Sky in the Deep (Sky and Sea, #1)

by Adrienne Young

Raised to be a warrior, seventeen-year-old Eelyn fights alongside her Aska clansmen in an ancient, god-decreed rivalry against the Riki clan. Her life is brutal but simple: train to fight and fight to survive. Until the day she sees the impossible on the battlefield—her brother, fighting with the enemy—the brother she watched die five years ago.

Eelyn loses her focus and is captured. Now, she must survive the winter in the mountains with the Riki, in a village where every neighbor is an enemy, every battle scar possibly one she delivered. But when the Riki village is raided by a ruthless clan settling in the valley, Eelyn is even more desperate to get back to her beloved Aska clan, which is rumored to have been decimated by the same horde. She is given no choice but to trust Fiske, her brother’s friend who tried to kill her the day she was captured. They must do the impossible: unite the clans to fight together, or risk being slaughtered one by one. Driven by a love for her clan and her growing love for Fiske, Eelyn must confront her own definition of loyalty and find a way to forgive her brother while daring to put her faith in the people she’s spent her life killing.

• ISBN13: 9781789091274
• Publish Date: 26 March 2019 (first published 24 April 2018)
• Publish Status: Active
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Titan Books Ltd
• Format: Paperback
• Pages: 352
• Language: English

Reviews

[Stephanie]

This review was originally posted on Once Upon a Chapter






Sky in the Deep by Adrienne Young was a May COYER book club pick. I had it in my TBR and it was just the motivation I needed to pick it up.



This book was S.L.O.W. but it was descriptive and fascinating. The only reason I was able to keep going is because I wanted to know more and more about Eelyn and what was happening with the Riki. There were enough differences from our world to this world that I wanted to know more.



I also think that it was a huge testament to one of my core beliefs: we aren't all that different when you get down to the base of a person. I loved this book for communicating that so beautifully. During times like these it is very easy to lose sight of that.



There are so many characters to love in Sky in the Deep and a few we're meant to actively dislike. Halvard had to be my favorite. How can you not love that innocent in a world where there isn't much?



I really admired Eelyn. She's the one who had to do the hardwork in this book. I liked Fiske too. He didn't want anything to happen to his family and he meant business about it too. Iri, Myra, Aghe, Inge, and Runa were all great characters too.



I really enjoyed Sky in the Deep. I was bummed when I thought it was a stand alone but pretty excited when I found out it was a companion novel.

[Kate (Blogging with Dragons)]

I had to buy Sky in the Deep as soon as I saw the cover. I was immediately struck by the picture of the main character, Eelyn, and how much she reminded me of Aloy from Horizon Zero Dawn. Adding to that the promise of Vikings, I was sold! But sadly, Sky in The Deep, wasn’t actually, well, deep. All of the characters were very bland, as was its strange romance and most of the story. Sky in the Deep read more of like what someone thought a Viking story should be, rather than an actually researched or complex Viking world.

 

"I had never known real fear until the moment I saw Iri in Aurvanger. I had never considered there was more to life than the most basic explanation--that the gods were willing over us. That they were giving and taking their favor. But I was without my clan. I was alone...."

 

Sky in the Deep follows Eelyn, a warrior of the Aska clan. Every year, the Aska clan meet the Riki clan in battle to appease their warring gods. Their entire way of life revolves around training and preparing for this battle. Eeyln killed her first man when she was eleven, growing up and fighting alongside her now deceased older brother. Imagine Eelyn’s shock when she sees her brother Iri, whom she believed dead for five years, in battle fighting along the enemy. Perturbed, she follows him into the woods and is kidnapped by his new people the Riki. In order to prevent her from being killed, Eeyln is forced into slavery and bought by her brother Iri’s friend, Fiske.

