Review: Stoneskin, by K.B. Spangler

[Russ Allbery]

Stoneskin
by K.B. Spangler

Series:    Deep Witches #0
Publisher: A Girl and Her Fed Books
Copyright: September 2017
ASIN:      B075PHK498
Format:    Kindle
Pages:     226

Stoneskin is a prequel to the Deep Witches Trilogy, which is why I have
it marked as book 0 of the series. Unlike most prequels, it was written
and published before the series and there doesn't seem to be any reason
not to read it first.

Tembi Moon is an eight-year-old girl from the poor Marumaru area on the
planet of Adhama. Humanity has spread to the stars and first
terraformed the worlds and then bioformed themselves to live there. The
differences are subtle, but Tembi's skin becomes thicker and less
sensitive when damaged (either physically or emotionally) and she can
close her ears against dust storms. One day, she wakes up in an unknown
alley and finds herself on the world of Miha'ana, sixteen thousand
light-years away, where she is rescued and brought home by a Witch
named Matindi.

In this science fiction future, nearly all interstellar travel is done
through the Deep. The Deep is not like the typical hand-waved science
fiction subspace, most notably in that it's alive. No one is entirely
sure where it came from or what sort of creature it is. It sometimes
manages to communicate in words, but abstract patterns with feelings
attached are more common, and it only communicates with specific
people. Those people are Witches, who are chosen by the Deep via some
criteria no one understands. Witches can use the Deep to move
themselves or anything else around the galaxy. All interstellar
logistics rely on them.

The basics of Tembi's story are not that unusual; she's been chosen by
the Deep to be a Witch. What is remarkable is that she's young and
she's poor, completely disconnected from the power structures of the
galaxy. But, once chosen, her path as far as the rest of the galaxy is
concerned is fixed: she will go to Lancaster to be trained as a Witch.
Matindi is able to postpone this for a time by keeping an eye on her,
but not forever.

I bought this book because of the idea of the Deep, and that is indeed
the best part of the book. There is a lot of mystery about its exact
nature, most of which is not resolved in this book, but it mostly
behaves like a giant and extremely strange dog, and it's awesome.
Replacing the various pseudo-scientific explanations for faster than
light travel with interactions with a dream-weird giant St. Bernard
with too many paws that talks in swirls of colored bubbles and is very
eager to please its friends is brilliant.

This book covers a lot of years of Tembi's life and is, as advertised,
a prelude to a story that is not resolved here. It's a coming of age
story in which she does eventually end up at Lancaster, learns and
chafes at the elaborate and very conservative structures humans have
put in place to try to make interactions with the Deep predictable and
reliable, and eventually gets drawn into the politics of war and when
people have power have a responsibility to intervene. Tembi, and the
reader, also have many opportunities to get extremely upset at how the
Deep is treated and how much entitlement the Witches have about their
access and control, although how the Deep feels about it is left for a
future book.

Not all of this story is as good as the premise. There are some
standard coming of age tropes that I'm not fond of, such as Tembi's
predictable temporary falling out with the Deep (although the Deep's
reaction is entertaining). It's also not at all a complete story,
although that's clearly signaled by the subtitle. But as an
introduction to the story universe and an extended bit of
scene-setting, it accomplishes what it sets out to do. It's also
satisfyingly thoughtful about the moral trade-offs around stability and
the value of preserving institutions. I know which side I'm on within
the universe, but I appreciated how much nuance and thoughtfulness
Spangler puts into the contrary opinion.

I'm hooked on the universe and want to learn more about the Deep,
enough so that I've already bought the first book of the main trilogy.

Followed by The Blackwing War.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Reviewed: 2021-06-06

URL: https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/stoneskin.html

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)             <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>