"Here's a thing about life-shattering days. They start just like any other. You don't realize your world is about to explode into a million smoking pieces of awfulness until it's too late."
Daughter of the Deep is a middle-grade science fiction/adventure novel by Rick Riordan (of Percy Jackson and the Olympians fame) heavily inspired by Jules Verne's works 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island.
Just before her 15th birthday, Ana Dakkar - a student of the prestigious Harding-Pencroft Academy - finds her life turning upside down when during her class's first trial at sea, their school came under attack by their ruthless rival, Land Institute. As Ana and her fellow freshmen flee for their lives while trying to make sense of everything, Ana discovers an uncomfortable truth that Harding-Pencroft Academy has been hiding: the tales of Captain Nemo and his adventures as detailed in Jules Verne's novels are not only real, Ana herself is his last remaining descendent, and she alone now holds the key to Nemo's secrets that could completely change the world as she knows it, secrets that Land Institute is also seeking - and are willing to kill for.
The book was published on October 5, 2021.
The novel contains examples of:
- Academy of Adventure: The Harding-Pencroft Academy is a world renowed institute teaching various areas of marine sciences, a junior naval academy, and the keeper of Captain Nemo's world-changing technologies. The academy is comprised of four 'Houses': House Dolphin, House Shark, House Cephalopod, and House Orca (yes, they've all heard comparisons with "Harry Potter"). Unfortunately, the academy itself is quickly destroyed by its rival Land Institute in just the third chapter. The only things that survived the attack are a class of freshmen who happened to be out for a field trial, a grumpy old professor, and a small outpost named Lincoln Base, aka Lincoln Island.
- Academy of Evil: Land Institute is pretty much just like Harding-Pencroft, but way more brutal and ruthless in their pursuit of Captain Nemo's legacy. They don't hesitate to blow up their rival school by collapsing the cliff on which HP Academy is situated, killing who knows how many people in the process, and they won't hesitate to use lethal force on a bunch of middle-schoolers. According to Caleb South, all this violence is just the LI students' way of doing their senior project.
- Adaptational Badass: Captain Nemo is this in spades. All those amazing inventions that he created as detailed in Verne's novels? They're just a fraction of what he actually accomplished for real, which is way more advanced than even modern-day technology despite being created during the Victorian era. For starters, not only did Nemo discover the secrets of cold fusion and apply them practically, he invented DNA identification, optical camouflage, electrolocation sensors, super-cavitation drive, etc., and even the world's first artificial intelligence in Nautilus. It's also implied that he found a cure for cancer, too, suggested by how the Nautilus med-bay was able to treat Dr. Hewett's late-stage pancreatic cancer in the ending.
- Adaptational Heroism: Not that they weren't heroic before, but the real Cyrus Harding and Bonaventure Pencroft were entrusted by Captain Nemo to safeguard his legacy and prevent it from falling into the wrong hands, namely Land Institute. To that end, they established Harding-Pencroft Institute with the treasures Nemo gave to them and dedicated its goal to protecting Nemo's descendants and his legacy from Land Institute.
- Adaptational Villainy: It turned out that the real Ned Land and Professor Aronnax founded Land Institute with the purpose of getting their hands on Captain Nemo's legacy by any means necessary, as they believed that Nemo was too dangerous to be trusted with such technologies and that they should be shared with the world. Ironically, their ruthless methods in pursuing Nemo's legacy ultimately made them no better than Nemo at his worst, and therefore should also not be trusted with Nemo's technologies as well.
- Artificial Intelligence: Turns out the Nautilus herself is one, and she wasn't happy about being left abandoned at the bottom of the sea for a century and a half alone with the corpse of her creator. Her resentment tragically resulted in her lashing out at Ana's parents once they recovered her and tried to come on board, sending a lethal electrical shock that killed them both. She gets better eventually, though.
- Back from the Brink: With the surprise destruction of the Harding-Pencroft Academy, all that's left of it is a class of freshman students that Ana is a part of, and it's up to them to take the fight back to Land Institute. In the end, they succeeded, and Ester plans to use Nemo's riches to rebuild the academy to continue their predecessor's goal of safeguarding Nemo's legacy, from Land Institute and beyond.
- Been There, Shaped History: Captain Nemo, Ned Land, Pierre Aronnax, Cyrus Harding, and Bonaventure Pencroft are all real and they were the ones who inspired Jules Verne to write 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea and The Mysterious Island. It's also said that Land Institute's carelessness in leaking what they learned about Nemo's knowledge to the Manhattan Project led to the creation of nuclear weapons and the subsequent nuclear arms race during the Cold War.
- Bittersweet Ending: Against all odds, the freshman class of Harding-Pencroft Academy managed to repel the Land Institute invaders and sank their prototype submarine Aronnax, avenging the destruction of the academy. Ana has fully embraced her Dakkar heritage and plans to rebuild HP Academy along with Ester Harding and their friends to continue to safeguard Nemo's legacy from the outside world until the time is right. On the downside, the old HP Academy is still gone, along with an untold number of casualties who are friends and families of the freshman survivors, thanks to Ana's brother Dev Dakkar's betrayal. While Dev did show some signs of remorse for his actions by the ending, it's clear that the bond that once existed between Ana and him is severely broken by Dev's actions. Land Institute is still at large and will definitely continue to come after Nemo's legacy, so the Harding-Pencroft students and their allies still have a long fight ahead of them.
