Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig
Product details
Web ID: 16686045Incredible
Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig is an engaging and feminist read about the legendary Chinese pirate queen Shek Yeung that, at its core, is an excellent portrait of a woman in a man’s world who carves out a piece of the world for herself against all odds. The character work is beautifully done, and Shek Yeung is so certain Heaven is against mortals that she doesn’t allow herself to live and desire, and it’s enthralling watching her grapple with this reality. This is a book I can see myself returning to.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Touching story of early 19th c. maritime rebellion
"All this world is, is people exacting their will on others. The sooner one understands that, the sooner one can move on. Otherwise, you spend your whole life grieving." A beautifully rendered story of early 19th century maritime rebellion, the fallacy of power, and motherhood's unique position to temper the tides of war. Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a historical fiction that seamlessly weaves in magical realism and transports readers from the Manchu Qing-ruled Canton, to Taiwan, Maynila (modern day Philippines), and all the deep and dark expanses that lie between. We follow Shek Yeung, historical pirate queen who, to this day, is lauded as one of the most (if not THE most) influential and powerful pirates who ever lived, and her journey from being violently ripped away from her family of fishermen to being turned over and used as chattel among the nefarious "flower boats." And let me tell you—that term is NOT what I had envisioned. But it is the flower boats where Shek Yeung learns to listen and observe and develops her sense of wits and knack for strategy and information, which ultimately elevates her to serve as the wife of respected (and highly feared) Red Banner Fleet captain and enforcer of the pirate alliance, Cheng Yat. It is a few years into their marriage (Shek Yeung is 31 years old when we meet her), when the story begins. I couldn't put this book down and finished it a day after I picked it up. The writing was brutally vivid, the protagonist embodied—at best—shades of gray, and yet the story somehow managed a more hopeful ending than I could have anticipated. I found Shek Yeung to be a really complex character and was yelling for her to make different decisions throughout, but that's part of what made her story so compelling. She is ruthless and strong and we get to watch her grapple with what it means to be soft and maternal—if she's even capable of being those things—and would that compromise her position of power? This is a book heavy on seafaring politics, espionage, and skirmishes, which I enjoy, but I perhaps was more invested in Shek Yeung's evolution at the end. I was very pleasantly surprised and felt the book posed so many important ideas to mull over. The writing and character work were excellent, and I greatly enjoyed the story's themes around the precariousness of power, survival, and gender roles. 5 stars. "How full of nothing all humans are, just bits of substance drawn and held stubbornly together by will, animal habit, and the fear of what comes after."
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Dats Rats!
The historical fiction debut novel tells the tale of a legendary female Chinese pirate. The pitch and cover will be a slam dunk with readers interested in tales of female power, history, and/or piracy. The story moved a bit slowly for my taste. This title and cover are gorgeous.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Cool History, Boring Book
If you want to know everything there is to know about late eighteenth/early nineteenth century Asian (and some European) boats and pirates, this is the book for you. If you want a book with an engaging plot, sympathetic characters, or anything to keep you interested other than cool history, look elsewhere. I don't mean to put this book down too harshly, as the history is very cool, but it never really came together as a novel for me. I never cared about the main character at all, and the whole thing read almost more as a biography than a work of fiction. There's no doubt the author did their research on the time period, but all the Asian words thrown in didn't lend the book the authenticity I think was intended, and instead just made me wish again and again for a glossary. Also, as a Westerner, many of the Asian names read very similarly to me and I often got characters confused, which I'm sure didn't help me connect with any of them. A character list would have been a great help to me, though perhaps there will be one in the final copy of the book. As I'm not really one for bloody battle scenes (well-drawn though they may be) I found the most interesting part of the book to be near the beginning where we learned of the women who serviced customers on crafts called flower boats. It is a very small section, but the only time I recall feeling truly gripped. There were some interesting revelations toward the end and a few neatly wrapped up storylines, but it wasn't enough for me. I enjoyed all the locations we visited with the pirate crew, from Canton to Formosa/Taiwan to Manila, and I thought the places were well-imagined and described. But again, a setting, no matter how compelling, doesn't a compulsively readable novel make. I received a free copy of this book through NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Woman pirate
Wow, what a story. A story about a woman pirate Shek Yeung whose skill and will makes her a survivor in a brutal world. There is no sugarcoated story here, although she has had children and is fond of some of the people she's encountered, she doesn't indulge in sentimentality, just survival. From a young age she has had to survive the death of her family, being sold to the flower boats, and finally wife to a Pirate, Shek Yeung never had time to be anything but a pirate because being a woman in China was unthinkable. The story is adventurous and full of intrigues as Shek Yeung with the help of her new pirate husband Cheung Po tries to survive the elimination of the pirates by China and the Europeans. I absolutely loved this story. I know this is suppose to be fictional story, but I looked up woman pirates in China and came across Zheng Yi Sao, who was a real pirate and had the same traits as Shek Yeung and just made go, Wow, how did she survive it all. I want to thank Bloomsbury USA, Bloomsbury Publishing and NetGalley for an advance copy of this amazing story.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Could have been better
Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea is a piece of historical fiction recounting the story of the famed female Chinese pirate, Shek Yeung. The book begins with the death of her husband, with whom she was co- commander of a pirate alliance. What follows relates how she forged personal alliances and dealt with being a woman commanding a fleet that was 99.9% male, while fending off threats form the Chinese Emperor and European fleets. Instead of the riveting and rousing book the blurb describes, I found Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea to be neither. It plods along, and was not at all engaging. I found the characters to be somewhat superficial, and the plot tedious, contributing to my struggling to finish the book. There’s a great story here, but in my opinion, the novel could have been better.
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Great!
So obviously I saw "lady pirates" and had to read this immediately. I do think it's inaccurate to label this as fantasy. This is historical fiction with a tinge of magical realism in the guise of Shek Yeung imagining the goddess Ma Zou responding to her entreaties. That being said, this was a fascinating and well-told story about a remarkable woman making her mark on a world typically run by men. Shek Yeung is realistic, smart, tactical, brutal when she needs to be, and above all, a survivor. She does what she thinks she needs to do, whether that is killing potential spies, forging alliances, or giving up her children. This is a harsh world she lives in, with famine, village raids, murder, piracy (nothing romantic here), and cutthroat government officials. There were also thought-provoking passages on power, feminism, and what power means when wielded by men vs women. Also, having read Babel this year, it was FASCINATING to see the beginning of the English strategy in regards to opium and counteracting the imbalance of imports/exports between China and the West. I definitely enjoyed this book, even if it wasn't exactly what I was expecting at the beginning. Absolutely recommend. Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing a requested copy for review. All opinions are my own.
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com
Fantastic exploration of Shek Yeung
A fantastic historical fiction novel that explores the life of Shek Yeung, one of China's most notorious pirates. Shek Yeung lived a fascinating life, and this book did a great job of displaying just how fearsome she is. Shek Yeung is known for her cunningness and the way she overthrew societal gender roles in every way known, while still embracing femineity, and wielding it like a knife. The key element of this book is how hard Shek Yeung had to fight for every scrap of power, and then continue fighting to hold onto it. She is neither bad nor good, and makes horrific and honorable judgment calls. We explore her traumatic childhood, and how she was forced into becoming a pirate's wife in the first place. I really enjoyed this book, and the way Shek Yeung was portrayed. If you are a fan of historical fiction, or even just epic pirate adventures, I would recommend this book. Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the advanced copy, in exchange for an honest review!
Recommends this product
Customer review from barnesandnoble.com