Somewhere Beyond the Sea

Somewhere Beyond the Sea (2024) T.J. Klune (Cerulean Chronicles, #2)

This book is set after The House in the Cerulean Sea although there is a brief bit in the beginning that shows some of Arthur’s past.

Arthur is invited to speak about his past, and his hopes for Marsyas Island and his children, but instead appears in front of the Council of Utmost Importance, whose agenda is not to reform DICOMY but instead control those individuals with magic.

“That depends on if you believe in utilitarianism or deontology. Utilitarianism revolves around the concept of the ends justifying the means, the belief that outcomes as the result of an action have greater value than the actual action itself. It is a consequence-oriented philosophy.”

Arthur continued. “I tend to adhere to the theory of deontology, the principles of Immanuel Kant which state that both the actions and the outcome must be ethical.”

The Council of Utmost Importance was absolutely as horrible as you’d have expected. Far worse than Extreme Upper Management. But unlike Extreme Upper Management, who were self-absorbed and interested only in what their positions could do for them, the baddies here were monstrous–the true monsters rather than the magical beings they claimed to be monsters.

Which is where this book failed for me.

The first book was about Linus and his journey of growth and learning and falling in love not just with Arthur but also with the children. Extreme Upper Management were bad, but not evil.

In this book, Miss Marblemaw and Jeanine Rowder are caricatures of evil–they are shallow and one note and are not real people. This worked in the first book with Extreme Upper Management because they played such a small part, but Marblemaw and Rowder make multiple appearance and play large parts. They never feel like real being, but rather monsters composed of all the nastiness and evil of our world, created solely to be knocked down in the end.

That shallow evil made this book something quite different from the first book, something I didn’t find comforting or cozy.

If those book wasn’t a sequel to The House in the Cerulean Sea I likely would have felt different about it. But being a sequel, and being something different from the first book, it didn’t work for me, which makes me terrible sad.

It’s okay to not be okay, so long as it doesn’t become all we know.

Characters: Arthur Parnassus, Linus Baker, Lucy, Phee, Calliope, Chauncey, Sal, Talia, Theodore, Jason, David, Byron, Zoe, Helen, J-Bone, Merle, Frank, Miss Marblemaw, Ms. Doreen Blodwell, Jeanine Rowder, Burton, Haversford, Sallow

Cover by Chris Sickles with Red Nose Studio

Publisher: Tor

Rating: 7/10

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