Waterfire Saga: Deep Blue Review

In the darkest deep, there be monsters and despite centuries of protection and magical spells, the circumstances have converged to allow Abbadon break free, and the ancestors of the original Six Who Ruled to rise.

But principessa Serafina of Miromara doesn’t know about any of that or how her bad dreams are connected. She’s nervous about her upcoming betrothal and making her mother proud as she goes through the traditional three tests to prove her readiness for leadership. She’s dealing with these understandable yet normal worries, her biggest heartbreak stemming from the realization that the catty rumors about her betrothed party boy ways being more true than she had hope.

Then the kingdom is attacked. Her parents are killed, and Serafina and her friend, Neela are on the swim to find the Iele, the sea witches from their nightmares and the answer to the prophecy that they’re connected to.

That’s the basic premise but the action doesn’t quite kick into gear until halfway through the story. But it does work in that gives Donnelly ample space to depict her worldbuilding and describing the mesh between kingdom built out of corals and jewels and the discarded remains of shipwrecks and other pollution. Even though, Serafina and Neela only travel through the Medittereanean and Nordic waters, Donnelly paints a clear view of the differences in each from language, culture to the use of discarded supplies. Sera’s kingdom is influenced by Italy and Greece, Neela’s by the Indian sea, the Iele live among Romanian waters etc.

I also appreciate how it echoes Sera’s feelings of an ordinary day in her life, placid with small difficulties compared to the repressed trauma, swimming and hiding she has to endure later on. Sera’s journey from princess struggling to live up to her mother’s pristine reputation to girl who lost her innocence and her home i smoving as she struggles to accept what has happened, not taking up leadership because she blindly wants to believe her parents are missing, not dead.

This makes her an easy protagonist to root for even though I find the expected love triangle popping up between the betrothed she thought she knew and the bodyguard, Blu (they’re a group called Predatori in the novel but basically her temporary bodyguard) a bit tired. At least, Sera hasn’t defined her feelings for Blu as anything beyond gratitude for helping her.

Neela, her friend and Princess of the Mitali kingdom (Indian Ocean and surrounding) has several chapters to her POV but feels a bit superficial compared to Sera, getting the most “Valley Girl” esque lines with Donnelly utilizes her mer slang through her. She has some potential as a princess confined to her role as nothing but an ornemant since she’s just a cousin in the royal family, not in line for the throne but I suppose I will see how it goes in Rogue Wave.

Which brings me to the disconnect of time periods. With the description of Mergovia kingdom akin to 14th century Italy, I had assumed it was set in the past.

Then the mentions to mermaid equivalents to drinking, raves, tires and the use of “totally,” made me realize it was 21st. Or 41st century in this case which I suppose it doesn’t matter as the changes would only be on the surface world. But it feels a bit too much like Donnelly is trying to be hip by utilizing human and mermaid slang like “you go merl” and “invincible” which means “awesome” in this context. Eh, it’s not my cup of tea

However, the simple premise and easy to root for characters make me eager to see what will happen next especially as Donnelly draws from different parts fo the world (or oceans as is in the case) to create each kingdom and their specific cultures that are fun to explore as Serafina’s world (and the dangers she’s exposed to) expands.

4 seashells.