In Great Waters
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- £5.99
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- £5.99
Publisher Description
In Great Waters is a fictional history both familiar and alien.
In Kit Whitfield's stunning reimagining of the world, an uneasy accord holds between the people of the land and the people of the sea. Without deepsmen guarding its shores, no nation can resist invasion - and without princes born of the royal blood, part landsman and part deepsman, no nation can maintain its allies in the ocean. The royal strain is fiercely protected, and the penalties for unauthorised breeding between landsmen and deepsmen are terrible.
But now the house of England is collapsing under centuries of inbreeding. Anne, its youngest scion, watches her mother's desperate fight to keep the throne stable and prays for a safer world. But hidden away on a secluded estate is Henry, bastard heathen, groomed all his cold, lonely life to make a grab for power. If either of them is to survive the coming conflict, they wil need more than faith alone.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Whitfield (Benighted) creates a fantasy Earth both instantly recognizable and drastically changed: history was altered by the deepsmen, merfolk who first made an appearance at Venice during the Middle Ages and now, a few centuries later, control the seas. They insist that earthly rulers be part-deepsmen, placing halfbreed children such as Henry, terrified to be washed up on shore after five years underwater, and Anne, a king's clumsy granddaughter, in play for the English throne. The tale's style is formal and historical, packed thick with detail both overt and subtle. Anne is convincing as "inconvenient" royalty, the kind the family would rather forget, while Henry embodies the deepsmen's unhuman priorities and desires. Supporting characters, most neither wholly good nor wholly wicked, are given in stark, memorable detail. Fans of English history, dense prose and high-level political maneuvering will love it.
