I really enjoyed Out of the Drownimg Deep!
It was a great and unique novella that was around 170 pages long and was a mix of sci-fi, fantasy, and a dash of horror.
The characters were definitely one of the best parts of the book. Scribe IV was probably my favourite, but that's no big surprise as I love robots! It was awesome to read the pov of Angel who was an actual angel as ze was really fascinating! Quin was also a really great character, and their relationship with their lover the angel Murmuration was really interesting. I also loved his relationship with his sister!

The world that was created was my other favourite part of the book as it was amazing! It was a world where gods, angels, demons, and other beings existed all wrapped up in a sci-fi world! It was so good!
The novella really left me wanting so much more of the world and characters, and while the book wraps up well, I really hope there will be a sequel in the future!

This is a new author for me. I don’t quite know how to describe Out of the Drowning Deep. It’s weird and wacky in a good way. So much happens across the novella’s scant pages and I barely had time to pause for breath. I didn’t think there was enough worldbuilding considering how much happens and I struggled to make a real connection with the odd cast of characters and the strange Bastion where the book is set. A longer novel would have given more space to develop this. However, I found the book so entertaining and strange I didn’t mind the sparse world building or character development because I was having a good time. I’d recommend this and can’t help wonder if a sequel is planned due to the open ending.

I really enjoyed this beautifully written science fiction and fantasy novel. I will start by saying while I would have loved more of the world as well this novel was the perfect length. Despite being a novella the characters were all well developed and the world was described enough that we as readers understood what was going on.

There is also an element of crime fiction to this novella which I found really interesting. I’ve only read one other series that is a fantasy crime series and I really feel this should be explored more because it leaves a lot creativity for writers to consider how crime investigation might change be it for the future or the past.

All in all I did enjoy this one and will probably be getting a physical copy in the near future. It may not be for everyone but if you do enjoy science fiction and fantasy it is definitely for you.

As always thank you to Netgalley and Titan Books for the copy to review. My review is always honest and truthful.

I loved this, but to be clear, it is nothing like Martha Wells, Becky Chambers, or This Is How You Lose the Time War. Publicists, just stop, ffs.

What it is is a fabulous little gem of a science fantasy, weird and wonderful and fairly dark, but also hopeful. The murder really is the tiniest part of the book, more an excuse to throw the characters together than anything – but that’s fine, because there’s plenty of other plot to sink your teeth into. And the worldbuilding! This is a future where gods and saints and angels are all real, but it’s possible for humans to create new gods, too (which is very relevant); where we have nanites and space stations right alongside prayer-as-radio. I AM A FAN!

>An angel could be a terrible thing, but so could a human, sometimes without even trying.<

I admit to being confused about one small element of the ending – which I don’t think I can talk about without spoilers – but other than that? I loved everything. Wise’s prose is vivid and delicate, the imagery and turns of phrase fantastic (in all senses of the word), and wow did I enjoy the cast of deeply fucked-up people! Everyone here is so broken, in ways that are difficult and complicated and don’t have easy fixes, and not only did I eat it up with a spoon, I licked the plate when I was done!

>Quin looked away, too late. What were eyes but a window to the soul? And apparently he was doing a shit job of keeping the blinds drawn.<

Although I would have LOVED more of this world and these characters, Out of the Drowning Deep is exactly as long as it needs to be, fitting perfectly within its (160) pagecount. It didn’t feel rushed or squashed, and every aspect of the story had room to breathe (and be appreciated). Nor is the story streamlined; we got lots of little details tucked here and there that made me go starry-eyed with delight at the attention to detail! For example, we learn about the drug pixie dust, or pixie for short – and then we discover that it’s ‘dirtier cousin’ is called POOKAH! Aka, another kind of faerie! Specifically a faerie TRICKSTER, often, and that’s just so appropriate!

