TBR Feature is the chance for me to, every Wednesday, pick one of my unread books and discuss it: why I picked it up, when I'll get round to reading it, if I'm still interested in it at all etc.
Sea Spell by Jennifer Donnelly
Showing posts with label mermaids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label mermaids. Show all posts
TBR Feature #38
Wednesday, 18 January 2017
TBR Feature is the chance for me to, every Wednesday, pick one of my unread books and discuss it: why I picked it up, when I'll get round to reading it, if I'm still interested in it at all etc.
Dark Tide by Jessica Donnelly
Friday, 18 March 2016
Jennifer Donnelly
Genre(s): Fantasy, Mermaids, Young adult
Published: January 6th 2015
Pages: 313
Rating: 2 stars
“Serafina, Neela, Ling, Ava, Becca, and Astrid, six mermaids from realms scattered throughout the seas and freshwaters, were summoned by the leader of the river witches to learn an incredible truth: the mermaids are direct descendants of the Six Who Ruled-powerful mages who once governed the lost empire of Atlantis. The ancient evil that destroyed Atlantis is stirring again, and only the mermaids can defeat it. To do so, they need to find magical talismans that belonged to the Six.
Serafina believes her talisman was buried with an old shipwreck. While researching its location, she is almost discovered by a death rider patrol led by someone familiar. . . . The pain of seeing him turned traitor is devastating.
Neela travels to Matali to warn her parents of the grave threat facing their world. But they find her story outlandish; a sign that she needs to be confined to her chamber for rest and recovery. She escapes and travels to Kandina, where her talisman is in the possession of fearsome razormouth dragons.
As they hunt for their talismans, both Serafina and Neela find reserves of courage and cunning they didn't know they possessed. They face down danger and death, only to endure a game-changing betrayal, as shocking as a rogue wave.”
A word of advice to anyone who read Deep Blue ages ago and is finally picking up Rogue Wave: re-read the first book and save yourself the headache of trying to remember what happened, and the time take flipping back to the glossary to see what on earth every other word means.
The second book in the Waterfire Saga wastes no time in diving straight in to the mirror we left Sera in. It doesn't take her long to escape and soon we're plunged into her underwater world, with more puns and unpronounceable terminology. Having left well over a year between reading the first and second books, I was left floundering, eternally grateful for the glossary that still didn't really clear up my confusion.
There was still a lot of setting things up for the next book, I found, with a lot of Sera swimming around searching and Neela sitting around trying to escape. In the first hundred pages not a lot had happened (except Mahdi arrived into the picture in what was no doubt meant to be a twist in the
Nevertheless, it was an easy read. Perhaps a little young for me, but no doubt thrilling to those in the intended age rage.
Friday, 3 October 2014
Jennifer Donnelly
Genre(s): Fantasy, Mermaids, Young Adult
Published: May 1st 2014
Pages: 368
Rating: 3 stars
“When Serafina, a mermaid of the Mediterranean Sea, awakens on the morning of her betrothal, her biggest worry should be about reuniting with handsome Prince Mahdi, her childhood crush. Instead she finds herself haunted by strange dreams foretelling the return of an ancient evil, and dealing with the deaths of her parents as assassins storm the betrothal ceremony, plunging the city into chaos.
Led only by her shadowy dreams and pursued by the invading army, Serafina and her best friend Neela embark on a quest to avenge her parents' death and prevent a war between the mer nations. In the process they discover a plot that threatens their - and our - world's very existence.”
Going into Deep Blue, I had never read another mermaid book before, so I was quite excited. I enjoy the mythology surrounding mermaids and sirens, and from the prologue I could tell that this would be full of it - because chants, italicised foreign language, and names with accents all over the place can't mean anything else.
However, I found that when the story started it was... boring. And confusing, and childish. It took a lot for me to get through the all the obvious explanations and weird names for things (I usually don't have any problems with this element of fantasy - I've read Game of Thrones, for christ's sake). All I can say is, at least there's a glossary.
Despite the confusion and annoyance I felt whilst reading, I do have to admit that a lot of thought and time has been put into creating such a complex world, for children and teens, no less. And the fact that this is the first in a series is admirable, too. There aren't many fantasy series for younger readers with this amount of depth, so kudos to Donnelly for giving it a shot.
After the initial introductions to things, the story did start to pick up. I enjoyed the action after Sera's Dokimi, and I can see how it started to set things up for later in the story, and maybe even the next book. The slow start and fairy tale-esque descriptions at the beginning masked what I found to be quite a good book. It was full of mermaid myth, a rich and detailed world, goo dialogue, and interesting characters. I understand why things got off on the wrong foot - things have to be established somehow - but I don't think I can forgive it for pulling the rest of the story down with it.
I will be continuing on with the Waterfire Saga, but I can't see it becoming one of my favourite series.