 

As she lives with the Riki, Eelyn begins to see them as people and not just enemy warriors. But for the life of me, I can’t really see why. It is unclear to me why Iri and Fiske decide to keep Eelyn’s identity as Iri’s sister a secret for his safety. No one seems to reason that Iri, who was once also an Aska prisoner that was accepted into the Riki clan, could vouch for his sister in an effort to keep her alive--instead it's all about the threat Eelyn poses to him. Furthermore, supposedly Iri’s adoptive family is loving and kind to one another--one of the main reasons Iri stays among the Riki--but not particularly caring to their slave, Eelyn. They force her to attend religious gatherings for a god she does not serve, are blatantly unconcerned that making her their slave means she cannot get into her own people’s heavens due to her resulting lack of honor, and only start liking her when she saves their child from death. And they don’t even manage to protect her from a man who strips her naked and ties her to a tree, hoping she will freeze to death. Another Riki sees her predicament and does not help her to test if their God, Thora, wants Eelyn to live somehow. Yikes.

 

None of these events endeared me at all to the Riki and it was unbelievable to me that Iri or anyone else would chose to stay among them. It also didn’t help that everyone was pretty much a cookie-cutter character that I'd seen time and time again. Iri’s new adoptive mother and Fiske’s actual mother, Inge, is the loving Riki healer who treats Iri as her own son. She teaches a beautiful villager to become her apprentice, who also falls in love with Iri. Inge’s son, Halvard, is the only family member kind to Eeylyn, because he doesn’t really fully understand everyone’s prejudices due to his young age. Fiske, his reserved older brother, and Eelyn’s owner, had the goodness of heart to rescue Iri from death, despite being from his enemy clan, but he does not extend the same benefit of the doubt to his sister, Eelyn. That is, until he randomly falls in love with her.

 

“'What are you thinking?' He took my hand.
'I’m thinking I don’t want to fight anymore.'
His fingers tightened around mine. It seemed so foolish now, all the fighting.
All the death and loss and mourning.”

 

I’m all for enemy to lovers trope, but this just didn’t do it for me. When Fiske and Eelyn first meet on the battlefield, they immediately try to kill each other. Later, he puts her down with an arrow in the shoulder when she makes an impulsive escape attempt. He claims that he shot her so no other Riki would actually kill her, but uh, Sky in the Deep’s attempt to sell this as him caring for her and as romance was cringey to me. No thanks. Call me a prude, but I prefer my romantic relationships to not include bodily harm for the sake of the female’s own good. I also just really didn’t see their romance coming, as Eelyn and Fisk have very few actual conversations and those that they do have are without substance--before someone catches feelings. Plus, readers don’t know much of anything about any characters--so even after reading the entire book, all I can tell you about Fiske is that he’s a Riki warrior, loves his family, cherishes his non-blood brother relationship with Iri, and thinks Eelyn is pretty even though he initially tried to kill her.

 

None of this makes him a dreamboat to me, and I’m not sure why it makes him one to Eelyn even after reading an entire book from her wishy-washy perspective. It's also pretty telling that as soon as they express feelings for each other, she needs to assert that he no longer owns her. I'm also not even sure why Fiske likes Eelyn. She spends most of her time crying, needing healed, resenting his best friend Iri and then loving/worshiping him, or making some kind of trouble. Eelyn also doesn't think things through before acting, has a one track mind, and isn't able to put herself in other people's shoes.  Eelyn has all of the typical bad traits of most young adult heroines. Basically, Sky in the Deep makes it seem like all she really has going for are her looks and battle prowess--not her personality. She's certainly no Aloy.

 

To make matters worse, the characters of the Aska clan weren’t extremely likable to me either. They all seemed like types of characters rather than actual layered, nuanced characters in their own right. For instance, Eelyn’s dad has never been the same since the death of Iri and Eelyn’s mother at the hand of Herja raiders. Though a powerful warrior and a thoughtful man, he relies on his daughter as his reason to keep living and Eeyln spends much of the novel worrying about how he is faring without her by his side. I was shocked at how easily this man reconciled with his son, Iri, who essentially betrayed his family and his people to fight against the Aska clan for the Riki and their god, and enslaved his last surviving family member. I’d have a lot of feelings if I were him, but he simply bursts into tears, grateful that his son is alive, and hugs him. Apparently Vikings don’t hold grudges.

 

"My entire life, I'd never thought of the Riki as small children. I'd only known the fierce faces of their warriors in battle. But now they had pasts. Names. Souls."

