Incredibly compelling premise, genre-bending to the point where I’m not sure that the one it was nominated in, Best Science Fiction (Goodreads), is the most fitting. While books centered around slavery in America but reimagined with a magical aspect have primarily fallen into the historical category, such as 2019 Best Historical Fiction nominee The Water Dancer and 2016 winner The Underground Railroad, The Deep utilizes the Trans-Atlantic slave trade as a jumping off point before delving into a full-fledged fantasy world.
For those unfamiliar, this novella (less than 200 pages) is based off of a song by the musical group clipping. called The Deep. The three names after the author, Rivers Solomon, are the members of the band: Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. I’m not sure the extent of their contribution to the actual writing or the story as a whole, but they’re credited on the cover, so it must be somewhat significant.
I listened to the song before reading, and I still found the start of the book very abrupt, so I can only imagine what a person going in blindly would think. It’s written well, if a bit repetitive. Nothing is so complex that it needs to be repeated multiple times; once you get your bearings the story is not difficult to follow. I would have loved to explore the lore a bit more, but there’s only so far you can go in 170-odd pages. What the author does really well is explore the idea of shared history, memories, pain. It’s a complete arc and ends in a very moving crescendo. I liked it overall, very thought-provoking and full of life.
For those unfamiliar, this novella (less than 200 pages) is based off of a song by the musical group clipping. called The Deep. The three names after the author, Rivers Solomon, are the members of the band: Daveed Diggs, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes. I’m not sure the extent of their contribution to the actual writing or the story as a whole, but they’re credited on the cover, so it must be somewhat significant.
I listened to the song before reading, and I still found the start of the book very abrupt, so I can only imagine what a person going in blindly would think. It’s written well, if a bit repetitive. Nothing is so complex that it needs to be repeated multiple times; once you get your bearings the story is not difficult to follow. I would have loved to explore the lore a bit more, but there’s only so far you can go in 170-odd pages. What the author does really well is explore the idea of shared history, memories, pain. It’s a complete arc and ends in a very moving crescendo. I liked it overall, very thought-provoking and full of life.