'When Hugo and Ada travel to their friend Dorian’s planet for the holidays, android Hugo is anxious about being accepted by Dorian’s powerful family. But when they arrive on Hydrox, there are more pressing things to worry about, as the planet has been overrun by refugee butterflies. Displaced from their home by climate change, the butterflies have been offered sanctuary by Dorian’s parents, but they’re quickly running out of space. Meanwhile, beneath the seas, a strange creature is wreaking all kinds of havoc. Can Hugo, Dorian and Ada step in before the crisis gets out of control?'
The Deep-Sea Duke is the follow up to The Starlight Watch Maker, and I'm sad to say that I haven't read the first book, but despite that I never felt like I got lost in this engaging and interesting story about this collection of unusual friends and the love they have for each other.
The story is about a trio of friends who met in the previous book, where two of them were students at an academy for children of wealthy and influential people from across the galaxy. There's Dorian, the price of the planet Hydrox, a green skinned young man from a species who lives under water and evolved from aquatic life. Ada is a stark contrast, being a member of a species of sentient rock people. Not only is she made from stone and has lava inside her, but her species increases their mass as they age, and she'll one day become her own sentient planet. And lastly there's Hugo, a boy who was made in a factory. An android that was created to serve, and eventually left behind by his former owner, he created his own watchmaking business.
The three leads are one of the most mismatched trio's I think I've ever seen in a book. They're so completely different to each other, so fantastic and unusual, but their friendship and love for each other form a bond where it doesn't matter the kind of person you are on the outside, only who you are on the inside that matters.
Together, the three of them have travelled to Dorian's home planet of Hydrox, where they plan to spend their summer break before Dorian and Hugo return to the academy; Ada has already graduated and won't be returning with them, so they're seeing this as their last time together. Expecting a relaxed summer in Dorian's family home, full of swimming in the sea and eating algae ice cream, the three of them are shocked to find the floating platforms that make up part of Hydrox filled with butterfly people, who seem to be living in tents.
The three friends discover that the butterfly people have had to leave their home-world after climate change has made it deadly to their children, who can no longer survive their cocoon stage of life thanks to the pollutants in the air and the increased heat. Despite having known that their reliance on fossil fuels and their lifestyles would lead to such change they were too late to prevent the outcome, and have had to leave their home in order to survive. Thankfully, Dorian's family have agreed to take them in and prove a home for them. However, it seems like they may have brought a new species of otter with them that is causing havoc for the inhabitants of Hydrox, and may be leading to disaster. Now it's down to Hugo and his friends to try and save everyone.
One of the things that I really enjoyed about The Deep-Sea Duke was how writer Lauren James manages to weave a very important message into the narrative without it feeling like it's overwhelming things. There are children's stories that deal with climate change, and how destructive that can be, but often these kind of messages are very clear from the outset, and make the story about that. Whilst it's good that more children's literature are covering this subject, it can put some kids off, children who might not want to read about such a big and scary topic. What this book does, however, is present this in a very subtle way.
The loss of the butterfly's planet is the event behind the issues being faced in this book, it informs the story and puts the trio of heroes into conflict as they try to save everyone, but it's still a story about these three friends getting into an adventure. The book does the clever thing of shining a light onto the subject of environmentalism and climate change without it seeming preachy or overwhelming. And it all comes in a fun science fiction package too.
James also manages to create an interesting universe for things to happen in, one that is full of weird and wonderful people. Most science fiction that I've read will involve humans in some way, and will incorporate aliens and machines into the stories, but here there wasn't a single human person present. All of the characters were aliens, or Hugo who was an android. Because I'd not read the first book I don't even know if humans do exist in this universe or not? Either way, it's a bold choice to have a story where there are no human characters, and instead children are left to identify with the characters by their personalities alone. No one is going to look at Ada and identify with her because they're a huge rock person who's going to be a planet one day, but they can relate to her sense of fun, her kindness, and her willingness to help others. These are the kinds of qualities that really matter, and ones that kids will love about these characters.
Now, to get a bit spoilery about the ending. If you don't want to know how the book ends just jump to the ext paragraph, I completely understand not wanting to have things spoilt if you've not read the book yet, but I have to talk about the ending because I loved it so much. At the end of the book, when Dorian is talking about when he's finished with his studies and will go on to rule Hydrox as its king he asks Hugo if he wants to be with him as his partner. Now, I had a feeling this was coming thanks to stuff mentioned earlier in the book, but what I did not expect was what happened next, when Dorian made it clear that he meant as his romantic partner, and asked Hugo to be prince regent. Seemingly out of nowhere the book had the sweetest, loveliest queer love moments I've read and I completely adored it. Even though Hugo is an android he's referred to with only male pronouns throughout the book, so this is definitely a same sex paring, and I loved it. For this book that was about friendship and helping others, with this climate change message in there too to suddenly have an LGBTQ+ romance was just the best.
I enjoyed The Deep-Sea Duke a lot more than I thought I would. I was worried that I might be left behind a little as I hadn't read the first book, but it was so easy to pick up and get into. It has some wonderful characters who I quickly came to care for, a world full of amazing people and moments, and an ending that melted my heart. I hope that we get more from these characters in the future, though because of the way the book ended it would be in a very different form, but I still hope that we can check in on Hugo, Dorian, and Ada some day in the future.
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