A Letter to the Luminous Deep is the first book in The Sunken Archive by Sylvie Cathrall and it was not what I was expecting. The book starts with two people who know of each other but have never actually met. Sophy Cidnorghe is a former scholar and the sister of E. Cidnosin who had disappeared the previous year. She has decided to reach out to Vyerin Clel who is the brother of Henerey Clel who disappeared with E. the previous year under some rather unusual circumstances. Determined to figure out what exactly had actually happened with their disappearing siblings, the two work to piece together the correspondence between their siblings in order to get a clearer picture of the final few months. They quickly discover that they should also include any other relevant correspondence and documentation that might be relevant. As they assemble the information they also slowly develop their own friendship as they learn the story of their own siblings and their relationship and how the mysterious disappearance may have much more behind it than either of them would expect.
One of the first things that really grabbed my attention when I started reading this book is that it is an epistolary novel which is not something that you frequently see in fiction, especially in fantasy fiction. Having the story told entirely through letters, emails and other documents though it was primarily letters was really fascinating as it creates this distance from the events it is telling. We only see what the characters are comfortable telling each other and not what takes place off of the page, so to speak. Considering the story though I actually found it to be a really suitable format and one that I greatly enjoyed seeing. In terms of the story I did enjoy it but I will also admit that there were times that I found it confusing. A big one that confused me is the dual timeline created by the two sets of letters, the letters between Sophy and Vyerin and the ones between E. and Henerey which Sophy and Vyerin pass back and forth a year later. It was mildly difficult to keep track of at times and was not helped by the inclusion of letters from Sophy and Vyerin to E. and Henerey before they disappeared. Once I was further in and used to the styles of each character it was easier. The only other thing I didn’t like was the lack of a time scale for events. In the letters they only have the year listed and not specific dates and they don’t always discuss how far apart events occur so I would have preferred a bit more clarity on that. It was really interesting how even through the medium of letters each of the different characters had such clearly developed and distinguishable personalities. You could clearly see who wrote each letter just by reading them so I was pretty impressed by that. The book ended up being a great, albeit fast, read and one that I thoroughly enjoyed so I am happy giving it 4.5 out 5 stars.
This is a good example of a fantasy novel even if it has an unusual format so if you enjoy fantasy and don’t mind the idea of reading an epistolary novel you might consider trying this one. It is aimed at adults but considering the format there is no adult content in terms of violence, language or other mature topics so I would have no problem saying that it could potentially be read by readers as young as about fourteen. I don’t really think there would be anything for people to really be concerned about for this book except perhaps the fact that the book deals with the loss of a sibling. If that is not an issue and it still sounds interesting then I hope you will try it out. Feel free to share your thoughts in the comments if you do.