Reviews with content warning for Xenophobia - Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

Reviews tagging 'Xenophobia'

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig

2 reviews

nicoleisalwaysreading's review against another edition

challenging emotional informative reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? Yes

2.0

my book club and I agreed this is marketed incorrectly - it's not an action-packed pirate adventure! it's a detailed and well-researched historical fiction account of a real Chinese female pirate and so has a lot more to do with strategy, politics, gender, and the generational effect of violence.

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just_one_more_paige's review against another edition

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adventurous dark reflective tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.0

I hadn’t heard of this until a few months ago when I randomly came across it on NetGalley. It was the title and cover combination that really caught my attention. Then I read it was about a pirate queen?! And there was no going back. (Also, note: Libro.fm offered it as an ALC a month or so ago and honestly, I loved having both the ebook and audiobook while reading.)

When Shek Yeung’s husband is killed in a battle, she takes immediate action, marrying his second in command (with the promise of bearing him a child, a son, to be his heir, despite having thought herself past the time in her life), in order to maintain her power and position within the fleet. But even with that quick thinking, the fleet remains on the edge of disaster in the face of myriad outside threats. Shek Yeung must navigate through a Chinese Emperor who seeks to eradicate all piracy in the most brutal manner, European powers who are tired of losing resources to the pirates, and an inter-fleet alliance that is shaky at best. Plus, as she faces the vastly different challenges of new motherhood, she begins to question what price she is actually willing to pay to retain control and leadership.

I am not sure why, but I thought there was going to be magic in this story…and there is not. I want to set that out to start, as, since I didn’t know where that impression came form personally, maybe other people are thinking that too. That has no bearing on my enjoyment of the overall reading experience whatsoever, I just felt it necessary to clarify. I will say though, there is a definite vibe that supernatural forces *could* be in play, through fate and fortune-telling and the influence of gods (similar to books like The Fortunes of Jaded Women, The Last Tale of the Flower Bride, The Cloisters, Plain Bad Heroines, etc.). So, it kind of reads like a magical historical fiction in vibe, if not in actuality. And that’s a style I can get behind.

Plot-wise, this was spectacularly written and paced. There was, absolutely, all the ruthlessness and violence one would expect from a novel about pirates, but as it was sprinkled in with stories about Ma Zhou and mythology and beliefs around her godhood, that was balanced out in a way that made it feel less intense or overwhelming. This was aided by the background on Shek Yeung’s life that was developed as the story went, giving us context not only about her own journey to piracy, but for the greater world within which her story takes place. It was tragic, as I believe all “I didn’t set out to become a pirate, but ended up here anyways” tales must be, compounded by her role as a female during this historical time period in Chinese history (but also, as a female in any time period ever, if we’re being honest). Getting to experience the story from her perspective, her own decisions, and with insight into her own thought processes and feelings, was exactly what I wanted. Finally, in regards to the plot, I would be remiss if I didn’t’ acknowledge how wonderful the complexity of the political machinations and power maneuvering were. I always love when those aspects are done with the kind of deftness that Chang-Eppig had here.

A few final thoughts. First, I was thrilled to hear that Emily Woo Zeller was narrating – I enjoy her voice talents and this was no exception. I thought it was great, the way Chang-Eppig showed how mythology and folklore take on a life of their own depending on the teller, and how every story is just that because all tales grow and change in the telling. This was demonstrated both though the tales of Ma Zhou and in the ways Shek Yeung chose portray herself and her life.

Overall, what atmospheric and original historical fiction. It was swashbuckling and violent, but also culturally and politically nuanced. Perhaps a slightly slower read than the blurb might suggest, but once I adjusted, it was such a good reading/listening experience.

"Piracy was, more often than not, a matter of convincing the target of the futility of fighting back."

"Women's life stories were written by their men, messily, elegantly, or in the case of violent men, tersely. Now that Cheng Yat was dead, Shek Yeung finally had a turn at dictating the course of things. She might have been born thirty-one years ago, but her story was only now hers."

"But villains waited for no god..."

"There were many gods in Heaven, one for whatever a person lacked (after all, wasn't lack the foundation of being human?)..."

"'Why do you need all this power?' Wo-Yuet had asked her. So that I can have complete control, she should have answered. Because the moment a powerful woman loosened her grip on the reins, even a little, someone immediately tried to wrest those reins from her. This "someone" was usually a man who believed she should never have had them in the first place."

"...acts of disobedience quickly led to unrest, which led to violence, which had to be met in kind. There was no stability without violence, nor was there peace in instability. Where was the line between stability and tyranny?"

"They'd come together to stay alive, which was different from staying together to live."

"In the end, stories were not reality, could not be reality. The storyteller decided where to start the story and where to end it, which parts to sink into and which to skin over."

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