Fathom

By Cherie Priest

Book Overview

"I can't fathom them, and neither can you." The ageless water witch Arahab has been scheming for eons, gathering the means to awaken the great Leviathan. She aims to bring him and the old gods back to their former glory, caring little that their ascendance will also mean an end to the human race. However, awakening the Leviathan is no small feat. In fact, Arahab can't complete the ritual without human aid.Arahab's first choice is Jose Gaspar, a notorious sea pirate from eighteenth-century Spain. But when the task proves too difficult for Gaspar, she must look elsewhere, biding her time until the 1930's, when the ideal candidate shows up: a slightly deranged teenager named Bernice.Bernice is sophisticated , torn from New York and forced to spend a miserable summer on Anna Maria Island, a tiny rock off the coast of Florida. She's also been saddled with the companionship of her farm-raised cousin Nia. Eventually, Bernice's disenchantment gives way to rage, which in turn leads her to commit a deadly crime. When Nia won't cover for Bernice's actions, she turns on Nia, chasing her into the deadly coastal waves.But the timing is right and the elementals have better ideas: the moment the girls go under, Bernice is commandeered for Arahab's task force, and Nia is turned into a strange and powerful new creature by a servant of the earth who doesn't want to surrender his green fields and muddy plains-not yet , at least. Add in a hapless fire inspector who's just trying to get his paperwork in order, a fire god whose neutrality has been called into question, and a bizarre religious cult, and rural Florida doesn't seem quite so sleepy anymore.Cherie Priest, who stormed onto the scene with the stunning Southern Gothic trio that began with Four and Twenty Blackbirds , now brings the same masterful writing and unforgettable characterization to the realm of near-contemporary rural fantasy. The result, Fathom , is fast-paced, stunning, and quite unlike anything you've ever read.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0765318407
• ISBN13: 9780765318404
• Release Date: December 2008
• Publisher: Tor Books
• Length: 380 Pages
• Weight: 1.15 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 5.5" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

Simply Superb

As a working mother of a 7 month old, I don't get much time to read anything that isn't baby related. So you can bet when I get those few spare moments, it had better be something that I will enjoy and will hold my attention. Cherie Priest delivers. The story is simply superb. I would recommend this book and any of the other wonderful ones she has written to anyone who enjoys a good story of things that go bump in the night

I will be reading this one again

Fathom is fluidly written, rich with vivid description and intriguing characters. For me it read like a blend of myth and fairytale with just the right blend of atmosphere, suspense, and action. I was twitchy to finish reading it because I wanted to know how it ended up, but I also wanted to savor the book and not skip over a single word.

Another stunner

Cherie Priest once again knocks it out of the ballpark for me. I could not put this book down. It draws you in, both with the details of the places, the people and the plot of the story itself. Once I finished it, the husband also read it, and finished it in a record 3 days. Now, he wants more! Fast paced with nary a pause for breath, Fathom is sure to be a new cult classic.

Southern gothic fantasy horror, and that's just to start

I started this book standing in the kitchen, waiting for my tea to steep. Thirty minutes later, the tea undrinkable and my hip numb from leaning against the counter, I decided I should sit down, and managed to do so without ever lifting my eyes from the page. Superficially Fathom is a story of saving the world, but it's not the usual fantasy adventure. People live and die because more by luck than by skill, there's no wise old man to tell the heroes what they need to know and do, and nobody's actions are without consequence. It's saving the world, so it's a fairytale, but it's a modern fairytale, adult and grim, with hard corners and no safety rails. Fathom is not just a story about saving the world, though; it's about transformation, and family, and identity, and a great deal of other things, all lurking beneath the surface. It's also about Florida, and as someone who still lives here, I can say with authority she got it right. This is the second book by Mrs. Priest that I've read, and with it she's established herself in my mind as an author to watch; I look forward to reading more of her work.

A wonderful story, beautifully told

Fathom is a story of two teenage girls, a handful of gods and a dead pirate. It gave me a lot to think about while it was a lot of fun to read. One of the girls, one of the gods and the dead pirate are working together to destroy the world. But the enjoyment in reading the book isn't so much in the suspense, but in the skillful way Priest blurs the line between realistic and fantastic, dancing along the boundary between a novel about real people and a fairy tale about symbols of good and evil, while juggling time, place and distance. Why do people do what they do? Who knows? This is a story about things happening, not about things happening for a reason. Fathom challenges you to accept that sometimes things happen without warning or explanation, or because of forces beyond your control and understanding. It's a book about the power of the elements, of gods and monsters and things that go bump in the day. About the power in places and words and things. It's a fable about not playing with (metaphorical) matches, and letting sleeping powers lie. One of the strengths of the characterization in the book is in the working out of choices, good, bad or just lucky. About who you can rely on and being redeemed or lost by the friends you make, or the allies you keep. I'm not sure I could accurately visualize either of the two teenage girls, but by the end of the book their choices are vivid and memorable. Although authors pull their hair out when a book is dropped into a genre, dark fantasy is not too bad a description for this book. Sometimes things go badly; sometimes the cavalry arrives late, and for no reason. Sometimes all you can do is wait; sometimes the right thing to do is to run away as fast as you can. Partly because two of the protagonists are teenagers, this would be an excellent introduction to modern fantasy for a mid-teen. But that was a few decades ago for me, so I can confidently declare that this is a great story for readers of all ages.