382:'s imagining of the infants surviving as a community of merfolk, leading to the rap recounting of conflict between the people of the sea and the people of the land, though Solomon's development of a novel with individual characters and deeper exploration of the larger themes, with prose "that is by turns meditative, didactic, and rawly angry". The review raves that Solomon interrogates the devastations of slavery without ever showing a white perspective, in a tour de force reorientation of the storytelling gaze. This superb, multilayered work will speak to any empathetic reader, and be best appreciated by those steeped in its cultural and artistic context.
305:. The women drowned, but their babies survived, and eventually developed into their current form. They have built their own idyllic underwater society. Only one person—Yetu, the Historian—holds all their often-traumatic memories, so the rest are spared the pain. The historian must suppress all their own personality and desire, and only once a year, the entire community relives the memories together.
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comforting myth." He notes that while some
Holocaust survivors claim that personal testimony is the only appropriate representation, in the case of African women drowned hundreds of years ago there can be no testimony only imagination. He then rates Solomon's depiction as "a powerful combination of anguish and hope", He concludes: "As bleak as the history of the
449:'s starred review states that "Solomon’s beautiful novella weaves together a moving and evocative narrative that imagines a future created from the scars of the past. Highly recommended for those interested in sf or fantasy that draws upon the legacies of colonialism and racism to imagine different, exciting types of futures". In a generally positive review,
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foreknowledge of clipping., Drexciya, or the mythology of the wajinru that precedes it; while those elements certainly enrich the novel, Solomon's text stands alone as a wise, daring, touching, and important addition to the
Afrofuturist canon, and one that carries its own rhythmic and melodic grace — not to mention a wholly relevant and righteous gravity."
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beneath the surface are slowly being driven mad by the burden of their people's traumatic memories. Their madness is creating a storm like the one that previously engulfed the surface world. Yetu must decide whether or not to return, saving both her people and the surface-dwellers like Oori, at the
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genre, saying that they "seem to both demand and resist fantasy: on the one hand, the imagination needed to even approximate it in fiction requires resources beyond those of realistic or historical fiction, while on the other, invoking the tools of SF or fantasy risks turning historical outrage into
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The burden she carries threatens to destroy Yetu, so she flees to the surface while the community is observing its annual remembrance ritual, finding herself trapped in a tidal pool. Here, she meets some of the dreaded "two-legs", and in particular, Oori, who is also, in her own way, a memory-keeper
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with a folklore twist", concluding that its "slim page count disguises the depth of the work within. Rivers
Solomon conjures a vast world... one where history and present day collide and love can change lives. The text is ever-changing as the ocean itself. Shifting from third person to first person
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Our mothers were pregnant
African women thrown overboard while / crossing the Atlantic Ocean on slave ships. We were born / breathing water as we did in the womb. We built our home on the / seafloor, unaware of the two-legged surface dwellers until / their world came to destroy ours. With cannons,
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may be, and as challenging as the new threats from above may seem, Solomon manages to end the novel on a surprisingly hopeful note, in the form of Yetu and Oori’s unlikely romance. When Yetu promises her that “we will make a new thing,” it doesn't really do much to assuage the weight of nightmare
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is an elegantly concise and simple novel. Yetu's plight is an essential, emotionally fraught conflict between duty and sacrifice, between tradition and progress, between the individual and the common good, and between vengeance and forgiveness. Furthermore, enjoying the story doesn't require any
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plural, at times it feels as lyrical as the song from whence it came. The story unbalances and redefines. It will trail in your wake long after you finish it. Yetu is a force to behold, and I for one am immensely grateful that
Solomon allowed us to witness her story."
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Solomon found the existing outline of the story well-suited for novel form, but still had to develop a main character to carry the story, with a unique voice and back story. This became Yetu, the protagonist, memory-keeper of her people. Clipping members
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and energy companies desiring the fossil fuels lying below the ocean bed: "Below us, deep beneath the sand, there is a substance they crave. It is their life force. They feast on it like blood." Basha led the
219:, residing in the same mythological universe created for their music: "All of their records refer to a utopian underwater civilization founded by African mothers thrown overboard from slave ships. It’s like if
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a fantasy drama film centered on a
Caribbean family who adopted a mermaid. The introduction mentions the belief that enslaved people thrown from slave ships have survived beneath the water in other forms.
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is "a challenging read, unique in its telling and provocative in its themes. Solomon’s prose is powerful and delicate—a poetic and insightful examination of violence, racism, pain, memory and identity."
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and remembrance", the lyrics evoking
African women drowned on the journey across the sea, of climate change and environmental destruction, of the passion of the ancestors and drive of the survivors:
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nomination for Best
Dramatic Presentation (short form). With the trio's blessings, she set out to find a writer to bring the story to life. She found the voice she was looking for in
27:
285:, William Hutson and Jonathan Snipes were involved with the book's development throughout, and are listed as co-authors. Daveed Diggs narrates the audiobook.
