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Winter Tide  By  cover art

Winter Tide

By: Ruthanna Emrys
Narrated by: Gabra Zackman
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Publisher's summary

"Narrator Gabra Zackman engages with this weird, grim novel, a combination of fantasy and mystery...her superb pacing and intense emotions add to the story's strange and intriguing atmosphere." (AudioFile Magazine)

After attacking Devil's Reef in 1928, the US government rounded up the people of Innsmouth and took them to the desert, far from their ocean, their Deep One ancestors, and their sleeping god, Cthulhu. Only Aphra and Caleb Marsh survived the camps, and they emerged without a past or a future.

The government that stole Aphra's life now needs her help. FBI agent Ron Spector believes that communist spies have stolen dangerous magical secrets from Miskatonic University, secrets that could turn the Cold War hot in an instant and hasten the end of the human race. Aphra must return to the ruins of her home, gather scraps of her stolen history, and assemble a new family to face the darkness of human nature.

©2017 Ruthanna Emrys (P)2017 Macmillan Audio

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Overrated on a Cosmic Scale

I genuinely disliked this novel and feel distinctly cheated that it is so overhyped in every review I read online.The idea behind this novel is a genuine breakthrough for a genre that has many detractors pointing to the wild racism of Lovecraft and asking if he deserves to be remembered fondly for his literary contributions. Emrys deserves full credit for creating an amazing hook for this novel. Reviewers are correct to praise the radical viewpoint this work presents and how this turns the standard idea of a Lovecraftian protagonist on its head but fail to note that once you get past this unique idea there is very little worth remembering about this novel.

The deep ones are presented as just another ethnic group that has been horribly mistreated by White America. The nuances of their culture are explored and they are presented as just another branch of humans, with a tendency towards scaly skin and a disposition for salty water and seafood. Deep One ancestors swim out from Devil’s Reef to complain about the blood libel (seriously!) that resulted in the destruction of Innsmouth.

Undoubtedly, ghouls are simply the victims of an unsavory eating disorder.

Emrys characters rub shoulders with the fantastic denizens of Lovecraft’s stories and consistently walk away sanity intact as the cosmic void is rendered toothless since its denizens are not evil but simply misunderstood.

That’s the problem. Once the inhuman are rendered human there is very little left to write about. The protagonists spend their days scouring the stacks at Miskatonic University for clues while dealing with overt discrimination in the face of their differences. By night they retire to their chambers and cast magical workings that better allow them to discuss their feelings with each other (again, seriously!). Emrys has found a way to remove the cosmic horror from Lovecraft's universe and leaves us with a dull coffee klatch that stare boldly into the now toothless void. To its credit, the void shrugs back at them before inviting them to tea.

Emrys continues the ongoing trend of cashing in on Lovecraft with mediocre works that cite a few mythos deities before name dropping the Necronomicon and tentacles.

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14 people found this helpful

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Slow burner

This book is a lot slower than the normal scifi I listen to, and narrated by a female (also rare for me for some reason).

But I really enjoyed it and eagerly await the next in the series.

I'd recommend it if you're interested in Lovecraftian monsters and locations though it is a novel and not much like Lovecraft literature. The imagery is well written and evokes things properly through the senses.

But I also want to thank the narrator for doing possibly the best reading I've ever heard. It was absolutely flawless.

My only gripe for the book itself is that it was a little too slow at times and lost steam at the end. Still, it wrapped things up nicely which is something so many authors refuse or neglect to do - and given everything else I like about the book it's easily forgiven.

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Magic, Cold War history, family, and survival

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

"Winter Tide" is a gripping mystery woven through with magic, cosmic wonder, and the taste of deep time. It is also a beautifully written meditation on surviving atrocity, creating family, and risking love in the face of mortality.


Just a few years after the end of WWII, US/USSR tensions are building and there are rumors that the Russians have acquired dangerous magical knowledge. The FBI asks Aphra Marsh for her help in their investigation. Though she has every reason to refuse to help the government that destroyed her home and family, there are equally compelling ones to leave San Francisco and her beloved adopted family the Kotos, with whom she survived the US internment camps, and go back east to Miskatonic University with Agent Spector.


"Winter Tide" is set in a Lovecraftian world, replete with books of ancient lore, fish people, godlike aliens, and cycles of life beyond human comprehension, but you don't have to have more than a passing cultural familiarity with Lovecraft's Mythos in order to be pulled into this book. Emrys' Miskatonic University and Innsmouth feel real and solid, her magical system well-thought out, her theology compelling and deeply felt. Her characters, alien and several flavors of human, are real people with fascinating back stories and complex motivations.


