Book No. 21 of 2021
This was a book I couldn’t put down out of an impatient excitement to know what happened next—a reading experience that made me feel like a kid again. Edugyan’s novel feels like an updated refresh of Georgian/Victorian-era adventure stories (complete with steampunk-ish details and period science) with, thankfully, full humanity granted to its Black protagonist.
The complexity and uncomfortable racial dynamics of slavery and emancipation are unflinchingly examined—Edugyan does not mince words about the sheer brutality of slavery and plantation life, and uses the many varied settings in the story to demonstrate the inescapable claws of racism. A character who could easily have been a white savior is shown to be fundamentally flawed, haunted, and broken—which doesn’t lessen the goodness of his actions, but instead shows how that goodness does not make him a hero or override the valid pain of the protagonist.
The story celebrates science in all its old-fashioned glory, just as it also demonstrates how people have twisted scientific reasoning to justify cruelty and inequity, and asks us to examine the invisible brilliance and labor of people who have been written out of the stories of scientific progress. (Also, lots of stuff in here for marine life nerds!)
Similar Reads
The brutal depiction of slavery/plantation life and slave catchers reminded me of Colson Whitehead’s The Underground Railroad.
The POC-focused adventure narrative reminded me of Laila Lalami’s The Moor’s Account.
The appearance of an airship (that’s not a spoiler, it’s on the cover) as well as the sheer breadth of adventures experienced by the protagonist reminded me of Alexander Chee’s Queen of the Night.