Rita Chang-Eppig

A Good Morning America Buzz Pick For readers of Outlawed, Piranesi, and The Night Tiger, a dazzling historical novel about a legendary Chinese pirate queen, her fight to save her fleet from the forces allied against them, and the dangerous price of power. As Recommended By The TODAY Show * Washington Post * Goodreads * LitHub * Real Simple * Time * Popsugar * HuffPost * Los Angeles Times * Ms. Magazine * Book Riot * Elle.com * The Rumpus * Tor.com * Polygon * Debutiful * Electric Lit * Shondaland * When Shek Yeung sees a Portuguese sailor slay her husband, a feared pirate, she knows she must act swiftly or die. Instead of mourning, Shek Yeung launches a new plan: immediately marrying her husband's second-in-command, and agreeing to bear him a son and heir, in order to retain power over her half of the fleet. But as Shek Yeung vies for control over the army she knows she was born to lead, larger threats loom. The Chinese Emperor has charged a brutal, crafty nobleman with ridding the South China Seas of pirates, and the Europeans-tired of losing ships, men, and money to Shek Yeung's alliance-have new plans for the area. Even worse, Shek Yeung's cutthroat retributions create problems all their own. As Shek Yeung navigates new motherhood and the crises of leadership, she must decide how long she is willing to fight, and at what price, or risk losing her fleet, her new family, and even her life. A book of salt and grit, blood and sweat, Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea is an unmissable portrait of a woman who leads with the courage and ruthlessness of our darkest and most beloved heroes.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea

Lindsay

As far as she was concerned, honor was scarcely different from stupidity.

All anyone could do in this world was try to stay alive and pray that, when the time came, Heaven would overlook whatever crimes one had committed to survive.

How full of nothing all humans are, Shek Yeung thought absently, just bits of substance drawn and held stubbornly together by will, animal habit, and the fear of what comes after.

I feel remorse for some of the things I’ve done. I would do all of them again. What is remorse if not a privilege, the time to sit alone and cry for oneself?

This might be the most compelling argument for the existence of gods I have ever read… based on 39 years of personal anecdotal evidence… 

Apiecalypse Jen

The gods do not suffer happy mortals, because happy mortals don’t need gods. Something was going to happen to her, and it was going to be devastating.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea quotes

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