Deep As The Sky, Red As The Sea

Deep As The Sky, Read As The Sea is a thrilling historical novel about a female pirate, Shek Yeung, who rose from being a prostitute on the flower boats to becoming a pirate commander's wife.

Shek Yeung was what we would call a tom-boy. She wanted to swim and look for treasures in the sand, not do work "suited" for women. Her father and brother take her on the small two-masted junk where they work. She was strong and capable, competing with the young men on the boat, showing her climbing skills, and even spitting farther than they.

Pirates come one night, kill her brother, capture her father, and sell her to the "flower boats" as a prostitute.

When she was twenty-four, all the flower boat girls were excited about a customer coming and were busy fixing their hair and faces.

It was not her looks that attracted the commander to her. Her intelligence intrigued him as she dared to voice her opinion that he should not sell off the pepper, as the men advised. He chose her for the night and continued coming back for nights with her.

Later, Shek Yeung figures out what Cheng Yat's real occupation is and avoids him as long as possible. He finally demands of the Madam that he see the girl, and then he asks her to join him on his pirate ship.

Although trained in hand-to-hand combat, she still always lived in fear that Cheng Yat, as her husband, but more importantly, the commander, might throw her overboard for any slight infraction.

When he is killed in combat, she takes command of the fleet along with his adopted son, forming a trusted partnership. Her sons with Cheng Yat were being raised by his family and barely knew her.

She now needs to cement this new partnership with Cheung Po, and tells him she will bear him a son to inherit the fleet. The pregnancy of the thirty-two-year-old pirate queen is hidden as long as can be from her fleet. It is difficult enough to command the fleet as a woman and maintain discipline and loyalty, but presenting on the ship's bow huge with pregnancy could be her downfall.

Cheung Po and Shek Yeung form a mutual bond and a fragile fondness for each other as they outmaneuver the English and Portuguese, only to face a new threat from the Chinese emperor.

She desires to have the child on land, not at sea, so sets out to the abandoned house of a dead friend without her husband, Cheung Po. She refuses to consider that the ghost of her dead friend would do harm and believes their friendship will protect her and the baby.

The birth of Cheung Po's child adds another twist to this adventure and arouses feelings that Shek Yeung had not experienced with her other children.

The two command their fleet and create alliances with others, but it seems there is a traitor somewhere amongst them.

This book holds your attention from the start to the finish. There are many characters, and I returned to previous pages to sort out the Chinese names and connections.

I especially liked the character development of Shek Yeung as a strong female leader with cunning, intelligence, leadership, and self-defense skills.

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Facts of Ching Shih (called Shek Yeung in this book): Born impoverished, she was forced into the sex trade at a young age. Her beauty, wit, and intelligence attracted many, but Zheng Yi, the pirate commander, met her and married her. She didn't hesitate to execute those who didn't follow her rules and orders, beheading errant sailors herself. The Red Flag Fleet dominated and controlled the South China Sea. 🪓🏴‍☠️