A good book and I'm not usually into pirate book. She wrote it well and actually kept me into the story regardless. That's how you know when it's a good story.

"deep as the sky, red as the sea" is a fantastic novel about a common girl who becomes the leader of a fleet of pirates. shek yeung is a fierce woman who has known as much grief and trauma, if not more, than any man on her fleet. after witnessing the death of her brother, and perhaps her father as well, she is sold into prostitution. she becomes a big sister to many of the young girls on the flower boat and proves her worth as a sailor above all else. after her husband dies in battle, she is left to pick up the pieces and strengthen the allyships within her own fleet and the other pirates.

filled with conniving, bold characters, shek yeung is a woman of great strength. she uses her speech to form allies and survive famine and battle. the prose is lovely, the battles fierce, and the wounds gruesome. reading this strong woman's story was a pleasure, especially watching her overcome obstacle after obstacle. the story is beautifully woven in with legends of ma-zou, goddess of the sea. haunting and brutal, this was a fantastic novel. i look forward to reading more from rita chang-eppig.

thank you to netgalley and the publisher for this arc copy in exchange for a honest review!

Thank you Net Galley and Bloomsbury for the arc.

I really enjoyed reading this book. I always enjoy an interesting story about pirates and was delighted with the politics and strategy. While this book was a slower pace than what I usually choose to read, I really liked the tale of Shek Yeung. I also loved the exploration of a woman's role and a woman's struggle for survival and power.
I really enjoyed how the chapters alternated with the present events and stories about Ma Zou. The mythology was really interesting. I also really like the author's writing style, there were some beautiful metaphors and imagery that made reading this book a delight.

Every couple pages i would come across a new word for a place, or food and I would look it up, opening a new part of the world I have been kept from. I really loved the feeling of discovery that came with this. I was also sent into a spiral of research on shek Yeong the infamous pirate queen. I was pleased to find out that not only is she a ruthless and badass character; one that many people can connect with, but tha she actually existed. there is nothing better than reading an engaging book that feels like fantasy and captures your imagination, only to find out it is rooted in history. I will definitely be on
the lookout for more references to this pirate queen in other media. overall, 'Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea' has beautiful prose that captures epic sea battles, detailed combat and a fantastic plot woven with myth & historyI'm so glad this was my first read of 2023.

Loved it! I'll withhold my feedback here because I was asked to blurb this book (and will let the author/publisher reveal that in their own timing as they like). But five stars. A delight.

I found this book to be interesting but difficult to follow. The main character is a pirate queen of sorts who tells you her story interspersed with the stories of god she calls Ma Zhou. The main thing I found difficulty was following the main plot line with the little stories all wound up with it. The story was just pirates being pirates mostly. I found it difficult to identify with the main character and saw her story as interesting but not very engaging.

1.75/5 stars! The cover and concept of this book were phenomenal. Historical fiction + pirates? Sign me up. My issue with this book wasn't the idea; it was the follow-through. This book had all the pacing of a college textbook. I wouldn't mind trying this author again, but there was a definite struggle getting through the heaviness of this book.

I received an advance review copy for free through NetGalley, and I am leaving this review voluntarily

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig is historical fiction about Shek Yeung, the Pirate Queen of China. The novel focuses on a roughly two-year span of her life as she tries to hold onto the power she cultivated alongside her first husband as China’s political landscape rapidly shifts into something completely new. Naval battles, political intrigue among pirates and nations, and complex relationships feature throughout the character study of this complex figure. Both the legendary woman and the historical period she existed in are richly realized with beautiful, examining prose. 

Shek Yeung is a fascinating figure to follow throughout the novel as it examines her identity as a social outcast, her hunger for power, her trauma, and her relationships. Though the numerous issues tackled in the novel could become overwhelming, the author does a spectacular job of grounding it all with Shek Yeung and her relationships. Themes of womanhood; the role of women and mothers; social outcasts due to religion, profession, and sexuality; sexual violence; criminality, violence and power; poverty and trauma are all given their due.

Overall, it is a riveting and intimate study of a complicated figure and the issues of her time that shaped and influenced Shek Yeung.

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC.

My first 5 star read of 2023! This book was phenomenal, somehow timeless and brilliant. Following a Chinese pirate queen, this is a story of adventure, politics, plotting, and the conflict of motherhood. Shek Yeung is newly widowed, her husband Cheng Yat murdered by the Portuguese. She has risen to command their fleet, but with his death, she seeks to consolidate her power and stick with the only part of her life she has known any power: being a pirate, and maintaining their alliances. She marries Cheung Po, her husband’s ward and heir, and steps into a new tier of intrigue.

This was so vivid and immersive. Skillfully told and full of compassionate adventure, even through the violence.

