Cas then becomes the ward of Swift, one of Santa Elana's lieutenants. Santa Elana presents Cas with a Baby Reckoner, still in an embryonic sac, that she is to train for use by the Minnow against other Reckoners. After a suicide attempt, she is brought before the captain of the Minnow, the notorious pirate Santa Elana. The Nereid is then boarded by pirates, the crew is murdered, and Cas is dragged aboard the pirate ship Minnow. Durga, being too weak to fight the pirates, is brutally killed in front of Cas. This is revealed to be a mistake when Cas wakes to news that a pirate ship was spotted approaching The Nereid. Despite this, the captain of the Nereid rejects the idea of turning around. As the days move forwards Cas grows increasingly concerned with Durga's heath, as its strange noises grow to violent tremors and the water becomes thick with its blood. The next day Cas boards the Nereid, a luxury cruise ship she is tasked to protect with Durga. Her mother suggests that her concerns are just nervousness for her first mission as Reckoner trainer. She speaks to her mother, the lead biologist working on the Reckoner program, about this issue. While checking up with Durga, Cas notes that it's making strange noises. The Reckoners and their trainers act as paid protection for ships passing through the dangerous NeoPacific ocean.

It is the first in a duology.Ĭassandra Leung is at a dawn check up of her Reckoner Durga, one of many genetically engineered sea monsters bred and trained by Cas' family business. The Abyss Surrounds Us is a 2016 young adult science fiction novel by Emily Skrutskie. ( Learn how and when to remove this template message)

JSTOR ( February 2017) ( Learn how and when to remove this template message).

Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.įind sources: 'The Abyss Surrounds Us' – news Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. |a Science fiction, Young adult.This article needs additional citations for verification.

If Cas fails, her blood will be the next to paint the sea. She orders Cas to raise the pup and teach him to fight for the pirates. Santa Elena wants to take back the seas with a monster of her own, and she needs a proper trainer to do it. Waiting for her on the pirate ship is an unhatched Reckoner pup. But when the pirate queen Santa Elena swoops in on Cas's first solo mission and snatches her from the bloodstained decks, Cas's dream of being a full-time trainer seems dead in the water. She's been a Reckoner trainer-in-training ever since she could walk, raising the giant, genetically engineered beasts to defend ships as they cross the pirate-infested NeoPacific. |a For Cassandra Leung, bossing around sea monsters is just the family business.

|a The abyss surrounds us |h / |c Emily Skrutskie.

The abyss surrounds us series