Down in the Sea of Angels is a bold dystopian sci-fi novel, written by Khan Wong, and published by Angry Robot Books. A difficult to characterize book, which presents us to three stories, loosely linked by a jade teacup (to be fair, all becomes clearer the more you advance in the novel), each one fighting against their own version of exploitation and collapse, ultimately giving us three excellent character-driven plots that, even if they have hard moments, give us a glimpse of hope, of breaking those circles.

In 2106, Maida Sun possesses the ability of psychometry, to see the history of objects just touching them; in this future, after the collapse, a minority of the population is gifted with psionic powers. Her job as historian puts her in contact with the jade teacup that will link her to the other characters, sending them visions that will put them in the path of change; but on her own timeline, her accidental encounter with a politician reveals plans to take the psionic minority and put them under control and in prisons, to be used as part of the powerful people's plans. She will need to be brave and collaborate with more people to expose those plans and avoid making her people the scapegoats, in a parallel to what some political rhetorics do today with other minorities.
2006's timeline presents us to Nathan, an upcoming tech-designer, living a good life without thinking much about the consequences to the world we live in; the visions of environmental destruction will make him to think more about his privilege and how the system is driving us towards our finale. While his story is more relaxed, I found it to be incredibly impactful, especially as we see his struggles to change his life and become that good man that can take a different approach and escape from the capitalistic system; in definitive, telling us that it is possible to be a positive force nowadays.
Finally, 1906's timeline puts us in the skin of Li Nuang, a 16 year old sold into slavery and forced into sex work; the visions of an earthquake will be spark needed to ignite her fire of change. She will need to be brave and to get the freedom that was negated from her; a really dark story but which has space for hope.

Ultimately, we can see how Khan Wong links the three stories through the jade teacup and the visions, tying them loosely to the same point; it is difficult to classify this book, but ultimately what we have is a thought-provoking novel whose major strength is the character development. While there are some action scenes, Wong prefers to put the focus on human relationships and on how the cycle of consumption needs to change to become different, to stop hurting whatever is around it.

Down in the Sea of Angels constitutes an enjoyable and thought-provoking reading experience, ultimately giving much to the reader to ponder about; if you like character-driven stories, you will surely love this book. (as a side note, be aware and check the content warnings before).