Hey Bibliofriends!
This week’s Biblioshelf Musings are about We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart. I first heard about this novella on Book Riot’s SFF Yeah podcast back in 2021. At the time, it sounded intriguing and I’m a bit of a sucker for anything set underwater so a post-apocalyptic submarine adventure seemed right up my street. Read on to find out more in my spoiler-free review!
Book: We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart
Genre: Science Fiction / Novella
Publication Date: March 2021
Publisher: Tor.com Publishing
Pages: 160
Rating: 📚📚📚📚
Synopsis (from Goodreads)
Remy is a Chorister, one of the chosen few rescued from the surface world and raised to sing the Hours in a choir of young boys. Remy lives with a devoted order of monks who control the Leviathan, an aging nuclear submarine that survives in the ocean’s depths. Their secret mission: to trigger the Second Coming when the time is right, ready to unleash its final, terrible weapon.
But Remy has a secret too— she’s the only girl onboard. It is because of this secret that the sub’s dying caplain gifts her with the missile’s launch key, saying that it is her duty to keep it safe. Safety, however, is not the sub’s priority, especially when the new caplain has his own ideas about the Leviathan’s mission. Remy’s own perspective is about to shift drastically when a surface-dweller is captured during a raid, and she learns the truth about the world.
At once lyrical and page-turning, We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep is a captivating debut from newcomer author Andrew Kelly Stewart.
My Musings
It’s not often that I read many novellas but I find that they’re the perfect quick reads for getting through the TBR. We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep is set in a post-apocalyptic world upon a submarine which is trying to escape the rest of the world on the surface. The crew mates of the sub are organised into monastery style groups with Remy, our leading protagonist as one of the choristers.
Remy’s narrative voice was so beautifully written. Her perspective of life on board the sub is incredibly vulnerable and innocent. She can’t quite remember life upon the surface but doesn’t fully believe the spiel and directive which the Caplain continues to weave. Although the Leviathan should be a refuge for her, Remy doesn’t consider it a place of home or safety. As a girl in disguise, the friendships and bonds she makes are few and far between – this constant secret, allows the atmosphere of the novella to feel quite edgy and tense. You cannot help but warm to her character, especially towards the end of the story when Remy has to demonstrate her true potential and fight for what she believes is right.
The dystopian submarine warfare of the plot with its nuclear missile overtones and masculine vibes of religious grooming and control are perfectly balanced with the archaic forms of monastical heritage. Latin phrases and the inclusion of choral hymns juxtapose the military style discussions of launch keys and tactical strategy. Mentions of whale songs in the deep reinforce the lyrical, resplendent storytelling that Andrew Kelly Stewart weaves.
This is the perfect novella to dip your toe into the dystopian elements of the sci-fi genre. The pace is kept graciously consistent before rapidly ramping up to an explosive conclusion. Villainous characters achieve a shot of redemption, and whilst some take it… some don’t. We get to see perspectives on life both above and below the surface and are allowed to make our own minds about what the right or wrong courses of action are. My main take away from reading this was the superb storytelling – the way Andrew Kelly Stewart made me feel about Remy’s character, the military/monastic blends in the narrative, and those ending chapters ramping the tension right up just had to make me give it a solid 4 stars!
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