The animal characters in Deep Wizardry are as important as the human ones, with as wide and subtle a range of emotions and intentions. Duane reflects current knowledge about the high intelligence of whales and dolphins: She depicts her cetaceans as the guardians of the deep just as humans are the ordained guardians of the land.

Thus characters like S'reee the apprentice whale wizard (abruptly forced to take over the supervision of the song ritual when the senior whale wizard Ae'mhnuu is killed by a whaling ship's harpoon), Aroooon the majestic blue whale, Hotshot the brisk dolphin, and the embittered whale Areinnye, all ring true both as alien creatures and as fully developed personalities. Although they enact ancient roles in the Song, their individuality makes their behavior anything but predictable. Perhaps the most compelling character of all is the shark ed'Rashtekaresket, called Ed by...