- Cool Ship: The Varuna (named after the Hindu god of the sky, oceans, and water), Harding-Pencroft's primary yacht, is equipped with the academy's most advanced technology, but even that paled in comparison to the Nautilus herself; a high-tech submarine controlled by an AI that can still function mostly normally even after sitting at the bottom of the sea for over a century (and she also comes with a mini-sub, which she didn't originally have in the novel). There's also the Aronnax, Land Institute's Evil Counterpart to the Nautilus, which is armed to the teeth with weapons of mass destruction that could level an entire area with just a single torpedo barrage.
- Decomposite Character: Ana and her older brother Dev are pretty much the two sides of Captain Nemo as portrayed in 20,000 Leagues and Mysterious Island. Dev represents Nemo's ruthless and violent side as portrayed in 20,000 Leagues; he blames Harding-Pencroft Academy for being responsible for his parents' deaths and hiding what he believed to be his birthright from them. Meanwhile, Ana represents Nemo's wiser and remorseful side as portrayed in Mysterious Island; she recognizes that her family's legacy hasn't always been a good thing and that her ancestor had done several horrible things, but she's doing her best to make amends and safeguarding her ancestor's legacy and make sure that it never falls into the wrong hands.
- Doomed Hometown: Not actually a town in this case, but rather a school. Same principle, though. The Harding-Pencroft Academy, where Ana and her freshman friends have been studying and living in for two years, is swiftly destroyed in the first act by the Aronnax, an advanced submarine commanded by Land Institute.
- Fire-Forged Friends: The students of the freshman class of Harding-Pencroft Academy don't always get along, but circumstances behind their school's destruction and subsequent fight for survival help them forge a close bond with each other. In particular, Ana and her best friend Nelinha used to dislike Gemini Twain, the Shark prefect who once hurt Nelinha's feelings with an Innocently Insensitive comment in the past. Gemini proves himself to be a capable and dependable ally who goes out of his way to protect his friends from harm, and both Ana and Nelinha eventually come to trust Gemini to cover their backs under fire.
- Giant Squid: It's right there on the cover, though technically it's a giant octopus. Unlike the giant squids in 20,000 Leagues, though, the giant octopus that Ana and her friends encountered in her journey is completely friendly, and it's implied that it comes from a long line of octopuses that Captain Nemo and his descendants/associates have managed to befriend and tame to the point that the Nautilus crew can employ its help as their ace in the hole against the Aronnax in the final battle.
- Hot Sub-on-Sub Action: Given the genre, it's inevitable. In the climax, Ana led her crew in the Nautilus against the Aronnax, Land Institute's advanced submarine which was designed based on the Nautilus itself, making this also an Upgrade vs. Prototype Fight moment.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Harding-Pencroft Academy believes this is true when it comes to Captain Nemo's legacy - at least until the world is ready for it - and for good reasons. The various technological marvels that Nemo had invented would have led to disastrous results if fell into the wrong hands, as proven with Land Institute's attempt to build a successor of the Nautilus submarine; the result is Aronnax, a super submarine capable of leveling an entire cliffside with just a single seismic torpedo barrage.
- Real After All: The premise of the story is that the tales of Captain Nemo are not just stories - they're real, and our protagonist is his direct descendant. And not just that, the stories actually significantly downplayed Nemo's achievements, with him discovering technologies and creating inventions that are a century ahead from his time - stuff that could change the world completely if they are to be shared with the public, or threatening it with destruction if they fell into the wrong hands.
- Legacy Character: Several characters in the novel are either descendants of or named after characters in 20,000 Leagues and Mysterious Island. To begin with, Ana and her brother Dev Dakkar - along with their parents - are descended from Captain Nemo himself, aka Prince Dakkar. Ester Harding is a descendant of Cyrus Harding, one of the main characters of The Mysterious Island and one of the founders of Harding-Pencroft Academy, and she even has a pet dog named Top just like her famous ancestor. There's also a domesticated orangutan named Jupiter, who fittingly lives on Lincoln Island just like his predecessor.
- Sufficiently Advanced Bamboo Technology: Nemo's technology in a nutshell: they're products of the Victorian era, but are far more advanced than even the latest modern technology. Harding-Pencroft Academy and Land Institute have succeeded in reverse engineering only a fraction of Nemo's technology, and they call them 'alt-techs'.
- What Happened to the Mouse?: It's not revealed what happened to the other main characters of Verne's novels aside from Land, Aronnax, Harding, and Pencroft. Consiel is name-dropped a couple of times, but it's not revealed if he played any part in the establishment of Land Institute alongside his master and Ned Land. As for Mysterious Island characters, Herbert Brown, Gideon Spilett, Neb, and Tom Ayrton aren't even mentioned, and it's possible that they did not exist in the first place.
