I have to thank Books, Bones & Buffy so, so much! It was her review of this book that gave me the nudge I needed to actually pick it up, rather than letting it gather dust like so many other new releases I have on my radar and then never get to. I found the cover quite nice and the idea of an epistolary fantasy novel always appealed to me, but there was something missing, you know. Thanks to Tammy's review, I was suddenly more than eager to pick it up and I'm glad I chose the audiobook to do so. That made the whole thing an experience.
LETTERS TO THE LUMINOUS DEEP
by Sylvie Cathrall
Published: Orbit, 2024
Hardcover: 432 pages
Audiobook: 12 hours, 29 minutes
Narrated by: Claire Morgan, Joshua Riley, Justin Avoth, Kit Griffiths
Series: The Sunken Archive #1
My rating: 8/10
Opening line: Dear Scholar Clel,
Instead of reading further, I hope you will return this letter to its envelope or, better yet, crumple it into an abstract shape that might look quite at home on a coral reef.
'An underwater treasure-chest to be slowly unpacked, full of things I nosy and loving families, epistolary romance, gorgeous worldbuilding, and anxious scholars doing their best to meet the world with kindness and curiosity' Freya Marske, author of A Marvellous Light
A charming fantasy set in an underwater world with magical academia and a heartwarming penpal romance, perfect for fans of A Marvellous Light and Emily Wilde's Encylopaedia of Faeries.
A beautiful discovery outside the window of her underwater home prompts the reclusive E. to begin a correspondence with renowned scholar Henerey Clel. The letters they share are filled with passion, at first for their mutual interests, and then, inevitably, for each other.
Together, they uncover a mystery from the unknown depths, destined to transform the underwater world they both equally fear and love. But by no mere coincidence, a seaquake destroys E.'s home, and she and Henerey vanish.
A year later, E.'s sister Sophy, and Henerey's brother Vyerin, are left to solve the mystery of their siblings' disappearances with the letters, sketches and field notes left behind. As they uncover the wondrous love their siblings shared, Sophy and Vyerin learn the key to their disappearance - and what it could mean for life as they know it.
This book's somewhat unwieldy title is only a small hint as to what's inside. I urge you to read a couple of pages to see if the style works for you at all, because the prose is... not for everyone, shall we say? Now, for me, it was a big fat plus, as I could immerse myself fully in this strange world a thousand years distant from ours, where basically no landmass survives and people live on boats, floating cities, or, as is the case with one of our protagonists E., in an underwater house, the Deep House.
It is from this house that E. starts up a correspondence with one Scholar Henery Clel, who not only writes back but becomes something of a pen pal. And more. But we don't only get to read the letters they write to each other, but rather we read them alongside E.'s sister and Henery's brother, who have both been bereaved of their respective siblings. Yes, E. and Henery have disappeared a while ago and are presumed dead, but through sharing their siblings' letters, Sophy and Vyerin may discover more than a beautiful love story. In fact, there may be a lot of secrets to uncover...
Oh, I loved this so much, even though I must repeat my caveat about the style being not for everyone. If you don't enjoy the elaborate, old-timey writing, then this book is not going to make you happy!
The setting may be far future or maybe on a different planet altogether, but the way people talk and the customs they employ is decidedly Austenesque, or at least very prim and proper. It is a world where LGBTQIA+ folks are the norm, so that's nice. 🙂 Sophy is happily married to a woman and Vyerin to a man, which makes their correspondence and ensuing friendship even more delightful because it brings two married couples together thorugh shared grief and shared curiosity.
However, because of the somewhat strict rules, our brave correspondents, both in the present and in the past, use a turn of phrase that can appear, to some, a little stilted or unnecessarily verbose. This is not, you may guess, a fast-moving plot kind of book. There are secrets to uncover, and they are pretty damn cool, I'll tell you that. But they also take a long time to even get a mention, let alone be revealed for what they are.
So what exactly is there to enjoy here, you ask. Well, it's the slow unveiling of who these characters are. First and foremost, E. and Henery, with E. being an interesting protagonist in particular. She appears to suffer from a sort of anxiety, never leaves the house, and religiously checks the building for flaws (which is only sensible in an underwater construction if you ask me). It turns out the author herself lives with OCD and so does her character E. - I've only ever read one character with OCD in a book (Jalil in K. A. Applegate's Everworld series), so it was a welcome experience to see such a strange new world through the eyes of someone so different from myself.
But there's also so much to love about Henery, the more outgoing successful scholar, and their respective siblings Sophy (so bubbly and lovable!) and Vyerin (calmer, but full of heart). So while not a lot of exciting things may happen at first, I enjoyed every page because it let me get to know these people and explore a unique world through their eyes. The dual timelines also turn the book into somewhat of a puzzle and I do love looking for clues and hints in my literature.
I won't tell you too much about the world, merely that most of it happens on or under the water, scholars are super important (at least in the protagonists' circles), and there are wonderful customs such as "fusing" two people's family names when they get married. So Cidnosin (Sophy, E., and Arvist's last name) turns into Cidnorghe when Sophy marries. It's such a small detail but I loved it for the way it shows a much deeper sense of gender equality and mutual respect in this strange, water-filled world.
Although it may not happen fast, there is a plot and several mysteries. This being the first book in a series, I never for a second believed that E. and Henery were actually dead, and I don't believe the author intended her readers to think that. But we do want to know what happened to them and where they disappeared to. Well, dear readers, some of that shall be revealed in the last third of the book, alongside the rather striking results of one of Sophy's reasearch missions. The world is intriguing and wild as it is, but the ending of the book promises that there is much more to it and things may be far, far stranger than we believe.
I would happily have spent another five hours just following along on E. and Henery's shy and slow romance, Sophy and Vyerin's quirky friendship, and everything else this world has to offer. I will definitely pick up the next volume in the series.
Oh, and I must recommend the audiobook version, seeing as the four protagonists' letters are each read by a different narrator. Sophy's narrator especially grew dear to me, her voice being wonderfully lively and cheerful and adding a whole lot of personality to the author's words. But each of the four narrators did a fantastic job and I hope they'll continue narrating the story until the series is finished.
MY RATING: 8/10 - Excellent!
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