Left in Dark Waters

Yo ho, yo ho, a magic telekinetic portal world pirate's life for me

Two snow days and a three day weekend derailed my brain this week and I needed an extra day to finish and collect my thoughts about Katee Robert’s new-ish pirate-witch-fantasy-romance Hunt on Dark Waters, because just like this book, I have a lot going on.

This post is rated R for telekinetic sex talk and some mild spoilers.

I love the setting concept of Hunt on Dark Waters - an interdimensional dimension, if you will, called The Threshold. Multiple portals from multiple dimensions spit the various inhabitants of various realms into this mostly ocean space, dotted with islands, some of which are stationary, some of which blink in and out of existence. Each island reflects the realm it’s respective portal leads to, and have populations that also reflect the terrain, atmosphere, etc.

The diversity of realms and worlds is reflected in the diversity of residents in this world, some of whom find themselves stuck in contracts to be a part of the Cwn Annwn (would it kill authors/publishers to add a pronunciation guide? I took Old English in college and still looked at that and went yeah, sure, ok. I looked it up, it’s Welsh and it means Hounds of Annwn, which are part of the Wild Hunt and Annwn is a mythological Otherworld). And as a fantasy reader, I love the inherent world building that comes with having multiple species. There is so much gender diversity within the characters, and a multitude of pronouns used that do some worldbuilding, because it makes sense that another dimension with different languages and species have different concepts of gender.

But, that wealth of character and worldbuilding isn’t fleshed out. The characters are described, but most of them seem humanoid, with the notable exception being Miles and Nox, who I just pictured as the creature from the black lagoon for both, which was probably not accurate at all. And they all have relatively human sounding names, and there are a lot of them. Almost all of these characters are very, very minor in terms of their actual time spent on page. All the characters feel like they might be important later, and I feel like I should be keeping track of them. But I’m also trying to keep track of the plots, both the romantic one between Evelyn and Bowen and the overarching ‘we’re going to take down Cwn Annwn’ plot that appears to be carrying this series.

Robert writes these series where there is so much happening, often politically within the universe, and then also there is a rather complex, high stakes romance happening as well. And the stories are all still within standard length for romances. Hunt is actually on the shorter side, clocking in at 336 pages. I want more. I want sixty more pages of world building. Explain the rules to me. Explain why Evelyn showing up and shaking things up has ramifications for people beyond herself. What status quo is she disrupting, beyond Bowen’s? Give the side characters who are important later a little more fleshing out. And if they aren’t important, make them a little more generic.

It feels like everyone and everything got surface level treatment. Enough information to push the plot along, but not enough for me to feel invested in the characters. Like, the information I got was the wrong information? I wanted more about Bowen and Ezra, his adoptive pirate dad. And I think I would have liked a little bit of a slower burn, they are just immediately into each other, which is fine, (Bowen is packing physically AND telekinetically, so like. I get it.) but being in love after 3 days? Idk about that one, I don’t care how good the telekinetic sex is (I also have questions about the telekinetic sex because she’s describing the feelings of magic tendrils and telekinesis is the power to move things with your mind and I just. I have questions. I’ve read Katee Robert’s other stuff, I know she could have explained it.) I do not buy that these two would be in love, I don’t care how much trauma bonding is happening. (I know I sound like a hypocrite because I loved Calladia and Astaroth in Demon’s Guide and he was a villain and they had a similar timeline, but that was differen. Sue me). The story almost feel like a CW television show. And don’t get me wrong, I love CW television. I watched every single episode of Supernatural and early seasons of a lot of the DC shows. But that surface level, melodramatic vibe isn’t what I want in a romance.

As the first book in the series, I feel like I was left with too many questions, and not the ‘oh I can’t wait to read the next book’ questions. I have questions about what happened and the world building and the characters. What happens if you just show up in a town on one of the islands? Where did those populations come from? Are they retired pirates? Are they people who traveled the portals and settled??? Did I not read close enough??? I have to wonder if this is because Robert was recently picked up by Berkeley and has quite the lucrative contract, but also an insane publishing schedule. Per her Instagram post, she has six books being released this year. SIX. That feels like a lot, and I can’t help but feeling like the quality of the books is suffering.

Remember when we talked about publishing becoming like Fast Fashion? That implies changing trends and a fickle audience. Robert writes such specific stories (If you know, you know, and if you don’t please don’t ask me, I’ve explained The Dragon’s Bride to people who are not built for that kind of information too many times already.) that I find it doubtful her audience will just disappear. After I read Neon Gods I tracked down her earlier stuff, including her Irish Mafia series The O’Malleys which is currently being re-released under new titles. I devoured them and still wanted more. I know there is so much out there vying for readership, but I think you’re more likely to lose readers with lower quality than with spaced out releases.

Other Things I Read and Watched This Week

Nada. January has been a lot and I can’t wait for Pluto to move.