Not a bad story, but didn't hold my interest.

Changelings is the result of a collaboration: Anne McCaffrey (of The Dragonriders of Pern fame) and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough (The Healer's War). Although both are fine writers, I found this book less than the talents of either, rather than even just the sum of their abilities.

The story takes place on a sentient planet, Petaybee, as seen through the eyes of the Shongilis, one of the many immigrant families that combine Inuit and Irish heritage. The children of Sean and Yana Shongili are twins, Ronan Born for Water, and Murel Monster Slayer. Their father, Sean, is a selkie-to-human changeling, a trait passed on to the twins.

Petaybee is itself creating a landmass for the people and animals with which it feels a sense of harmony. Volcanic activity--terraforming--is the process of raising land out of the ocean, much as Michener's Hawaii described for that island. The idea of a planetary consciousness appeals to me in these times, especially that it might get to veto things that would harm it.

Yet I found too many sections of the plot predictable, somewhat like a stage play in which the theater-goer sadly finds that each of the props, if there, are certain to figure in the drama. Things are seldom there just for ambiance, mood or the deliciousness of illuminating the setting or a character's choices. And, despite the precocity of the twins, some things are just too pat, too cute.

Moreover, to me the writing often seemed unedited. For example, in the Prologue, the word and phrase repetition almost made me quit. Here's the first paragraph:

"Petaybe was changing. It was always changing. The quakes and eruptions, avalanches and slides, great winds on land and sea, even the ebb and flow of the tide, brought about fundamental changes in the planet's surface, in the way it was. The people who lived on Petaybe knew and accepted this. If it had not been for the changes, jump-started and accelerated by a terraforming process begun only a few decades before, no one would have been able to live on Petayabee. The people made songs about the changes, celebrated them."

Maybe I'm picky. Maybe it's because I'd just come off reading the amazing book Savvy by Ingrid Law, also a fantasy-adventure. Maybe I was having a tough week. But maybe not. I think there is less here than meets the eye. Another story based on a hoary formula.

A continuation of the Petaybee novels, starring the children of the original characters. Some interesting ideas about a senitent planet, and the kids are engaging. A few too many side plots. Like the Acorna books, I think this series has been spun out too long.

12/18/2023: The audio book really brings the kids and their animal friends to life.

I enjoyed the first series, but this series about the wonder twins just didn't do anything for me. I made it through the series, it was interesting enough - but I am a completist, even when it hurts a little.

I'm not sure if I liked the start of this second trilogy as much as I did the first. Mainly because if found the twins just downright annoying, especially to start with. At no point did they actually come across as the age they were supposed to be and acted more like stroppy teenagers.

The start of the novel, with the twins being introduced to Petaybee and them growing up, was interesting, but felt like one long prologue. The middle section, with them living on the space station, was just a bit tedious and even their 'kidnapping' was boring in that you could see it coming a million miles away. But the last third of the novel definitely lifted it back to the status of the first, with everyone caught up with Petaybee's birthing of a new land mass.

A decent enough read and entertaining enough to keep the pages turning.

This was a good read. It was interesting to see a sentient planet. That the village could communicate with the planet was neat too. The selkie twins, Otter, Ke-loa, and the others are all wonderful characters to get to know. I will have to find the other books in this series and finish the story!

My full review is here on my personal website. I'll post a few excerpts here, though:

3.5 out of 5.0 stars

The very worst thing about this book is that, while it continues a decent story, it doesn’t quite match the awesomeness that is the original trilogy.

The very best thing about this book is that is does continue a really entertaining story with some new twists and interesting groups of people.

good

This continuation of the Petaybee series is decent. My main complaint is that it seems to have been written for a younger audience than the original series, which, okay, the main characters are preteens, but I would have enjoyed it more if it had been written more like the original trilogy. After all, it references that series quite a bit so why write it for a younger audience when the other isn't?

This book was just 'okay'. Honestly, I was expecting something a little more 'adult' going in and came out feeling like I'd read a middle-grade novel. Not that the book is 'bad'; I enjoyed the sentient planet, the mind-talking twins, and the talking animals (who had more personality than any of the human characters, in my opinion).

Basically, two young twins live on a sentient planet and can turn into seals. That they can do this (a gift they inherited from their dad) is a secret. When this secret gets discovered by scientists due to their carelessness, their parents force them to leave to live on a space station for a while until the matter can be settled. As well as this issue, their sentient planet (which is mostly, usually, cold) has been 'giving birth' to some new landmasses and volcanoes to create warmer places to live. That's basically the gist of the whole plot. Not much else really happens throughout.

My favorite character was an otter who became the children's friend and swimming partner. He got me to chuckle a few times here and there. Most of the other characters were generic. The twins were too alike and were always together, so I had a hard time distinguishing between them, and none of the other characters had much personality either; the book wasn't long enough to allow time for anyone to truly shine.

Clearly, more complicated background politics were happening. But it's never much touched on in this book—only mentioned here and there. There seems to be some big company or group with a level of control that can allow them to force people off their land and relocate against their will. A corrupt system of government exists.

I'm not invested enough to try reading the sequels, though, especially after reading their summaries. I might recommend this for young readers into sci-fi, a love of ecology, biology, or animals...or as a gateway science fiction for those wanting to ease their way into the genre.

Meh. I doh't think I'll read the rest of the series. It had some interesting moments and the way the author depicted how an otter would think and speak was adorable. The story as a whole just didn't capture me.

I love Anne McCaffrey. Read almost everything she's written. It's nice to slip back into fantasy when the real world gets too much