 

Even more surprising, was how easy it was for the Aska and Riki clan, who have been at war forever and have entire mythologies (that are mentioned maybe two times total, but are still told to readers) around why they need to fight each other, to come to an agreement to fight with each other against a mutual threat. All it took was one itty bitty blood promise and BAM, they’re in battle side by side. And suddenly, everyone is accepted into each other’s communities. All the deep-seated prejudices that lead Aska and Riki to kill each other on sight--gone. The smoothness of this treaty and the peace does not sit well with my idea of Vikings at all.

 

"Vegr yfir fjor.” Honor above life."

 

I do feel like the author tried to make it more Viking-ish at some points. She threw in some Nordic sounding words every once in awhile, even though they really didn’t add much to the story at all--all icing and no cake. She also added a really gory scene in which Eelyn scoops out a man’s eyeball in torture, as if to demonstrate how battle-hardened, tough, and Viking! she actually was. But this scene was incongruous, not just because of the grossness of it, but because none of the rest of the battle descriptions in Sky in the Deep were not at all that gory or descriptive--even when Eelyn was going at people with her axe and sword.

 

Honestly, I think I would have liked Sky in the Deep better if it had just marketed itself as a fantasy story and not as Viking-inspired fantasy story, because it did not do the Vikings justice at all.  It was giant letdown. On the other hand, there simply wasn’t enough world-building to put it on the level of most other fantasy stories.  I didn't know anything about the world Eelyn lived in at all. All I knew was that the Aska lived near the fjord and the Riki lived in the mountains and that the thaw made travelling difficult. Similarly, we are told even less about the Herja, the mysterious raiders who supposedly make blood sacrifices. Frankly, what I learned most about the world in Sky in the Deep was that I did not want to live in it--whether with the Riki or Aska--or even read it.

 

If you are looking for a quick and easy read without a lot of substance and like Vikings, Sky in the Deep would be the perfect book for you. But if you want a novel with authentic Norse lifestyle, developed characters and worlds, with believable romance and motivations, look elsewhere.


Bloggingwithdragons.com
My Book Review Policy

[readingwithbecs]

I really enjoyed this book and thought it was a lot of fun. I don't really have high expectations when I read YA fantasy novels, I just want to be entertained and have a good time with the book - and this one delivered on that front.

[Pigpen.Reads]

I think I went into this expecting more than what was delivered.


The story starts off right in the middle of a fight. Boom! Hit the ground running.

It's very obvious which direction this story will go.

Of course, there is a huge fight scene near the end. I was expecting a lot more it, but it was kind of a let down and only a few pages long.

What bothered me was the random words of, I'm assuming, a different language. It would have been nice to have some kind of glossary in the back to look at when I came upon those words.

I did and didn't enjoy this book.

[Charli G.]

I didn’t even know this book existed until Adrienne Young mentioned it and the second book in the Sky in the Deep series, The Girl the Sea Gave Back, in an Instagram post. I decided to see what she was referring to and I am so glad I did!

This book has a feel to it that is hard to describe. The Gods seem almost like Norse Gods of old, yet they’re clearly not real Norse Gods. The book also has a very Braveheart and Last of the Mohicans feel to me, but that could just be me. I guess it’s the whole clans and being the last of their clans thing that makes me think of those.

I love Eelyn’s character. She’s a warrior, she’s brave, she’s proud. She’s also scared out of her wits, afraid to die, and afraid to love. Her loyalty to her clan, the Aska, runs fierce. But then you see her start to change and grow. It’s something you have to read to believe. She’s a beautiful character.

Fiske is… sorry, he’s a warrior teddy bear. That’s the best way to describe him and it works. He’s gentle with his family and with anyone else he cares for. He’s fierce with his enemies or the enemies of those he loves.

The heartstopping scenes in this book – the battles, the raids, the heartache, the heartbreak. I cried in some places, I cheered in others, and “watched” in horror in other parts of this book. It kept me enthralled and I couldn’t put it down. Definite 4 star read. It would have been 5 stars but I’d liked to have had more time to get to know some of the supporting characters like Inge, Halvard, Iri, and Runa. Maybe in the next book we might get to know them better.