I had a hard time getting into this book, despite the fact that I loved the concept. A strong female main character in a male dominated field, such as pirates, had everything I wanted. However, I felt the book dragged on, with little taking place. The areas in the book where I expected details, such as a battle, I felt were skimmed over and the spots where heavy details where given were areas that I felt didn't need it. I understand the focus was on Shek Yeung and her internal battle with herself, but it lack the depth I really needed on a whole.

Thank you to NetGalley, Bloomsbury publishing and Rita Chang-Eppig for sharing this with me in exchange for review.

This is an adventurous historical fiction about China’s pirate queen that absolutely satisfies. It weaves in stories of Ma-Zou the Chinese sea goddess that makes it extra enchanting.

The characters, especially Shek Yeung, seemed vague. She nearly had a Mary Sue trope going from traumatic experience to traumatic experience. There could have been a bit more to this woman the author could have given us with the freedoms of historical fiction.

On a personal note : I admit I didn’t know this story before I read this book, I don’t even remember At World’s End that well. I fell deep into the historical rabbit hole getting caught up, which was a lot of fun. The ‘You’re Dead to Me’ podcast has a great episode about Zheng Yi Sao. If anyone can recommend a good book about the White Lotus Rebellion that would be awesome

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea, by Rita Chang-Eppig is a historical fiction novel filled with pirates, naval battles, and hand-to-hand combat. This story follows the life of Shek Yeung and her journey as a pirate queen. It starts with the death of her husband and co-commander. The story continues on to describe how she created alliances with other pirates. It also talks about her being the leader of a fleet that is almost all male and protecting them from the Chinese Emperor and the Europeans. I gave this story 3.5 stars. While there were some aspects of the story I liked, it was hard to stay engaged and keep reading. The plot had great potential to be interesting but the battle scenes did not help since they took up more space in the book. I also found hard to keep track of where we were and who was who since the story kept jumping around. I did enjoy the pirate element of the story a lot and the female representation. Another thing I liked was Ma-Zhou and how she was almost a symbol of hope that helped Shek Yueng to keep going. I would definitely recommend this book to someone who loves pirate story’s, however it was not for me.
Thank you to NetGalley for the ARC.

Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea is a piece of historical fiction recounting the story of the famed female Chinese pirate, Shek Yeung. The book begins with the death of her husband, with whom she was co- commander of a pirate alliance. What follows relates how she forged personal alliances and dealt with being a woman commanding a fleet that was 99.9% male, while fending off threats form the Chinese Emperor and European fleets.

Instead of the riveting and rousing book the blurb describes, I found Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea to be neither. It plods along, and was not at all engaging. I found the characters to be somewhat superficial, and the plot tedious, contributing to my struggling to finish the book. There’s a great story here, but in my opinion, the novel could have been better.

My thanks to the publisher and to Netgalley for providing an ARC of the novel.

This was...fine? Definitely a quieter book than the description suggested. More about politics and the challenges of being a woman in a man's world than swashbuckling or adventure. The writing was sophomoric at best, and the characters often felt flat. Overall, a disappointment.

I saw that at least one person has asked about queer themes in the book. I would not categorize this book as queer. Without getting into specifics, it just wasn't a topic that was explored with any nuance (or conversely normalized to the point where it didn't need to be explored). Just a heads up, because I have seen that tag floating around. Ymmv of course, but I did not find this to have enough queer content to warrant that tag.

Also, a note: this is a particularly poorly formatted galley copy. I'm not letting that influence my review, because I know it doesn't have anything to do with the book itself, but even if you are interested in this, I would suggest waiting until publication.

I love pirates and historical fiction, so I was excited to see Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea by Rita Chang-Eppig pop up as an eARC on NetGalley. Boy did it deliver on the premise: there are elaborate naval battles and lots of hand-to-hand combat. I looked up a bunch of things about Shek Yeung after reading, and it turns out this really happened!

The prose is hauntingly beautiful. Also, the main story is interwoven with myths of the sea goddess Ma-Zou. These tales give a dreamy quality to the book and inject a lot of interesting existential questions.

The main character Shek Yeung is really interesting. And she's not the only interesting woman pirate in the book. There's a ruthless woman captain in another fleet who is kind of a sniper and has a reverse harem.

This is my favorite book I've read this year, maybe even one of my all-time favorites. I can't wait to read the next book from Chang-Eppig.

I loved getting to read this book about the legendary Chinese pirate queen Shek Yeung, I always am up for a book about pirates and this is a really well done story. I enjoyed the plot of the book and it did everything that I wanted it to. The characters were really well done and worked in the time-period. Rita Chang-Eppig has a great writing style and I look forward to reading more from her.

"She had grown quite fond of him over their time together, she explained. Begun to think of him as a younger brother, maybe even a son. “But in truth I’m also concerned about your Matron,” she said. “I fear the English are deceiving her.”