I love almost anything Patricia A. McKillip writes and this is another winner. Her writing is so evocative and seemingly effortless. In her books, one can always find magic, romance and beauty tinged with a little sadness. If you have not already tried this author, let me wholeheartedly recommend her books- they are all worth it.

Patricia McKillip is a marvellous and poetic writer and I have always enjoyed her books and this was no exception. It is centred on the sea and the relationship between the sea and land based mortals. Beautifully written it tips you straight into a wonderful and strange world from which you emerge spluttering and regretfully as though you had been immersed in the ocean.

Easy read, but the story was a little hard to follow at times. That, and the character was a bit of a Mary Sue, but a least she was likeable. I'd recommend it more for young adult readers than for adults. I'll toss it to my sister and see what she thinks.

What a delight! The Changeling Sea is another recommendation from a literary friend of mine. It was her first McKillip fantasy, as it is mine. It captivated me!

The island fishing village dotted with its small cast of characters LIVE. In my studies literature we discussed flat versus round characters...round being multi-dimensional, complex, with flaws and contradictions, and as such, quite believable as real people. Peri and and the novel's expanding cast of incredible characters became more richly credible page by page while preserving their own intrinsic wonder.

Peri, a young woman coming of age, is both drawn to and repelled by the sea, which colors her moods and undergirds her days. Actually, it's her grief and loneliness which seem like hatred of the sea to her, but her interaction with the sea sets in motion a series of events which reveal the complications of the human heart and the unpredictable ramifications of entanglements with the people of the sea. When the mysteries are fully revealed and healing becomes a possibility, the characters retain their luminosity. I savored encountering their lucid depth--what a treat.

This story unfolded as true to itself rather than along any lines of canned, formulaic expectations. It worked itself out the way it did because the story IS. Again, this was wrought with such a degree of immediacy and vibrancy that I felt I was watching a true story unfold, a rare experience for me. Though of a different scope and length, in this sense it recalls Tolkien's fully developed Middle-Earth, which could not feel fictitious, so thoroughly imagined and expressed it was in his great work, The Lord of the Rings.

I've attempted to avoid any spoilers in case you catch a spray of salt from the sea waves and find yourself inspired to read The Changeling Sea. I hope it delights you as much as it did me. And I look forward to a new favorite author, well-established in the world of fantasy fiction but tantalizingly new to me! Hurray!