[Quirky Cat]

Sky in the Deep is the first novel in a series of the same name. It's described as being part Wonder Woman and part Vikings...which is actually pretty accurate. The story follows Eelyn, an Aska warrior. Her life is turned upside down when she sees her dead brother on the battlefield once again – fighting for the other side.
This novel was such an emotional read, I can see why people have gushed about it so much. I regret how long it took my to get around to this one. I hope that anybody else waiting on it will reconsider, because it's worth it!


Warnings: There are slaves in this novel, though that name isn't used. Our main character is also at risk of being assaulted at a few times. She lives a tough life.
Sky in the Deep was a brilliant and emotional read. It explores the concept of otherness, unity, and self identity. And it was just so emotionally compelling. Eelyn's story will make you feel a mixture of emotions, from sadness to anger, and everything in between.
There were so many fantastic moments to this novel. The differences between the Aska and the Riki were fascinating. It was all cultural, of course, but it was impressive how distinct Adrienne Young was able to make them.
Eelyn was a fascinating character. She's stubborn and driven, and even conflicted at times. She's gone through so much, but she never gave up. I feel like many of us would not have survived what she did. I was rooting for her though. It was impossible to do anything else.
At first I was a bit worried about the romantic subplot in this novel, because well... Stockholm syndrome. But Young managed to make it feel natural and not at all creepy. An impressive feat, considering everything else that happens in this novel.
I loved watching Eelyn and Fiske – as well as his family – fight for the unification of their people. It's amazing what people can accomplish when there's more on the line. And what people are willing to do in order to survive.
Mostly I loved the exploration of what makes people different...and how much (or little) that it actually matters. This exploration had some of the most beautiful moments of this novel, which is saying something. It was so well done.
The next novel in the series is called The Girl the Sea Gave Back. But it looks like it's not going to follow the same characters. Which is fine by me – I feel like Eelyn had a chance to tell her story. Now it's time for somebody else to tell theirs.


For more reviews check out Quirky Cat's Fat Stacks

[nightingalereads]

I wish I had read this sooner.

(RTC?)

Update:

Not every book transports you into the story. Plenty are entertaining and well-crafted, but when a story has the power to whisk you away from reality, you know it's special.

Sky in the Deep is one of those novels. It sank into my bones.

Before I get ahead of myself, this book isn't perfect. The writing is a little clunky in some places, and the story was nothing too original. Nevertheless, I stayed awake till 4 am finishing this book. Adrienne Young really nails the atmosphere of the Norse setting. Eelyn's world feels immediate and real - I could touch the cold of the ice, taste the air coming off the fjord, hear the whizz of an arrow and the battle cries of tired warriors. I grew invested in Eelyn and in all her relationships - with her brother, her people, and her enemies. If you're looking for a captivating and character-driven adventure that explores the dynamics of enemies and allies, and recognizing your enemies as complex and multifaceted, then I highly recommend picking up this debut.

Overall, I am kicking myself for not reading this book sooner. Sky in the Deep is definitely a stand-out book for me, and I am doubly excited for the author's new release later this year.


6/07/19 - I've reread this book at least three or four times by now and I almost want to take back what I said about the plot being unoriginal. I think it is pretty original - I hoped the story would go certain directions, but I never knew exactly what to expect. I love this book more and more each time I read it. There's something special, almost spiritual, about it. (Yes, I know I'm gushing at this point!)

ALL THE STARS!

[Liz (Bent Bookworm)]

~*Review first appeared on The Bent Bookworm!*~

First of all. This cover. AND VIKING WARRIOR WOMEN. Just take all my money right now, why don’t you. Of course, there’s also a huge danger in being completely taken by a cover and brief blurb…sometimes the copywriter is a better writer than the actual author. So I was sort of kind of worried that might have happened, but I am very happy to report that it most certainly did not disappoint!

Oh, and btw – I was reading my copy of this book in the bath, and my puppy knocked it out of my hand and INTO THE WATER. There was much shrieking and flailing but the book survived and so did the puppy. The book is now all ripple-y and much thicker than it should be, but still readable. *eyeroll*

FIRST OF ALL:
Adrienne Young, can we pleeeeeeeease have a sequel where Eelyn and Fiske are a little older?? PLEASE??? Like maybe a NA type? Maybe where the enemy tribe resurges? I know there is a companion novel coming but it sounds like it might be more about someone else and I just need more of Eelyn. Please and thank you. Ok, now I will attempt to write something more coherent…there ARE some SMALL potential spoilers. You have been warned.