Or how about calling Quin’s dealer – of pixie dust, remember – his fairy godmother? I’m clearly going to have to check out Wise’s other books, because I just adored her – sense of humour? I’m not sure that’s the right term. Imagination? Approach? It really doesn’t hurt that Out of the Drowning Deep is pleasantly sweary, which made it feel weirdly approachable and homey to me (probably because I swear like a sailor).

>Angel understood how some gods could grow addicted to prayer, how they could gorge themselves on human desire, and how, in the great turning of existence, many had gone mad with it.<

EASILY one of my favourite takes on angels/gods, AND on science fantasy! Strongly recommended!

I picked up an eARC of this speculative fantasy novella on a whim, liking the premise: in the deep future, an automaton, an addict, and an angel team up to solve the murder of the Pope before a disturbing, eldritch order of nuns can take over the case and kill—I mean, punish—everyone indiscriminately. There's something to be said for the reading of lighter genre fare after a few pretty heavy books; I wanted my mind to be able to skip through this one, and it did. Unfortunately, though, it also left me disappointed, for reasons that are largely to do with the odd length. The main trio—polite, self-effacing Scribe IV; haunted PI Quin; insouciant, shapeshifting Angel—is interesting, even charming, and they, along with the few side characters we see, like Quin's sister Lena, deserve more space in which to be known. The same is true of the murder mystery aspect, which is solved with the kind of throwaway insight that I find really frustrating in crime(-esque) fiction; the investigation should either have been allowed to develop properly, at full novel length, or dropped, and the focus of the novella turned towards the traumatic experience of Quin and Lena's childhood, when their father committed torture and murder in front of them in the attempt to "make" a god from scratch. At its current length—174 pages—Out of the Drowning Deep is long enough to raise interesting ideas, but too short to satisfactorily explore any of them.

I’m not quite sure what I was expecting with this one – but I’m certainly that I wasn’t expecting the ginormous size of the book blender that would be needed to encompass the many, many, many bookish influences that I caught glimpses of along its merely – I say again – MERELY 176 pages of mysterious, fantastical, science fictional surprises, delights and horrors.

Definitely the horrors. This is one of those cases where judging the book at least a bit by its cover is utterly justified. Because Out of the Drowning Deep absolutely does go to some truly creepy places – and that cover doesn’t just merely reflect that fact but stares it down with myriad, haunting and haunted, eyes.

We start with a mystery. In this far-future universe, in an ancient monastery long decayed from its glory days, the visiting Pope has just been murdered.

Scribe IV, the AI-driven “automaton” in charge of “The Bastion” is already regretting his wish for a bit of mystery in his routine existence. The mystery that has just fallen at his feet has the potential to bring about the end of the home and sanctuary of every member of the Bastion’s remaining staff, including himself.

It might also mean the literal end of all of them AND as well as the place itself, as it seems that Scribe IV’s acknowledgement of the identity of the body has triggered an immediate response from the dreaded Drowned Sisters.

As if their name wasn’t ominous enough, the Sisters have the power to lock down the Bastion, take over the investigation of the Pope’s death, and act as judge, jury and executioner on the whole tragic and/or terrible mess.

The Sisters are not known for their mercy. They are however known for their headlong rush to punitive judgment and the swiftness of their actions tells Scribe that they have passed that judgment long before the murder took place – to the point where they might have been instrumental in it or were merely waiting in the depths to pounce on any conceivable opening to swoop down upon the Bastion and Drown the old temple with its population still inside.

Scribe has one hope – and yes, the automaton has taken on the possibility of hope, and even prayer, along with a host of other human characteristics over the years of his service transcribing prayers and serving as majordomo of the Bastion.

He managed to get an SOS out before the Sisters locked the Bastion down. Scribe called for any independent investigator to answer his call. And he was answered by not one but two investigators; a man with his own terrible experiences of gods, monsters and the creatures who exist between the two, and an angel who the Sisters may not believe in but whom they also cannot control.

Even if this whole sordid mess is part of their attempt to control someone even more powerful – the god they claim to serve.

