Deep As the Sky, Red As the Sea

304 pages

English language

Published June 4, 2023 by Bloomsbury Publishing USA, Bloomsbury Publishing.

ISBN:: 978-1-63973-037-7

(1 review)

For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a riveting, roaring adventure novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power.

When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet.

But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, …

For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a riveting, roaring adventure novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power.

When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet.

But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung's cutthroat retributions create problems all their own. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life.

A book of salt and grit, blood and sweat, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is an unmissable portrait of a woman who leads with the courage and ruthlessness of our darkest and most beloved heroes.

1 edition

enne📚 reviewed Deep As the Sky, Red As the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig

4 stars

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a fictionalized account of a real Chinese woman pirate from the 19th century, amidst the lead up to the opium wars. The setup of the book is that Shek Yeung's husband, the leader of an alliance of pirate fleets, has just been killed in battle, leaving her with his wishes to keep the alliance together; part of the fleet was left to his heir Cheung Po, and she (theoretically) still has another part, but in the wake of her death she has to immediately scramble to try to keep everything together.

I think I expected a book about a pirate queen to be more action, but instead it was a lot of internal reflection and navigating politics. Even from the get go, she is trying to hold an alliance of pirate fleets together against constant pressure to split them apart: allies …

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a fictionalized account of a real Chinese woman pirate from the 19th century, amidst the lead up to the opium wars. The setup of the book is that Shek Yeung's husband, the leader of an alliance of pirate fleets, has just been killed in battle, leaving her with his wishes to keep the alliance together; part of the fleet was left to his heir Cheung Po, and she (theoretically) still has another part, but in the wake of her death she has to immediately scramble to try to keep everything together.

I think I expected a book about a pirate queen to be more action, but instead it was a lot of internal reflection and navigating politics. Even from the get go, she is trying to hold an alliance of pirate fleets together against constant pressure to split them apart: allies who need reassurance of the ongoing value of their alliance, a shaky relationship with her (new) husband (the heir), increased pirate hunting from the government, attacks from the Dutch, and the threat of internal spies inside the fleets.

A lot of the book is her careful attempt to balance all of these things while trying to survive; she muses several times on the purpose of power, and the feeling I get is that she is truly motivated by trying to create a space of safety for herself and those she cares about. Sometimes this leads her to callous actions, but at the heart of it she is a survivor trying to get by.

Overall, I quite liked this book's pirate politics and interesting window into a historical character.