A collection of six stories themed around water, written well but not exactly connecting with me. The Sea King's Son was easily my favorite, with its sweet, earnest romance. I feel very sure that I've read this before elsewhere, but can't think of where. It didn't matter, I still liked reading it. The rest of the stories just weren't for me. But then, I'm not a big fan of Robin McKinley, so it's not really surprising.

Six short stories with the last two, Kraken and A Pool In The Desert being my favorite. The first is suspenseful with a twist and the second took me back to McKinley’s “The Blue Sword” and “The Hero and the Crown”.

A fantasy collection based on the theme of sea magic, from husband & wife Peter Dickinson and Robin McKinley.
I’d say, as far as reading level, this book is probably aimed at young teens, but like classic fairytales, the stories are such as can be enjoyed by all… Young women striving against repressive environments is a recurring theme – hardly a new motif, but it’s generally done effectively. The ending of the last story made me cry!

Mermaid Song – PD
A young girl in a strict, Puritan-type community is able to pay back a generations-old secret debt – and also escape her abusive home life.

The Sea-King’s Son – RM
A young woman narrowly avoids marrying a man who does not love her – and finds a more magical future; in the process eliminating a curse that has lain on her village for years.

Sea Serpent – PD
A fantasy of the end of the times of the chthonic goddess, and her replacement by the gods of men, and their courage and ingenuity. A surprisingly non-strident voice is used to describe the men’s theft of the standing stones of the goddess, and their heroic battle against the priestess’ sea serpent.

Water Horse – RM
A young and unappreciated woman travels from her village to apprentice as a Guardian – one of the magicians who guards their island against the encroachment of the waves. Although unprepared and untried, her unconventional perspective may save her people.

Kraken – PD
A pair of illicit lovers jumps into the sea as a last resort… a young mermaid princess tries to save them, but the unknown kraken of the depths may take more than just the bodies of the drowned lovers…

A Pool in the Desert – RM
Set in the world of Damar (The Blue Sword, The Hero & the Crown). A young woman in a restrictive family environment has been having vivid dreams of a vibrant desert land… it seems real, but when she looks up names and places on the Internet and in the encyclopedia, the nomenclature is out of long-ago legend and myth. Will she have to give up on her dreams and settle for obeying her father and keeping the accounts for his dreary shop?

Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits by Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson is a compilation of short stories. There are 6 total, 3 by each. I really enjoyed all of them, except for The Sea Serpent. I just couldn't get into it. It almost seemed to technical. There was a lot of waves and riding the waves and tides and stuff and it would get in depth about how to do this and that with the raft and waves and I had a hard time imagining it and it wasn't a really happy story either. Not that a story has to be happy for me to like it but it had a mean guy in it busting up a temple that was for women so he could make his own temple for his god. It annoyed me. The one I liked the most was 'A Pool in the Desert' which was another story about Damar. I think I wish I were Damarian. I still dream about it sometimes.

This was the first elemental book by McKinley and Dickenson - the stories are great. My favorites are by McKinley - The Sea-King's Son is a wonderful tale about a young woman, the only child of farmers, and a young man, the only son of the Sea-King. Water Horse tells of a different world where Guardians protect the land against the sea, and Tamia's apprenticeship to one of these Guardians. A Pool in the Desert ties into the Damar books (Blue Sword, etc). I also enjoyed Mermaid Song - imagine the Puritans having to cope with the idea of something as fanciful as mermaids.

Its a good book to just have around for re-reading anytime.

A collection of stories around the theme of water written by a husband-and-wife team. I liked some of the stories better than others, which makes a little more sense when I realized that each author wrote three of the books rather than them all being co-written - I'm a big fan of McKinely's and I liked her three, plus the Mermaid Song the best. Because they were about a young woman coming into her power, like McKinley's stores often are.

Mermaid Song (Dickinson)
The Sea King's Son (McKinley)
Sea Serpent (Dickinson)
Water Horse (McKinley)
Kraken (Dickinson)
A Pool in the Desert (McKinley)

Aside from the occasional Grimm fairytale, I don't usually read anthologies, but anything with mermaids and other water-related myths will grab my attention. For short stories, they are a bit on the long side (there's only seven), but even so, I thoroughly enjoyed them. While I can't pick out a favorite, the "Sea Serpent" didn't grip me as much as the others had. I'm definitely going to check out other works by these two authors and will start paying attention to anthologies more often.

Loved.

magical fairy-tale-like short stories collection, some dark themes, most masked, it felt similar to others like Grimm to an extent.

I normally don’t gravitate towards short story collections because I don’t like that they’re so short where often times you don’t get a good look into the world, the characters, and the overall plot is rushed. However, I think my mind is being changed on these collections due to a BookTuber I watch mentioning that she enjoys them when written by multiple authors to experience new authors and their writing. Very fair point and by reading this one, I’m interested in reading more from Peter Dickinson specifically. I would also possibly like to read more from Robin McKinley, but my favorite story in this was Kraken by Dickinson so I’m going to look up his other works. Not a bad, but not an overwhelmingly impressive collection in my opinion. Kraken made it worth it though I think.

This book showed me I'm more of a novel person. I read the first one and it didn't grab me, in fact after I finished the first story I went straight to the book I really wanted to read instead. So yeah. Maybe I could have given it more of a chance, I like many of Robin McKinley's bookd, but I guess this is something I'm to have to do at another time.

An escape to lovely worlds

These stories are just what I needed right now. I've been reading Robin McKinley's books for decades and she still gives them the best magic. I haven't read her husband's work before. His stories fit well.