Generally, the first character mentioned in a novel is someone the author wants the reader to follow and form a connection with. It also seems reasonable for the start to introduce a world clearly and help the reader to integrate with it. The prologue introduces Marion in a very confusing way. While it can help the plot for the author to hold back information to heighten tension, this goes to extremes. Since Marion is clinging to a rope in high seas, the supposition is that she has been cast adrift in a storm. Then she has planking beneath her, indicating a small boat. Not so. Over an overlong description, in which we are told twice that she is not a sailor, it transpires that she is on board a substantial three-masted ship in the storm. The prologue ends with Marion murdering a child to appease a sea monster, not something that would endear the character to anyone. To compound this, she later condones the torture and killing of another.
The other central character, Killian Heroneye, is the captain of a caravel. He has managed to accumulate a large amount of debt, especially to the Evertree sisters. If he can’t pay, they will claim his ship as payment. Then he is offered a deal. Marion will pay off his debt if he will take her across a stretch of water called Burner’s Run. It is where she nearly drowned in the prologue. The deal is that Killian will accompany two of the Evertree ships, first to clean out a pirate stronghold, then take Marion where she wants to go. She will pay off half his debt immediately and the other half when she gets what she wants from the other side of Burner’s Run. She has heard that he has crossed that water before and reasons that he can do it again because he is Russilan and only Russilans will pacify the monster that prevents ships from crossing. Most of the members of his race died as the result of a plague that drove them to drink salt water.
Although ‘The Deep And The Drowned’ is the first in a ‘Grimdark’ fantasy trilogy, it is not the first book Green has set in this world. Unfortunately, he hasn’t allowed for new readers coming to his work. He may have a clear vision of what he is writing about, but there are so many ‘alien’ species populating this world that it has become cluttered. Descriptions are sparse and confusing and it is difficult to engage with any of the characters. Killian is portrayed as a caring individual, but one who is prone to rages which end in mayhem, not a particularly engaging characteristic. His relationship with Silver, an archaeologist who archives the Russilan tombs they have robbed, is problematical. He sleeps with her but there doesn’t seem to be much affection between them; it is a convenient relationship. The other women in this novel are mostly either unpleasant or side-lined. The exception is Kaikatsu, an Antian tide mage. Her race is furry and mole-like as they live mostly underground. She is perhaps the one character I would like to know more about.
The book is peppered with ‘charts’ of the islands that are visited. They are more pretty than useful as navigation aids. The fact that this is a fantasy novel with a degree of magic might explain why the principles of geography are disregarded.
Green may have been short-listed for the Arthur C. Clarke Award for his novel ‘Extremophile’, but the quality of this book doesn’t match what I would expect from something in the running for that prize.
Pauline Morgan
October 2026
(pub: Head of Zeus, 2026. 384 page hardback. Price: £22.00 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-80454-589-8)
check out website: www.bloomsbury.com/uk/deep-and-the-drowned-9781804545874/
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