Escape Rating A-: About that gigantic book blender I mentioned earlier… This was a book that persisted in making me think of other books although I still got completely wrapped up in the story that it was telling. Then again, I really do love the current run of SF and Fantasy mysteries and this is absolutely part of that wave – pardon the pun.

So the overarching vehicle for this is solving that mystery, the who and how and why of the dead Pope lying on the Bastion’s floor. (Whether the Pope in this far-flung future is a direct spiritual or organizational descendant of the current Pope isn’t detailed and doesn’t need to be.)

Which led directly to one of the books this one reminded me of, albeit in opposition, and that was Lavie Tidhar’s short story “The Old Dispensation” in the recent New Adventures in Space Opera collection. Because that story, which also dealt with terrible acts of a far-future religious organization, used entirely Jewish references for its religious iconography and the unadorned, unexplained use of ‘The Pope’ as a person of religious authority was a reminder that Christian-styled reference in both SF and Fantasy can pass without definition or explanation.

Scribe’s desire to investigate the mystery and find the truth instead of swallowing the uncomfortable lie that he knows the Sisters are about to proclaim struck sparks of the independent investigative journalist AI Scorn from Aimee Ogden’s Emergent Properties.

The truth of this universe relies on a bit of the premise that underscores American Gods, that man makes actual gods in his own image and can literally make himself into one under the right conditions. This particular chain of thought also looped in a bit of Max Gladstone’s Three Parts Dead.

But the two books that I felt most keenly related to Out of the Drowning Deep were, on the one hand, We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep by Andrew Kelly Stewart and The Angel of the Crows by Katherine Addison.

Those are two books that probably shouldn’t have anything to do with one another – and yet they are blended together in Out of the Drowning Deep.

Like We Shall Sing a Song Into the Deep, Out of the Drowning Deep (and yes, the similarity of the titles does echo more than a bit) there’s that shifting foundation of the way that the isolated religious worshippers – the Sisters here and the Brothers there and I just picked up that bit of irony – have wrenched their original worship of their deity and their service to its commandments into an even darker message that they intend to inflict on their world at any cost and by any means necessary. Once they served their gods faithfully – now they intend their gods to serve them.

As dark as that part of the story is, and as often as Angels appear in fantasy and even SF as overbearing, overzealous, self-righteous destroyers, in Out of the Drowning Deep, while that’s the reputation the Angels certainly have, that’s not all that they are, and that’s absolutely not who the two Angels who become involved in this mystery, Murmuration and especially the investigating angel who befriends Scribe, the one who calls xemself just Angel, both feel more human and take on more human characteristics, both good and bad, than Scribe initially expects, much like in The Angel of the Crows.

Which leads the automaton Scribe IV, who has taken on more human attributes than he likes to admit to, to consider the possibility of a much different future, a future of his own choosing, than he ever imagined possible. With a friend he never expected at all.

There’s more here. In fact, there’s lots more here. For a novella, Out of the Drowning Deep went to a lot of fascinating and surprising places, and I was as delighted to go there with Scribe IV as I was creeped out by all those eyes.

I never thought "murder mystery set in space with biblically accurate angels" would end up being meh but alas ... here we are.

This book was okay. There was a mystery, kind of. There were angels. It's technically in space. Lots of religious angst, flowy writing, and some fun speckles of worldbuilding (particularly when things got creeeeeeepy and weird). But overall, the short page count just didn't seem to amount to enough soul beneath the skin (see what I did there?). I found the characters difficult to root for, and where much of the focus seemed to be on Quin's trauma, idk ... I wanted MORE from everything else. There's simultaneously so much and not enough going on. I think I had the Locked Tomb series stuck in my head.

I won't say much because I don't want to spoil the plot--and there really are some deliciously strange moments here! OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP brims with promise, but I craved more darkness (and more of a mystery, shan't lie) beneath the waves.

Beautifully written, incredibly mysterious, and intensely thought-provoking. OUT OF THE DROWNING DEEP will leave you thinking long after you've finished the book.

