#Blogtour - #Fathomfolk by Eliza Chan

Fathomfolk

Eliza Chan

Orbit, 27 February 2024,
Available as: HB, 420pp, audio, e
Source: Advance copy
ISBN(HB): 9780356522395

I'm grateful to Nazia at Orbit for sending me a copy of Fathomfolk to consider for review, and for inviting me to join the book's blogtour.

I have been known to describe books as "immersive". In the case of Fathomfolk, the term really comes into its own because it is, literally, about immersion. Most obviously, there's immersion in water - in the world of Fathomfolk, the waters have risen and most land has been drowned. Humans coexist with sentient sea creatures - the marine peoples of multiple cultures' myths and legends, from East Asian water dragons to mermaids to kelpies to sea witches,  and many actual marine species too. All these are united by their ability to "water weave" - manipulate the water magically - and some also have the ability to shapeshift.

But there are other sorts of immersion here - immersion in different cultures, immersion in work and family and also, romantic immersion in another person. All of these mix, and not always comfortably. If you think the magic of the sea people all sounds wonderful and magical, well it is, but still all is not well. The inundation of the land was the outcome of war between humans and sea peoples, and the latter - the fathomfolk or just Folk - came off worse in this. They are oppressed by humans, who are polluting the oceans and dominating the Folk, treating then as lesser mortals subjects to constraints and controls and prejudices. In the city of Tiankawi, where most of the action in the book takes place, we see the patterns of coexistence in a prejudiced society played out. The focus is on Kai, a sea dragon ambassador from one of the Folk havens and on his partner Mira, a siren and poster girl for diversity. Mira has recently been promoted tocaptain of police but increasingly, as this book proceeds, suffers the tensions and paradoxes of being distrusted by both the dominant society and by the Folk. Mira therefore endures immersion in another sense, genuinely neither a person of the sea nor or the land.

Others in the story also play ambiguous roles, though it would be wrong to say too much about them because spoilers. But we see dilemmas both in the "opposition" to the dominant humans (through a somewhat self regarding sect of revolutionaries) and in those who seek coexistence, as well as those who simply put themselves first. There are also city politics inn play, as well as secrets of going back to Tiankawi's foundation. At times it seems as though everyone's playing a part, everyone's putting on an act. This affects the relationship between Kai and Mira, undermining who they are and exposing issues of privilege and accommodation (Kai, as a dragon, is seen as being at the peak of Folk society which of course has its own hierarchies and prejudices).

Eliza Chan deftly weaves together these multiple strands of the story, gradually expanding the scope form the personal and the immediate to the cosmic and delivering some real shocks as she does, not least in the last few pages which show a narrative that's really going places. 

While the configuration of the world in this story is different form our own, it's easy to see the book as a glimpse of a future affected by global heating, as well as a commentary on prejudice, race and migration  (in a devastating scene, a ship full of sea asylum seekers arrives at the city's docks). It's written in a loosely East Asian setting (albeit, as a I said, the geography is unrecognisably different) which applies both to the human aspects and the Folk.

Eliza Chan portrays the diverse and complex city of Tiankawi as a truly vast and multilayered place, creating distinct and parallel cultures both above and below water and convincingly bringing both to life. This above water/ below water concept feels like it ought not to work yet by the end of the story  it feels completely natural. The city's peopled by vivid and credible characters, with even the villains having their sympathetic side (such as being driven by family ambition, rather than simple love of power). I thought one or two of the secondary characters such as bookish Eun might have had more attention, but I think it's clear there are more books coming so hopefully they will get that at some stage. 

All in all a beguiling and, yes, properly immersive novel. I'd recommend!

For more information about Fathomfolk, see the publisher's website here - and of course the other stops on the blogtour which you can see listed on the poster below. 

You can buy Fathomfolk from your local high street bookshop or online from Bookshop UK, Hive Books, Blackwell's, Foyle's, WH Smith, Waterstones or Amazon.