From the publisher: “Scribe IV is an obsolete automaton, peacefully whiling away his years on the Bastion, a secluded monastery in an abandoned corner of the galaxy. But when the visiting Pope is found murdered, Scribe IV knows he has very little time before the terrifying Sisters of the Drowned Deep rise up to punish the Bastion’s residents for their crime.
Quin, a recovering drug addict turned private investigator, picks up a scrambled signal from the Bastion and agrees to take the case. Traumatized by a bizarre experience in his childhood, Quin repeatedly feeds his memories to his lover, the angel Murmuration. But fragmented glimpses of an otherworldly horror he calls the crawling dark continue to haunt his dreams.
Meanwhile in Heaven, an angel named Angel hears Scribe IV’s prayer. Intrigued by the idea of solving a crime with mortals, xe descends to offer xer divine assistance (whether those mortals want it or not). With the Drowned Sisters closing in around the Bastion, Scribe IV, Quin, and Angel race to find out who really murdered the Pope, and why. Quin’s missing memories may hold the key to the case—but is remembering worth the price?“
This one really pushed out the oddness. Set in a future which mashes up future-yet-obsolete technology (Scribe IV) with a brutal near-medieval and religiously strict society, this one is basically a locked room mystery reimagined into a science fantasy. We have creepy Bene Gesserit-like religious disciplinarians emerging from the sea to deliver sentence and punishment on a lonely outpost (the Bastion), fallen angels in the form of god-like aliens, not to mention god-like deities and Lovecraftian cosmic horror.
Along the way, Wise manages to examine the importance of self and identity, of artificial intelligence and the importance of religion in daily life. It should not be too much of a surprise to find that such matters are also deeply rooted in childhood trauma for some of the characters. Genders are deliberately diverse and gleefully woke, playing with gender in that the characters use gender terms such as xe and xer to describe the divine Angel in their daily speech. It’s an interesting touch which adds another element to this story. Similarly, the same-sex relationship is well done, without being explicit.
The other element I liked was the character of Scribe IV, who in telling the story is quite wonderful – erudite, self-effacing, actually rather human-like, to the point where he/it is perhaps the most human-like of all of the main characters encountered. It’s an endearing quality.
In summary, Out of the Drowning Deep is a science fantasy story that can be enjoyed for its ramping up of the weird. For that reason, it is worth reading, with a plot and characters that shows a writer with their imagination working overtime. The result is an appreciatively different story that I think will be remembered after finishing its 175 pages.
OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP by A. C. Wise
Published September 2024 by Titan Books
175 pages
ISBN: 978 1803 369 822