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is more typical of television and film, but that it works remarkably well in this case. Heller concludes: "For all its complexity in origin and concept,
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of her people. Oori brings Yetu fish to eat, and the two develop a bond. Yetu comes to realize that not all the two-legs are white slave traders.
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warred against the surface world a generation prior. This is told through the memories of Basha, Yetu's predecessor, who lived when the
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enumerates the creative iterations built upon the historical drowning of pregnant
African women by white slavers, beginning with
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became "transfixed" by the "stories that need to be told" in the album
Clipping put out a short time later, which led to a
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they searched / for oil beneath our cities. Their greed and recklessness forced / our uprising. Tonight, we remember.
143:. It depicts an underwater society built by the water-breathing descendants of pregnant slaves thrown overboard from
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749:"Gary K. Wolfe and Ian Mond Review The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes"
646:"Gary K. Wolfe and Ian Mond Review The Deep by Rivers Solomon, Daveed Diggs, William Hutson & Jonathan Snipes"
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is a beautifully written, thoughtful novella, one, that as Diggs says in his afterword, is over far too quickly."
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Motor Booty Affair album, as if they and Drexiya were writing about two different aspects of the same place."
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was on the short list for the British Fantasy Award in the Best Novella category, though it did not win.
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also commissioned a song for the episode called “The Deep” from hip-hop group
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histories, but it's something." Review partner Ian Mond concurs, writing "
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839:"British Fantasy Awards 2020 – Shortlists | The British Fantasy Society"
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However, this is juxtaposed against the revelation that the
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aired an episode called “We Are in the Future” dealing with
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147:. The book was developed from a song of the same name by
987:"Announcing the Winners of the Inaugural Ignyte Awards!"
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analyzes the suitability of representing the horrors of
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cost of retaking the burden of her people's memories.
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Deep, by Rivers Solomon and others. | Booklist Online
401:, along with other historic catastrophes such as
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775:"Wade in the Water: The Deep by Rivers Solomon"
333:that wreaked devastation on the surface world.
336:Having been abandoned by their Historian, the
203:that explores the developing intersection of
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509:IGNYTE Award for Best Novella (2020)
1133:Lambda Literary Award-winning works
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620:Rocket, Stubby the (2018-08-13).
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595:Liptak, Andrew (2019-01-31).
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432:review, Alex Brown describes
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61:Audio read by
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259:ecological devastation
1143:Fiction about merfolk
372:In a starred review,
353:, Jason Heller calls
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201:philosophy of history
197:philosophy of science
157:Lambda Literary Award
139:, William Hutson and
103:Lambda Literary Award
1163:Atlantic slave trade
1158:Works based on songs
1108:Novels about slavery
1088:2019 American novels
1068:Simon & Schuster
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453:'s review adds that
407:indigenous genocides
181:Chicago Public Radio
84:Saga / Gallery Press
1098:2019 fantasy novels
1093:Afrofuturist novels
519:World Fantasy Award
320:were threatened by
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941:The Nebula Awards®
912:"2020 Hugo Awards"
395:the Middle Passage
275:Clipping, The Deep
185:This American Life
151:, an experimental
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375:Publishers Weekly
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239:Navah Wolfe
145:slave ships
1077:Categories
1044:2020-11-06
1020:2020-11-05
996:2020-11-05
971:2020-11-04
946:2020-11-04
922:2020-11-04
897:2020-11-05
873:2022-04-14
848:2020-11-06
824:2020-11-06
815:"The Deep"
784:2020-11-06
759:2020-11-06
731:2020-11-06
722:"The Deep"
707:2020-11-06
656:2020-11-05
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606:2020-11-05
578:2020-11-05
554:References
486:Nominated:
331:tidal wave
243:Hugo Award
235:Saga Press
175:Background
127:is a 2019
601:The Verge
538:Mami Wata
409:, in the
345:Reception
193:aesthetic
179:In 2017,
79:Published
20:The Deep
1063:The Deep
672:The Deep
526:See also
467:The Deep
455:The Deep
446:Booklist
434:The Deep
421:The Deep
399:The Deep
380:Drexciya
359:The Deep
355:The Deep
273:—
251:diaspora
225:Atlantis
217:Drexciya
213:Clipping
183:program
171:awards.
149:Clipping
131:book by
124:The Deep
71:Language
991:Tor.com
779:Tor.com
702:NPR.org
626:Tor.com
573:NPR.org
429:Tor.com
426:In the
416:wajinru
411:fantasy
338:wajinru
327:wajinru
318:wajinru
314:wajinru
299:merfolk
295:wajinru
255:slavery
221:Wakanda
153:hip-hop
135:, with
129:fantasy
74:English
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521:(2020)
515:(2019)
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481:(2020)
462:Awards
263:memory
165:Nebula
99:Awards
82:2019 (
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223:were
169:Locus
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473:Won:
436:as "
405:and
366:Deep
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