Scan barcode
A review by emmacatereads
Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden
4.0
I didn't realize until after the fact that this was a little-mermaid retelling, but it just made me love it all the more. Ogden did a fantastic job of making me feel in step with this unique, watery world almost immediately, despite the innovative concepts introduced. Our protagonist is a human varient, part of a species subset with scales and claws whose gender changes like the tide. Her present life as part of an above-water clan, on a desperate hunt for a cure to the plague that threatens her husband, is ingeniously woven with details from her past as the sea-dwelling Greatclan leaders' daughter, being forced into a role she does not want.
Ogden is a wizard of subtle detail: though flashbacks we gain powerful insight into Atuale's relationship with gender, child-birth, and love. It is also enjoyable for me when aliens in science fiction novels are really, distinctly alien; Atuale resembles humans in many ways but also is radically different in many others: there is an especially poignant seen in which she gives birth to a litter of children known as "pups". I really enjoyed Atuale's relationship with Yanja, as the two struggle to reconcile their past as lovers with their present differences: Atuale, a land-dweller, and Yanja, a World-Witch who travels between dimensions to acquire objects for barter. There is an undercurrent of wistful tenderness that underlies every scene, helped along by gorgeous, flowing prose. This was as lyrical a space opera as I've ever seen. My one complaint is that the action and general choreography of the characters can get a bit confusing at times, and there were a few points where I had to go back and read a line over again to make it click. Otherwise, this was a wonderfully creative and breezy read.
Ogden is a wizard of subtle detail: though flashbacks we gain powerful insight into Atuale's relationship with gender, child-birth, and love. It is also enjoyable for me when aliens in science fiction novels are really, distinctly alien; Atuale resembles humans in many ways but also is radically different in many others: there is an especially poignant seen in which she gives birth to a litter of children known as "pups". I really enjoyed Atuale's relationship with Yanja, as the two struggle to reconcile their past as lovers with their present differences: Atuale, a land-dweller, and Yanja, a World-Witch who travels between dimensions to acquire objects for barter. There is an undercurrent of wistful tenderness that underlies every scene, helped along by gorgeous, flowing prose. This was as lyrical a space opera as I've ever seen. My one complaint is that the action and general choreography of the characters can get a bit confusing at times, and there were a few points where I had to go back and read a line over again to make it click. Otherwise, this was a wonderfully creative and breezy read.