Because the main characters are pirates who are at odds with the Chinese Emperor for his failures to care for the common folk and his strict policies against pirating, the colonizers are primarily just set dressing and occasionally prey for pirating. As the book progresses, there is more intrigue about the Europeans' motives in the South China Sea, but the story remains focused on Shek Yeung. My history knowledge is too sparse to really speak much to historical accuracy around these events, but I can say it is compellingly told and I very much enjoyed the smaller scale perspective in amidst these historical events.
Shek Yeung was a village girl, a hand on her father’s fishing boat, a captive, a prostitute, co-commander of a pirate fleet, and a mother. She fills these roles with varying levels of enthusiasm, competence, and reluctance, and often reflects on stories of the goddess Ma-Zou’s life to make sense of her own circumstances, giving the narrative many stories-within-the-story - a narrative structure I am very fond of.
While there are certainly a lot of events occurring around the fleet, this book is primarily Shek Yeung’s life story. It is focused on her reflections of her early life, the choices she made and the ones that were made for her, and the stories she tells herself and others about those choices. This is a character-focused book about who holds power, what it means to hold power, and what is gained and lost in exchange. It considers gender roles and expectations, and the different ways one is treated based on those. The story is very reflective and thoughtful, and I found it and Shek Yeung as a character very compelling.
Recommended to readers who enjoy historical fiction, introspective character-focused stories, and stories that examine structures of power.
A lot of reviews said this is not really an adventure story, it’s more literary, so I was excited to try this. But it’s incredibly dry and distant from the characters. You are told what characters do and sometimes what they think, but there’s nothing very expressive here. I need more to work with. I’m sad because I thought a literary pirate story sounded fantastic!
