I loved this book. It’s a fictionalized/fantasy version of the life of the legendary pirate Ching Shih. The story beats for Shek Yeung follow the famous pirate’s life, but it really illuminates the challenges of survival for women in this world, the idea of indifferent gods, and the demon of colonialism.

More than anything, Shek Yeung is a survivor. She’s complicated, stubborn, grimly practical, and does what she has to do. She’s extraordinary because she has so much fighting her, but she refuses to succumb.

And at the end of it all, who will remember us? How will we be remembered? And how will we face the decisions made to survive?

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a beautifully written story about a fierce pirate queen and an exploration of womanhood.

This book was pitched to me as being a fantasy about a pirate queen and that's not totally accurate. It's more literary than fantasy and it reads much more introspectively.

Even though it wasn't what I initially expected I still enjoyed the book overall.

I had expectations for this book, unfortunately DEEP AS THE SKY, RED AS THE SEA is a disappointment. One would expect a novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen to be quite explosive or at least have some thrilling action - as touted by its blurb - but that is in fact hard to find here, and it has been a while since I have felt so distanced from a story and its characters.

I love the novel's concept and premise, but in Chang-Eppig's hands, the story flounders dully and never really finds its footing: the writing truly more of a 'telling not showing' and scenes are rarely given proper room to breathe, the book so focused on Shek Yeung's character study it renders everything that makes her a pirate - the action and emotional impact most readers expect going in - almost inconsequential. And while the themes of power and being female in a patriarchal society are valid and very much relevant, they are hammered in so constantly while offering nothing new, and there is annoyingly little character development.

My biggest peeve about the book, however, is how distant the story and characters feel to the reader. For a book so focused on a main character, it is alarming how indifferent I feel to Shek Yeung despite knowing her backstory and both internal and external struggles. On The Storygraph, I declined to indicate whether I find the characters loveable, as after some deliberation, I realized it was neither yes nor no because I am wholly indifferent to them. Reading this book was not an immersive experience, so remived I felt from the action, development and characters, and as I am someone who highly values emotional impact in my reading, this greatly hinders my enjoyment of the novel.

To sum up, this book has a great premise that is unfortunately hampered by its execution, making it unable to fully reach its full potential.

I grew up watching the Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and since then I’ve had a love for pirate novels. The challenge, though, is finding ones that don’t fall into the romance genre. When I was given the opportunity to read this book, I was so excited. A female pirate queen? Yes, please! Unfortunately, something about this book just didn’t hit home for me. It was more of a telling than a showing, and I didn’t feel as immersed in Shek Yeung’s story as I wanted to. It felt like many of the big important details were just footnotes, stated as facts, and left the main character a little one-dimensional.
What I did enjoy about this book was learning about pirates in the South China Sea, as well as the historical information, a side to piracy I’ve not learned much about up until this point.

Shek Yeung is a wonderfully complicated character. As a reader, you’re on her side even when she does horrific things as a pirate. This is a book about what it takes to get power and what that power does to a person. It’s also a book about fate and how little control any of us have in our lives. Even the side characters in this novel are written with nuance and care. Very skillfully done.

This is somehow the second pirate queen book I’ve read so far this year, and it was a lot of fun: after her husband’s death, Shek Yeung does what she can to retain power over his fleet with his second-in-command, Cheung Po.

I expected this to be fantasy—many pirate books these days have a fantasy element—but this was pretty straight historical fiction. I don’t gravitate toward historical fiction and probably wouldn’t have picked this up on my own, but it was a nice surprise.

There’s a lot here: isolationism and imperialism, the role of women and motherhood, and big ethical questions. I’ll definitely read more by this author.

Thank you to NetGalley and Bloomsbury!

This was a great read! I ended up giving it 4 stars! The main character was very well developed and and the plot had me sucked in from the very beginning! I would recommend this book to others and have only positive things to say!

I really enjoyed this as a story of a woman who, through oppression, found herself fighting for and succeeding in a precarious role as a bada** pirate leader. I was drawn to this book because of my interest in historical women leaders and this really was more of a fiction book with real people than a fiction book that will teach you history. It was still a good story though and I would recommend it to other people who enjoy historical fiction or stories about women coming into or finding themselves.

My only note was that the book is written in third person and due to my own personal preference, that made it harder to get into but that is not a barrier for everyone.

I received this advance reader copy from NetGalley in exchange for a fair review.

This novel was very interesting, I enjoyed it and found the protagonist well-developed. I particularly thought the cut throat world of fishermen turned pirates, and young women raped and sold to flower boats... All set up a well-defined world where people could easily turn to piracy. I really enjoyed the way our protagonist admitted making mistakes and questioned her own choices to maintain her power and authority. I strongly recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys historical fiction featuring strong women.

