Okay, so I’m a huge fan of Rick Riordan. I love the Percy Jackson books and the expanded universe they take place in. So I decided to give his other novel Daughter of the Deep a shot.
So I read it on my own a few months ago and I’m currently revisiting it in Audiobook form.
Honestly… I kinda have mixed feelings if I’m being honest.
I can’t in good conscience call it a bad book because I do think it’s a good book. It’s well written, has a really cool premise, really fascinating ideas and it does a good job making you emphasize with the main character Ana Dakkar.
But there’s one big hang up I had that just puts a shadow over the entire book that makes it difficult for me to get past. And I really *really* just need to talk about it.
Okay, so spoilers past this point,
So for those who haven’t read it, the premise of the novel involves the main character Ana Dakkar who’s attending this school for Marine Biology called Harding-Pencroft, which has a rivalry with another school Land Institute.
To make a long story short, it turns out both schools were founded by the protagonists of the novels “The Mysterious Island” and “20,000 Leagues Under the Sea” respectively which as it turns out were secretly works of nonfiction. Captain Nemo is real and Ana is his descendant. The two schools’ rivalry is all about what the legacy of Captain Nemo should be. Either sharing his technological advancements with the world (Land Institute.) or keeping them hidden to make sure no one misuses them (Harding Pencroft).
That’s all well and good but what bothers me and what kinda wrecks the novel for me is the inciting incident that kicks off the story.
Namely, Land Institute using a high-tech submarine destroyed Harding Pencroft *potentially killing hundreds of innocent high schoolers and faculty.*
I mean…*what!?* You’re gonna open with that Rick? You’re gonna open with potentially over a hundred people getting their lives snuffed out!?
It was just such a dark moment that it invoked “Too Bleak Stopped Caring” for me.
And it just continues. The novel just keeps *going on about this.* It keeps coming back to that point. How the characters mourn the family and friends they lost.
It also made me really hard to just…buy Land Institute doing this. Like… no one had reservations over killing one hundred people? *NO ONE!?* I understand LI is supposed to be like this “Hardcore military academy” but I still… I just don’t buy that no one had reservations about killing a bunch of people like that.
Honestly, I was tempted to stop reading/listening in disgust when it got to a point where the characters look at a news broadcast and it showed some parents weeping.
Rick. Buddy. If you’re reading this (I doubt you are) I know what you’re trying to do. You’re trying to make me hate LI as villains so I want to see them get taken down, but this doesn’t make me hate LI, it makes me hate *the story* for forcing me to experience this!
They only hint that *maybe* some people survived towards the end but Rick really *really* should have implied that earlier (Or better yet just revealed most everyone got out at the end), because otherwise it just made an already pretty depressing book even more depressing than it had to be.
And there’s another twist in the book that frankly makes it worse and adds to the “No one had reservations about this?” issue I stated earlier but I’m not gonna spoil it. If you’ve read the book you know what I’m talking about.
No joke this is probably the most depressing book I’ve read from Rick. Yes even more than the Burning Maze. Especially because aside from some references to Finding Nemo here and there, his trademark humor isn’t really present in it. The whole thing is just soul-draining at points.
No one wonder one of his next books was Chalice of the Gods. He probably *needed* something easy and lighthearted after writing this.
You know though? Maybe it’s just a me thing. Maybe I’m just too much of a softie for this book. Every other review I’ve read is just people gushing over how good it is; so there’s a decent chance, that this is just a me problem.
Look if you like this book, more power to you. I totally see why. Like I said, I don’t think it’s bad. I think it is really good.
It’s just that one part I really have a hard time getting past…
by Tomhur