Cas has fought pirates her entire life. But can she survive living among them?
For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business. She’s been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the genetically-engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas’s first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas’s dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water.
There’s no time to mourn. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner pup. Santa Elena wants to take back the seas with a monster of her own, and she needs a proper trainer to do it. She orders Cas to raise the pup, make sure he imprints on her ship, and, when the time comes, teach him to fight for the pirates. If Cas fails, her blood will be the next to paint the sea.
Title: The Abyss Surrounds Us
Author: Emily Skrutskie, Twitter
Category: Young Adult
Genre: Post-apocalyptic SF
Publisher: Flux, Twitter
Publication Date: February 8, 2016
Format: Paperback
Length: 273 pages
ISBN-10: 0738746916
ISBN-13: 9780738746913
Series or Standalone: The Abyss Surrounds Us #1
Literary Awards: N/A
Themes: QUILTBAG, Romance, Pirates, climate science fiction
POV: 1st Person Singular
Tense: Present
Reviewer: Marisa Greene
Where I Got It: Recced by a friend
Cover Notes: Holy crap, guys. Loved this cover! Normally I’m not much for textured titles, but this just fit so well. The light effects are a bit flashy for me, but they’re story related, so I’m dealing with it.
Review:
There are good and bad things about this book. I don’t love the first person present here. It doesn’t feel like it serves the purpose I expect that set-up to serve. The pacing doesn’t match it, mainly. But I did like Cas’s voice, so that’s something, I guess. I appreciated her snark in the face of adversity. I wish the main characters were fleshed out a bit more, too. Like, I get Swift is the mysterious stranger. But I could have done with a bit more personality.
Now, the premise of the book is fantastic. War leviathans? Sign me up. Also, the romance angle. Although the execution was a bit lacking in this book, there’s a sequel. It gets better, I think. I should take now to mention I’ve already read the sequel. A lot of stuff makes more sense, and more plot lines get tied up or at least explored, if you read the sequel. It’s basically one story rather than two sequential stories. I could still wish some things developed faster, but that’s how this structure works.
Although I liked Cas’s voice, I wish her character had been a bit less bland. Besides her Reckoner training training, there’s not a ton to the character. Perhaps it’s because the action/adventure part started so early. But I would have liked more understanding of her relationship to her family. More about who she was besides being a trainer in training. I think this lack of development hurts her character in this book and the sequel. It’s a lot more interesting for me when someone has to make tough decisions if I feel I know enough about them to justify both the internal conflict and their choice.
One of the main things I liked about this book was that Cas was both not white and not straight. The sexual orientation aspect was really well handled, to me. Not preaching, judging, ham-handedness. But she seems so bland it’s hard to see any influence from her Asian heritage. Maybe that’s how it should be. Either way, it’s nice to see some diversity.
The setting for this story is pretty important. It’s something of a climate science fiction story, with rising water levels and the break-up of big countries into smaller political units. Thus the need for the Reckoners. Although it’s only vaguely sketched out in the book, I think it works well as a backdrop, and there’s nothing that makes you feel like it’s a cheap gimmick. It informs the attitudes of both the privileged “shore” people with national citizenship, and the nation-less “pirates”.
The supporting characters here, especially as you read the sequel, are very neatly-drawn. Although the main villain in the first book is a bit one-note, banging the cruel manipulation drum non-stop, the rest of the “bad” characters have some nice nuance to them, which is something you don’t always see in these sorts of stories.
Because it’s the first of a duology, the conclusion leaves a bit to be desired, but it pays off by the end of the second book. The only plot-hole was the whole trope of animals tasing human blood. It was played up a lot by Cas, but in the end, as the SBTB review says, it didn’t seem to have much effect?
Finally, the romance angle was cool. There’s a really fantastic scene where the concept of consent comes up. You’ll know it when you see it.
Conclusion: 78/100 (Has its flaws, but totally worth it for the awesome sea monsters)
Premise: 10/10 (For awesome, even if the science is bullshit)
Plot: 7/10 (Pretty standard kidnapping story)
Setting: 8/10 (Could have been deeper but worked well)
Main Character: 7/10 (Pretty standard YA protag)
Orientation: 8/10 (No yuck, but little relevance?)
Romance: 8/10 (An extra point for dealing with consent issues)
Supporting Characters: 8/10 (Loved ’em)
Writing: 8/10 (Very smooth aside from the tense and perspective issues)
Themes: 7/10 (Standard but well-executed)
Resolution: 7/10 (First-book-itis)
Buy Or Borrow: Buy or borrow, either one is a good choice here.
Similar Books:
Can’t think of any obvious similar books off the top of my head. Paolo Bacigalupi’s Shipbreaker series, maybe?
Other Reviews:
GoodReads
Smart Bitches, Trashy Books
Kirkus Reviews
Publishers Weekly
Books, Bones, and Buffy
Rich in Color
The Lesbrary (major first-half spoilers!)
Buy Links:
Amazon
Barnes and Noble
IndieBound
Notes From the Darknet 