A murder mystery, in a remote setting called the Bastion and in what's presumably a distant future -- oh, and the victim is a pope. Said pope has called a conclave at which he means to propose that all established religions be abolished, "put[ting] religion directly back in the hands of the people," whatever that means considering that "people" have form for creating organized religions. Anyway, this pontiff is not only surprisingly naive about human history but also dead and it's not clear who, among the inhabitants and visitors to the Bastion, holds the trifecta of motive, means, and opportunity.

Our investigators are Scribe IV, an automaton who's in charge of the Bastion; Quin, an "unaffiliated investigator" (unexplained, but something like a private eye?), and Angel, an angel -- of the wheel-of-fire, thousand-eyes variety, but fortunately xe can shapeshift so appears to Scribe IV and Quin as human-ish most of the time. Angel's participation is especially helpful because angels somehow outrank the Drowned Sisterhood, an order of maybe-nuns who resemble anglerfish and whom you really, really don't want taking charge of any situation involving crime and punishment what with their fondness for subjecting the guilty (or "guilty") to Drowning. Drowning seems to be what it sounds like, only continuing in perpetuity.

Helpful supporting roles are played by Quin's younger sister, Lena, and Quin's sort-of ex, sort-of lover the angel Starling, aka Murmuration. (That's what I call inspired naming.)

Yes, okay, this is all wackadoodle. No, the worldbuilding isn't sufficiently developed. No, I could not stop reading, and no, I was not at any point bored. It would be sort of great if this turned out to be the prequel of a proper novel in which we find out what happens after Drowning Deep's open ending, but whatever this is I'll take it. Also, the means by which the murder is committed gets full marks for ingenuity.

Thanks to Titan Books and NetGalley; this is my baffled but honest review.

3 stars

Thank you to Titan and NetGalley for my digital review copy.

This novella was very intricate. We have at least 3 protagonists that we follow (Quinn, Scribe IV, Angel), each one of them is flawed with many layers.

There's a plot of religion and gods and angels, but also a murder mystery aspect, all wrapped up in a very thorough scifi world.

I felt like I couldn't appreciate the complexities and intricacies of the worldbuilding in all its glory because I was confused as to what the plot was. It was a mix of a character-relationship based plot, but also an action plot, but ultimately did confuse me and especially with this being a novella, there isn't such a long time to develop characters.

I would love to have spent more time in this world as what little time I did spend, I found slightly confused by the vastness of it all. The worldbuilding in this little novella is so much greater than in Wise's other works and I am excited to see where she goes next.

What a fantastically weird novella. Out of the Drowning Deep is a murder mystery. And it's a character driven reflection on humanity. And it's a story with really weird angels. And it's a story about family and what it means. At its most surface level, this is a story about the murder of the space pope. In a future occupied by dozens of gods, angels, and also automatons, the space pope comes to an ancient seat of religious power only to be murdered. Scribe IV, an aging automaton with an interest in being as close to human as he can get, needs to solve this before a larger and more terrifying governing (??) body, The Sisters of the Drowning Deep, come in and burn the place to the ground (not literally) in order to "solve" the mystery, but mostly just achieve their own goals. Quin is a recovering addict with a long, complex, often painful history with both religion and angels who is now a private investigator heeding the call to help Scribe IV. And Angel is, well, an angel who has decided to get involved and help out.
For such a short book, it packs quite a punch. It fits a lot in. It's a unique sci-fi without a ton of setting aside from a seedy, glittering bar, an angel's apartment, and the Bastion, a crumbling compound by a sea. The characters, even the smallest side characters, get built out, and the main characters are deeply interesting. I'd love to see some continuation of their stories. Scribe IV's story especially didn't feel quite like it was over. Angel was probably my favorite. As a whole, this has a lot of interesting takes on religion. Gods are much more easily reachable, people can attain godhood, and angels sometimes walk amongst us. Angel was a really fascinating take on angels: genderless, fluid in xir form, entirely inhuman but trying xir best to help out. As a whole, it was really weird and sometimes trippy and I loved it.

