The Siren Depths

By: Martha Wells

Narrated by: Christopher Kipiniak

Length: 15 hrs and 47 mins

Publisher's Summary

All his life, Moon roamed the Three Worlds, a solitary wanderer forced to hide his true nature - until he was reunited with his own kind, the Raksura, and found a new life as consort to Jade, sister queen of the Indigo Cloud court. But now a rival court has laid claim to him, and Jade may or may not be willing to fight for him. Beset by doubts, Moon must travel in the company of strangers to a distant realm where he will finally face the forgotten secrets of his past, even as an old enemy returns with a vengeance. The Fell, a vicious race of shape-shifting predators, menaces groundlings and Raksura alike. Determined to crossbreed with the Raksura for arcane purposes, they are driven by an ancient voice that cries out from… The Siren Depths.

©2012 Martha Wells (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Excellence in Worldbuilding

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I have recommended and will continue to recommend The Tales of the Raksura series but no one listens to me. Just in case, though... If you are looking for a series of fantasy novels that defy Tolkien-true tropes, this series for you. Set in the Three Worlds, a world whose geography and inhabitants are almost wholly unfamiliar from our own, Martha Wells' flying dragon shifters are so familiar to us because of their humanity. I love this series wholeheartedly. Start with The Could Roads. Our hero, Moon, doesn't even know what he is or where he's from. That's wonderful for the reader because we get to know the Raksura and the Three Worlds as Moon searches for a place to call home. Then, in the second novel, The Serpent Seas, Moon and members of the Indigo Cloud court have to fight to make their home safe and secure. This third novel very satisfactorily answers our remaining questions about who Moon really is and where he's from. It's lovely how the author turns traditional gender roles around and then has her characters subvert them some more. Brilliant.

Who was your favorite character and why?

I can't begin to choose. Okay, Moon first. He's prickly and prone to fighting and loyal and honorable. Then, Stone who is even more prickly, prone to fighting and is ancient, to boot.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

When Malachite refers to Moon and Jade as children (even though she's telling them to shut up), I knew that she had accepted Jade as Moon's queen, even though it means he must leave her and his new found home.

Wells needs to wright more on this story line

Finally more of the culture is revealed. I just love this story. More must be made. This one focused more on the main characters culture which makes me happy.

Moon's past catches up with him.

Throughout the first two books of this series, the lead character, Moon, has struggled to find his place within Raksuran society. After forty turns spent growing up amongst groundlings his re-integration into the world of the Raksuran has been an endless series of learning experiences. Moon has struggled to know what he wants at times but by the end of book two he becomes determined to make his place in the Indigo Cloud court work out for both him and them.

All of that gets tossed up in the air when his birth court finds out that he is alive and now Moon faces a threat of a different kind. Moon has never fit in anywhere all of his life and now he finds himself with reasons to fit in to multiple places. However, all is not what it seems at his birth court and an external threat by the dreaded Fell takes priority. Once again Moon finds himself in the thick of the conflict and he must battle his own feelings at the same time that he battles the Fell.

Moon's story comes full circle in The Siren Depths and Martha Wells fills in a lot of the blanks. Christopher Kipiniak delivers another excellent performance and this acts as a fitting end to a unique trilogy. All of the main story threads are tied together nicely and Moon's time as a solitary is certainly over.

Favourite installment

The little lost duckling finds his family and not only do they want and love him, they're pretty amazing-scary. You really feel for Moon in this story and the emotional rollercoaster. The background story which eventually becomes central to the excitement is terrific. Martha leaves you with so many more questions about this incredible world she's created.

Great "Conclusion"

While the book leaves open possible opportunity for more (hopefully), it neatly closes most of the back-story elements of the 1st two books and even provides much of the pre-history that moved the 1st two books forward. The author manages to propel the characters into yet another new situation (this time more politically oriented initially) without loosing a step. I'm very impressed with the author's skills as she has managed to create 3 separate storylines in 3 books that are non-repetitive and leave you wishing for more.

Really good listen

All I can say if you liked the first two books you will really enjoy this part of series. Because it shows where Moon comes from and how previous events changed his life.

Siren Depths

I like the books in this series and hope that there are more. It is a different type of other world and quite interesting.

A FANTASTIC FAVORITE

I love this series and I love introducing it to people. I have even used it for college assignments because it has so much depth to it!

I wanted to like it but I just got bored with it

I like the first book the second book was OK the third book so the plot was different it essentially followed the same theme as the first book and the second book moon got kidnapped again and the big strong women had to come and rescue him That a woman author would write a book from the point of view of a man and then force the man to Live ins ridiculous social matriarchy where the Female characters act more masculine than the male characters it is strange to me and I really like the world but the overly convoluted sexist social System the main character was having to live under was just stupid

And if you were using this book to make some warped social political statement on the way you see the world then you should’ve warned me of that and I wouldn’t of bought it

This is the kind of sexist bullshit that turns me off of buying more books written by female authors

It’s like they spent so much time creating these convoluted plot twists to make strong independent female characters that are bigger stronger smarter and more skilled than all the male characters if you have to emasculate male characters to make the female characters more impressive then they’re not really more impressive you’ve just lowered the bar and I find it stupid that authors continue to do this

When there are plenty of books series out there were strong independent female characters that don’t take away from the male characters like

Red rising
Empower of man or Prince Roger series
Poor man’s fight
Demon accords
Dresden files
Red night or Cold steel
Light bringer

All have Wonderful female characters that are every bit as impressive as the male characters and they complement each other there’s not some weird back and forth power play between the two sexes

I love them all.

I have all 5 books on Kindle and 4 of the books on audible. The narration for all the books is excellent and easy to listen to which I have multiple times. I hope Audible gets the last book the harbour of the sun soon because it's not fun getting to the last book and not being able to finish the series.