I also strongly recommend this book for long-time Lovecraftians like me. Emry's world-building is excellent, deepening our understanding of familiar characters and locations while finding many interesting new corners to explore. For example, Miskatonic feels like a real university with real students (complete with flighty undergraduates) instead of a convenient repository for forbidden tombs and statuary (and scholars prone to syncope). If you love the Mythos but are troubled by Lovecraft's naked bigotry, you will love the effortless (and entirely non-preachy) way she turns all that on its head, allowing us to live inside the heads of people, human and otherwise, that Lovecraft drew as monsters.

What was one of the most memorable moments of Winter Tide?

The Winter Tide on the beach, in the face of terrible danger to some of the participants. Such beautiful love and courage.

What does Gabra Zackman bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

I wouldn't love this book less if I had read instead of listening to it, but the narration was perfect. No off notes at all, just effortless storytelling. Each character's voice was distinct and consistent but none were stereotypical either. She handled the unusual names and vocabulary well too.

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12 people found this helpful

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Great Premise, Great World...Mediocre Story

What I appreciate about the book is the respect for Lovecraft, the details of the world, the premise of the book and its take on racism, by paralleling the Japanese experience with Innsmouth. Unfortunately, the plot is very slow/non-existent, the characters are maddening apart form the lead character, and the ending is belaboured. The narrator's version of Japanese characters is cringeworthy. Very disappointing read.

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Should I Read This?

I read the reviews that others wrote and decided that if a person is a huge Lovecraft fan the answer is probably not. But my own experience was 1 or 2 books read 40 years ago. I have to say that I loved this AudioBook and highly recommend it to anyone who can judge it on its own merit. So many good parts!

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Amazing

I love everything about this book. I adore cosmic horror and the mythos Lovecraft helped create, but I struggle with the blatant racism and classism prevalent throughout his stories. Finding this book was like a breath of fresh air I didn’t entirely know I needed. I was looking for a horror story, but is not what this is. It’s a character driven fantastical historical fiction. It is a slow burn, but each character is given so much depth you don’t notice. Regardless, Emrys is a shining example of how you can make tropes so embedded in horror, fantasy, and historical fiction your own. Gabra Zackman is also a wonderful orator, with individual voices for each of the characters. I always understood what was going on, but the voices were never distracting or annoying. Overall, I love this book dearly and I hope other people find it.

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Fascinating re-interpretation of Lovecraft’s mythos

Just a note: the synopsis seems to indicate (to me at least) that this book is a Lovecraftian spy thriller in the vein of Charles Stross. Winter Tide is definitely not that kind of book, but I found it a worthwhile listen nonetheless. Kudos to Emrys for being one of the rare few to imagine the Deep Ones as anything other than murderous fish monsters - the other modern authors writing in the Mythos need to step up their game.

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monsters are people too!

I really wanted to love this one, but I guess the whole Lovecraft thing is starting to wear thin on me after all these years. I mean, Cthulu et all have become brand names now, and listening to the characters in this book name drop Miskatonic U, the Necronomicon, etc. just seemed silly to me. If you're looking for cosmic horror, try A Cosmology of Monsters by Shaun Hamil. Very unsettling.

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Has Everything

The problem with Lovecraft Mythos stories, and the same thing that I tend to love about them, is that they are known to dive deeply into the mythos and alienate readers who haven't spent their lifetimes obsessing about some obscure author from the 1920's. It makes the stories excellent for those types of readers and keeps everyone else from even picking up the title.
That's not the case with Winter Tide by Ruthanna Emrys. The story uses the magic, race, and creatures of Lovecraft's mythos to tell a story that doesn't require foreknowledge. To that point, though, having that foreknowledge is rewarded with small nods and subtle hints as the story progresses
This book uses the Sherlock/Watson method of telling the story, but does it almost better than even Doyle's heroes in that it allows the reader to decide if they are the Sherlock or the Watson. The Sherlocks all know what's coming when the protagonist, Aphra, heads home or discusses the Yith, but the Watsons aren't left in the dark, as they are pulled along in the adventure and explained what's going on as they see it for the first time. And none of those explanations come across as heavy-handed narration or as treating the reader as an idiot. Their just seeing it all for the first time, and get to experience the excitement, fear, and dread as if they were actually there.
Aphra's story is one of race, subjugation, and legacy as she tries to decide what's to come for her and her people after the Americans destroyed most of Innsmouth and threw the survivors in prison camps. Their story purposefully mirrors that of Asian-Americans during the second World War while also adding an element of the supernatural. While mirroring that horrible tragedy that the government placed on its own people, it also illustrates it by Aphra's finding family in some of the imprisoned through mutual hardships while also pairing them all up with the very government that sought to ruin them.

Winter Tide has everything, and I thoroughly enjoyed it as both a fan of history and a fan of Lovecraft. 5 out of 5 stars!

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excellent interpretation of Lovecraft

Would listen again. Good narration with excellent story and setting. The characters and modern take on Lovecraft from more humane but no less awed eyes is phenomenal.

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