A sci-fi murder mystery novella that will have you praying to gods old and new.

This is a wildly imaginative and beautifully written novella which really excels in character development. Our main characters are a newly created angel, an investigator with addiction issues and an automaton that has achieved consciousness, but worries he may not have a soul. All of this on the backdrop of a lone tower, on a forgotten planet where a key religious leader known as 'the pope' has been murdered.

I love the gender-queer rep with our angel's pronouns as xyr and xe through the whole book. This has a light MM romance subplot, and amazing sibling relationship rep.

For me there were some pacing issues, where I felt some characters were introduced too late in the story, or the world building was a little too soft and left me unsure of what was happening.

I hope that A.C Wise writes another story set in this universe. They did such an amazing job with soft world building that they created a universe of possibilities.

This book is best read while trying to find your grandfather's soul inside a clock.

An unfortunate case of all style and no substance. This novella tried to do too much in so few pages and ended up doing nothing at all. The concepts, especially the eldritch horror elements, were very cool but not fleshed out. It wasted time with multiple POVs and relationship drama. If the novella had just stuck to one angle, it could have been good, but it completely lacked a through line.

This was a really interesting novella conceptually, but I wanted more from the mystery element of the plot. I thought the religious aspects of the world were fascinating and would have enjoyed these being fleshed out a bit more. The sibling relationship between Quin and Lena was really well drawn and I thought Angel and Starling were intriguing. Overall, this was a good read but I think I would have preferred a full length novel.
I received a free copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review.

Wow space sure is polytheistic!

What a darkly fun novella! Wise accomplishes a lot of really stellar writing in a small amount of pages- no small feat.

The strength of it is in the multiple perspectives the narrative is told through and the varying relationships towards religion and divinity. I think the exploration of divinity and belief was really productive. The connecting mystery between all these elements felt lacking though due to the amount of character work put into the text.

I will critique the world in that despite the premise is *all religion is real* it is biased towards the inclusion of Christian symbols. Although it makes sense given that Religion's dominance over culture IRL, I found that slightly disappointing but it didn't stop

Those with religious trauma are likely to most understand this book and especially the character Quin.

I would also kill AND die for Scribe IV.

A dark and gritty Sci-Fi Fantasy novella with engaging, flowy prose, loveable characters, and an overarching storyline that asks us, what does it truly mean to be human?
The cast in this story really intrigued me; a genderqueer biblical angel, an obsolete but endearing automaton, and a traumatised private investigator battling his own demons (or angels, I guess?)
This book is described as a murder mystery, but it is fact so much more than that, (though I do wish we had more murder mystery vibe overall and more time spent with the investigation). This novella is an exploration into the human condition, and the gap between the worldly mundane and the terrible, eldritch divine.
The character development is astounding for being such a short book and I think it is the main element that makes this shine overall. The worldbuilding is rich and complex, and the story is incredibly moving. My only complaint is that I wish it were longer.
Thank you to NetGalley and Titan Books for this eARC.

This is crammed with intricate, detailed and intriguing world building, which I absolutely loved. It is set in a universe where gods are revealed, angels are manifest, and prayers are a genuine and means of communication and compulsion. Meanwhile, Scribe IV, an ancient steam-punk automaton, has developed a depth of feeling and emotion beyond his original design intent. He is custodian of the Bastion, a once important but now crumbling relic, where there has now been a murder. Scribe IV calls for the help of Quin, an investigator who has troubles of his own, and a chequered and traumatic past with gods and angels.

The murder mystery is the thread that binds the plot together and gives it momentum, but isn’t really the core of the story (if you’re looking for a meaty murder mystery in a sci-fi setting, then this isn’t that book). Rather, the murder itself is just a vehicle to tell a much wider, much more interesting story. And there is so much more story to tell: Quin and his sister Lena have a dark memory from their childhood; the fearsome and powerful Sisters of the Drowning Deep have their own agenda relating to the Bastion and their sleeping god; Quin has a troubled and dysfunctional relationship with an angel, and is struggling with addiction; Scribe IV is struggling with identity and regret; and Angel is grappling with duty, honour and friendship.

