The Deep and the Drowned by Ian Green

Book Review

Elloise

Lieutenant of the Cil-Marie, Marion, is not a sailor, so she can only cling on as the ship threatens to sink. Too many miles from land, she can only trust that the captain is good enough to keep his ship seaworthy, and that the child she was given will sate the god, Zalan, the shipbreaker, to get them across Burner’s Run. The price of passage is a sacrifice, but as her paladin offers the child, it becomes clear that the girl may not have been Russilan after all. There will be a price to pay.

On the isle of Skerry, Captain Killian Heroneye and his crew need what lies within the Russilan ziggurat – a tomb that will hold treasures to help Killian reduce his debts and keep ship and crew on the seas. Others may have reached it first, but the tomb remains unopened, and he and his companions have the skills to silently make their way inside. Unfortunately, as Killian will discover, getting out with the goods may not be so easy.

Captain Heroneye makes his own legend, and of course, he will live to pirate another day. But the Evertree Sisters carry formidable weight, and no matter how much treasure he gets his hands on, his debts mount. He has friends to take care of, and he is sorely in need of a new tide-mage. He will need to sail to Samarkan and beyond to have any hope of staying afloat, and now he may be forced to help the very people who took his family from him: the Cil-Marie.

The Deep and the Drowned is an exciting, swashbuckling story, where Killian and his crew – whose loyalty in some parts hangs by a thread and on a coin – find themselves propelled from the promise of easy treasure into dangerous missions at the behest of others, where obedience and success are the prices of staying alive.

Captain Heroneye is a phenomenal protagonist. His outward arrogance and self-belief sit brilliantly on the young man beneath whose legend is based (at least somewhat) on theft, cunning and elaboration. Despite the bravado, he is likeable, admirable, determined, and his story is written with a brilliant, humorous edge. Heroneye is said to be one of the few who has sailed Burner’s Run, and the reader is left wondering exactly which parts of his legend are true, and how he is going to get out of his next scrape.

The oceanic setting is well-crafted and sits comfortably in the current fantasy landscape where there is still an appetite (rightly or wrongly) for this kind of romanticised, heroic, flamboyant and adventurous piratical tale. This is the first book of the Cutlass and Crow trilogy, and the next will make it firmly onto the must-read shelf.