I received a temporary digital copy of Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig from NetGalley, Bloomsbury Publishing and the author in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

In an effort to keep her control of the Red Banner Fleet, Shek-Yeung marries her husband's second in command the day after his funeral. Shek-Yeung is trying to hold on to her command while the pirate alliance her and her husband formed is being attacked from the outside in. Who is behind these new threats? The Chinese Emperor? The Europeans? One of their own?

Overall, I enjoyed Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea. The book was well-researched and I was deeply invested in Shek-Yeung's success and failures. I also found the myths of the sea goddess Ma-Zou, extremely interesting and how they related to Shek-Yeung's experiences. Nevertheless, I thought something was missing - maybe there were too many stories of Ma-Zou and not enough on the piracy itself?

Adventures to exotic locations aboard a Chinese junk where the main character is a strong willed “flower boat girl” turned pirate. Fast paced with exquisite world descriptions and clever minded characters who stave off greedy government bureaucrats and treacherous enemies. Every bit an edge-of-your-chair read.

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.

I absolutely loved this book. What's not to like? Adventure, pirates... and a female pirate queen at that. But really... the author did an amazing job bringing to life a real person, with few choices in life, who somehow managed to survive everything that was thrown at her but also thrived in a world where men generally ruled. It was beautifully written... Shek Yeung is realistic and down to earth about what her current situation is at any given time. The mythology woven throughout the book tell stories of Ma-Zou, and they not only add to the story but left me wanting to learn more about Chinese mythology. As someone who loves mythology of all kinds, I do know very little about their mythology. I will be recommending this book and choosing it as my staff pick when it comes out.

Humans are all come from water.
Water are our real home. Anyone remember?
Sea is the place we come from, but in history, what happened. Why we don't remember anything? Why we all keep curious about the seas arounds.
What in deep of the sea? Turn each page to find out.

2.25/5 stars

I thought the premise of this book was very interesting and it caught my attention immediately. Female pirates?!
Absolutely count me in.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is a historical fiction about Shek Young, a woman forced into piracy. The story starts off with Shek Young having to gain control of her husband's fleet after he is killed in battle. She strikes a deal with her husband's second in command, Cheng Po, to maintain her position within the crew. However, there is a new threat looming in the distance as China pushes to rid of piracy.

While the plot seemed intriguing, I lost interest almost immediately and struggled to wade through the entirety of the story. I don't doubt the author's passion for this story and the lore, as well as the immense amount of research that went into writing this book...because it read sort of like a research paper. For a book about pirates, there was a whole lot of nothing going on the entire time. Even the battles were almost entirely skipped over so there was no thrill or any pick up in pacing.

Thank you to NetGalley and nd Bloomsbury Publishing for the eARC of this book. in exchange for my honest review.

Wow, what a journey! When I first heard about this book, I was very excited--and I was still excited by the end of this book. It's a great historical fiction book, based on the real Chinese pirate queen,Ching Shih. The story, prose, character development, and imagery were fantastic. I absolutely loved following along Shek Yeung's journey as she dealt with motherhood, womanhood, identity, and survival. It was quite empowering. Overall, I enjoyed this book and highly recommend it.

Thanks to NetGalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for the ARC.

Dnf @38%
The first thing that catch my attention is the fierce cover and the description of the book, but i was so sad that the writing is not really works for me.

Too much telling, and i didn’t get the vibe “Chineese Pirate Queen”. It feels dull especially when she told her past story or just describing a thing on the ship.

Thank you Netgalley and Bloomsbury Publishing for providing me the Arc

I really wanted to like this book. The opening scene was really interesting and I liked where the storyline went. It took a really long time for me to get sucked into this book though. I had a hard time keeping the characters straight for the first half of the book because I feel like I didn't get to know them well enough to keep them straight. And it took a long time for the plot to pick up and suck me in.

I think if the action and plot got started sooner and pulled me in quicker I would have enjoyed the story a little more.

A pirate fleet, politics, and a woman in search of herself. Rita Chang-Eppig's novel is a gorgeously written, meticulously plotted high sea adventure. I fell in love with our heroine early on in the novel: a woman used to strife, but not hardened completely to the plights of those around her. The relationships take center stage here: Shek Yeung's bond with her dead husband's former lover, her connection with her crewmates, and the inter-fleet fighting. Shek Yeung was a fascinating character to spend 300 pages with, and the fantasy elements here (lightly added) make the book especially special. There's a lack of sentimentality here that I appreciated. I'm really looking forward to whatever the author writes next.

‘Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea’ by Rita Chang-Eppig was a powerful, absolutely fantastic read. Highly recommend!