The depth and complexity of the universe that the author has created is astonishing, and incredibly satisfying. My main complaint is that I wish it had been a full novel. There is so much crammed into this novella that there are too many things that I would loved to have seen given a more detailed treatment. But “I wish there was more of this!” is more of a frustration than a criticism.

Thank you #NetGalley and Titan Books for the free review copy of #OutoftheDrowningDeep in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

I am beginning to think I might be rather picky with Sci-fi, so perhaps take my opinion with a grain of salt…

This sounded absolutely weird and crazy and that was exactly what I wanted at the time. unfortunately I couldn’t get into this the way I hoped I would. There was a LOT going on for a novella. Multiple POVs, side plots, and a ton of trauma to unpack - plus a murder mystery. I found this hard to get into because it was doing so much at once.

The prose was good, the pacing was fine (if a bit scattered) and it was less than 200 pages, so if you’re really into sci-fi and you find the religious situation appealing you may like this one. It just wasn’t my favorite.

Thank you NetGalley and Titan Books for sending this book (eARC) for review consideration. All opinions are my own.

Biblcial-style eldritch horror angels but Also They Fuck is enough to sign me on immediately, bonus points for terrifying fish nun hybrids that rise out of the sea to pass judgment on criminals. As evidenced, Wise showcases a wealth of creative genius previously unseen in her previous novels, packing a hefty dose of work-buidling into a comparatively slim novella. She's done a good job with character accounting for available page space, but trying to follow multiple POVs in a story this short inevitably leads to a headache. Resultantly, several of the story threads are left unfulfilled, with big ideas and looming threats fading out of focus with a whisper rather than a bang. I try to avoid this feedback as I feel like its a complaint slapped across many novella's unnecessarily, but this is the rare case where I genuinely think this book could have benefited from from the breathing room afforded a full length novel. I also wasn't the biggest fan of Wise's prose style, but that is more of personal take than a specific issue - it leans into the "squishy" sci-fi and millennial humor that will appeal more to fans of Becky Chambers than Martha Wells if that makes any sense to fellow overly niche genre readers.

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I think my favourite thing about robots is just how human they always end up being. Usually filled with more morality and humanity than any of the human cast. Think about IG-11, R2D2, and K2-SO from Star Wars, or Robot from Invincible, or Zane from Ninjago, and how they are vastly human characters, even though one of them only talks through beeps that are definitely cuss words.

Scribe IV easily cemented himself as another robot on my long list of "wow I love these metal dudes so much." It's truly incredible how much love, affection, compassion, and tenderness this automaton showed during this very short novel, and I loved every minute of it. And I loved the ending very much, the ability for Scribe to stay and watch and observe Angel without being overtaken by the human fear, but being filled with the human love.

Quin is, thankfully, not the typical character type I've come to call "Space Asshole," notably filled with types like Kirk, Solo, and Quill. He's remarkably damaged, notably gay, and desperately loves his sister and his friends. Even the angel who fed on him like a buffet is close to his heart--- so close that the Legion of Murmuration has to wipe memories of himself from Quin's head to let him begin to heal after everything that has happened.

And Angel--- wow, what a darling. I love xem so much. The innocence, the unending optimism, the humanity, and the power that are all wrapped up in xyr expansive yet small body is awesome. I love xyr fashion choices especially. And xyr relationship with Scribe IV had me cooing like a goddamn pigeon.

These three characters are all wrapped up in a murder mystery that is shockingly small scale for being, y'know, the death of the pope, who still holds quite a range of power in this time period and universe. This felt genuinely almost cozy, I wasn't prepared for that. In a world where your prayers and belief are what create gods (a concept I LOVED in the Supernatural, used through a creature called a Tulpa), belief in love and friendship triumphs over everything else. A small but vast story that makes you feel warm and cozy, in spite of the Eldritch horror and dread served on the side.