Soundless begins in an isolated, Asian-inspired village where the entire population is completely deaf. Here, the protagonist Fei’s skills as an artist are highly prized. With no means of oral communication, the written word and pictures are the best way both to keep a historical record and to pass news quickly, since signing to crowds is often difficult. The main industry of the village is mining. In exchange for ore sent down the mountain via zipline, they receive food from the township at the mountain’s base, as avalanches long ago blocked easier means of trade and communication and the mountain soil is too poor for farming. The food is barely enough, however, and worse, many who spend their days in the mine are going blind to compound the deafness they were born with. Fewer workers mean less ore. Less ore means even less food.
One night, Fei is woken by something she has never experienced before, sound. At first, she is overwhelmed by the new stimulus, but she quickly comes to see both the beauty and the usefulness of her new ability. In a conversation with her childhood sweetheart, the miner Li Wei, she realizes that someone who can hear the sound of falling rocks can make their way down the avalanche-prone mountain with a level of safety that hasn’t been possible for generations. Together and with luck, they may be able to negotiate better terms for their village in person than has been managed trying to do so with notes sent along the zipline. It turns out that what they discover once they reach the bottom will change much more about their lives than just their food.
Despite the frequently folkloric feel of the narration, it can be easy to forget that this is intended to be a fantasy novel. So much is made of the simple magic of being able to hear, that it can be easy to miss the more fantastical elements hanging in the background until they come to the fore in the end. Soundless is an interesting examination of the power of art and the senses wrapped up in a fairly quick and breezy stand-alone read.