Characters:
Obviously, Eelyn. Our fierce Viking shieldmaiden. When the book first started, I was slightly put off by just how ANGRY she seemed to be, as if she had no other emotion (other than feeling pain, I definitely got the sense that she was in pain, but her reaction to pain was MORE ANGER). Did she have reason? Yes, probably more than most of us reading. Life in this time was hard, even if women were treated more equally in this Viking world. Eelyn kicks ass, but beneath her strong soldier exterior she still has a heart, she loves her family and her village more than life itself…which is why it hurts her so deeply when she discovers what her brother, Iri, has done. Eelyn is also NOT one of these heroine who walks and talks like a badass but never quite manages to DO anything badass…nope. She is downright brutal at one point in the book, and I found myself quite literally gaping at the page.

I’d envied Iri my whole life for his open heart, and now mine had been pried open too.

Iri himself is quite…well, I liked him, but I didn’t feel that close to him. I went through about the first half of the books with my arms figuratively crossed on my chest, TOTALLY with Eelyn that nothingbutnothing should have kept him from returning to his family, but then…then things happen. Still, I wanted to KNOW Iri better, because he really seemed like he was a complex character that we just didn’t get to know that well. Eelyn knows him, or thinks she does, and it is from her viewpoint that we see him.

Fiske is something else. He really grew on me, because in the beginning I just thought he was a wuss. No joke. Then we see him interact not only with Eelyn and Iri, but his mother, his little brother…and oh wait, he’s not a wuss, he just thinks before he acts. I loved the slow-burn of his and Eelyn’s romance. I know enemies-to-lovers is one of the OLDEST romantic plots ever, but it’s repeated because it works, both in books and sometimes even in real life! I really wanted to see more of them as a couple, in the village and family dynamics…ah well. 2 flames, because while there are some couple scenes there’s nothing graphic or really all that descriptive.

Inge, the only real mother-figure in the entire book (as Eelyn and Iri’s mother died long ago), is the best. I loved her so much. She is a healer, not a warrior, and yet she is very clearly just as strong as Eelyn or any of the others. I pretty much want to be her, since I’m pretty sure I don’t have the reflexes to be Eelyn.

Halvard!! OMG, this little guy has more guts and spine than several adults put together. And he is so non-judgmental, sees the good in everyone…we all need a Halvard in our lives. I swear the moments when his life is in danger, I went all Mama Bear even just sitting on my couch. DON’T YOU DARE MESS WITH MY LITTLE MAN, YO. At one point I actually thought he was going to be killed off and when I finally got to the end of that passage, I realized I’d been sitting there with my free hand just plastered over my mouth and I had tears in my eyes. THE FEELS.

Plot
The plot is pretty well encapsulated in the book blurb, making this story MUCH more character driven than action driven – despite having some really intense battle scenes in the first and last quarters of the book. The middle bit is really more about Eelyn and her internal struggles with being a captive, and of all the dynamics of the Riki village and Iri’s “new” people. It is heartbreaking, at times.

The words were small but they were true. ‘I’m thinking that I wish you’d died that day.’

Worldbuilding
There isn’t a lot of detail given, which works quite well for this book. We know that the Aska live by the sea, and the Riki live in the mountains, and they have a generations old blood feud. Their culture is clearly based on ancient Vikings, but other than that…this was a book about people and relationships, not one to immerse you completely in a historically accurate time and place. It does immerse you, just…in a much more narrow way. It works much better than I could have imagined, and I was quite surprised that the lack of detail did not seem to hinder my enjoyment of the story at all.

5/5 stars. Highly recommend. My only “complaint” is that I really wanted more, I was very disappointed when it ended…but isn’t that how the best books always are?

I could still see a young Eelyn standing on the beach turned into the wind, a sword in one hand and an axe in the other. I hadn’t lost her. I hadn’t buried her. I’d only let her change into something new.

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_______________________________________________
Oh. My. My heart. RTC.

[lizarodz]

Awesome! Review soon