Review: Down in the Sea of Angels - Khan Wong

Genre: Sci-fi, dystopia Published: Angry Robot, April 2025 My Rating: 3/5 stars

Three individuals separated by 200 years are linked by their physical connection to a jade teacup in this dystopian sci-fi novel. In 1906, 16-year old Li Nuan is a victim of (sex-)trafficking, fighting for her freedom in the slums of Chinatown. In 2006, a man working at the Burning Man’s festival confronts the societal inequity and climatological collapse of his time, as he’s composing a time-capsule that is to be buried during the festival. In 2106 in a post-climate-collapse future, a woman with the psionic ability to “read” an objects history looks into the past of a jade teacup, whilst being scrutinized by the authorities for her skills.

What I liked:

This book was a mixed bag for me. Although I really liked the themes the novel addresses, and liked parts of the stories individually, I felt like the whole was so much less than the sum of its parts. It’s a novel with strong ideas, which I appreciate. There’s a lot to contemplate after you finish the final page, and the novel is written in such a way that it makes these themes accessible to readers that are relatively new to them. I liked the plot well enough, and enjoyed puzzling along with the characters to unravel how their stories might become connected.

In terms of accessibility: the book is released in e-book, paperback and audio. I can recommend both the audio and the e-book, but the audio in particular has excellent narration that elevated the story for me.

What I didn’t like:

For a novel that’s hinges on the idea of connections through time, the connection between these three storylines felt incredibly flimsy. Switching between timelines often felt more like interruptions in the flow of the story, than adding to it. I also had a strong preference for some of the stories over the others. Maida’s story was probably the most interesting to me, and I’d have preferred it to have taken centerstage, whilst offering the other two stories more so as flashbacks. Li Nuans story has the potential to be incredibly powerful, but does not get enough page-time to delve into the atrocities that it “namedrops”. That made it very hard to read for me personally. We get glimpses at horrific sexual- and racial violence committed against minors, but there’s too little time to explore it with the care and attention it needs. I would’ve loved a full novel on Li Nuan, but as a smaller part of this narrative, I felt the incredibly heavy topics weren’t handled with the care I’d have wanted.

Nathan was just insufferable as a character. He came across as incredibly naïve to me; a grown man, only now realizing that social injustice and climate-impact are a thing…?! I understand the story that was being told here, but it had too strong ‘woke-privileged-teen-in-adult-man’s-body-vibes” to me.

Again, it overall made it into an unbalanced whole that was less than the sum of its parts.

What didn’t help:

On multiple occasions, the marketing draws comparisons to the work of Emily St. John Mandel. It’s in the tagline, the press releases and even the title (Sea of Angels/Sea of Tranquility seems almost deliberate). I don’t think that comparison does Down in the Sea of Angels any favours. I have to admit that it was a big part of why I requested an ARC, as Mandel is one of my all-time favourite authors, but that parallel was part of my disappointment in Sea of Angels. It simply lacks the nuance and literary mastery that Mandel has honed over years of writing, and selling it as “for fans of Emily St. John Mandel” might just not get it in the hands of an audience that is going to love it.

Something similar can be said about the cover. The bright and colourful art would be more fitting for a cozy-sci-fi, which is a tonal mismatch to the actual story’s content.

Many thanks to the Angry Robot and Dreamscape Audio for providing me with an (audio-)ARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

You can find this book here on Goodreads.