( 10 reviews )
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Posted: Jun 27 2008
I have always loved this book, it is one of my favorites of this author's works. It is a sweet story, not very long, and has a way of sticking with you. Patricia McKillip must have a very interesting way of seeing the world!
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Posted: May 3 2008
This is a storyline with a unique plot, although I did find some flaws within the story that made this somewhat difficult to read. This is the first Patricia A. McKilip book that I have read and so I am not sure of her writing style as of yet, however the characters were rather empty. If she didn't state plainly that one character was in love with another, by the story surrounding them, I wouldn't have known. The protagonist is even distant as well and reading this story felt like taking a peek at snipets of the lives of others and drawing my own story from what I saw and coming to my own conclusions. This is common in books for young adults however, and being an adult reader used to epic novels, I don't know if I would be fair in faulting it for that. The character dialog was also hard to follow and at times it was hard for me to tell who was speaking. This is makes for a very choppy read at least to me. This is still a special story that should have been written in novel form and not short story from, as there is som much more potential for it. Peri is the main character of the story and The Changeling Sea begins by describing her hatred for the sea that stole her father's life and captured her mother's soul, spellbinding her. Peri is an unkempt teen who works at the local bar/inn scrubbing the floors and keeping the inn clean. She never dreams of adventure or excitement at all, only wanting to one day escape the sea that so destroyed her life. Peri, no longer receiving the affection and caring from her mother, spends many nights at a village elder's home. The old woman looks after Peri and teaches her spells and hexes. Then one day the woman is gone, no where to be found or heard from again. Most likely lost to the sea, Peri thought. She had had enough of losing people she cared for to the sea and decided to hex it. The story builds from here with adventures of the Prince who becomes her friend and a lost sea-dragon and his mysterious appearance and trying to find answers as to his sudden apparition. She receives help from a mage and works at putting everyone's life together again, fitting in all of the pieces of the puzzle. At the end of the story she succedes in putting the pieces of her own life together as well. I would reccomend this book for the young adults who have minds capable of seeing and reading between the lines where an adult's can't with a fantasy such as this. Although the story is a little slow throughout the telling, and the tale is implanted with a constant need to "just finish" the story so that one can see what is really happening, this is still a unique story and it is enjoyable. A collector of her works shouldn't pass this book up.
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Posted: Apr 30 2008
this was a great story. i love this author, she just has a certain style that brings whatever she says to another level. this said, the story isn't perfect. the major relationships between the main character and those around her aren't very strong, not strong enough anyways. at the end, not to spoil it, but she asks someone to come back for her, but the relationship between them wasn't strong enough for her to ask that of him... or at least we the readers weren't privy to it. they don't have to be ridiculously close or anything, the perceived distance between the characters is fine, but the draw between characters must make sense to the reader. if the author spent more time fleshing out relationships i think the story would've been better, because the relationships are very compelling, we just know too little of them. peri says she enjoyed certain people's company because they needed her. unless she is so weak and needy that someone recognizing her existence would make her go crazy, which i don't think she was, there is a part of the story the readers don't know about, or have to fabricate for themselves. so in a way it felt like she was grasping at straws, and the introductions of some characters, namely the workers at the inn, were kind of awkward. criticism aside, it was a wonderful story. the plot was well thought out and kept me interested. i thought the author did a great job of characterizing the sea. Kir was a great emphasis for this because he was half of the sea himself, so we had the sea both as itself and humanized in Kir. periwinkle was ok, not the strongest heroine but compelling in her own way. i liked her name though, periwinkle, you get few characters with such whimsical names. it was a great story though. it was short, i read it in a couple of hours, and it left me feeling kind of whimsical .
