Summary
Dreamer Megan and pragmatic Jonah are a couple living in a coastal community in Pacific Northwest, she an artist specializing in drawings of the ocean and tidepools and he the proprietor of a curio ship. When Megan realizes her drawings are taking on a life of their own, incorporating elements she does not recall putting in them, she is drawn into a bond with strange jewelry crafter Adam Fin. Jonah is suspicious of Fin, but himself attracted to a singer in a pub whom he later reencounters as a mermaid in a sea cave.
Despite warnings, Megan and Jonah are lured away from each other by their Faerie visitors into an underwater world, into which the latter vanishes. Megan finds can only recover him at a great cost.
Reception
Roland Green in Booklist calls the book "extremely well done, powerfully evocative of the mystery of the sea; its pacing is, however, definitely on the slow side." [2]
According to Publishers Weekly , "McKillip (The Cygnet and the Firebird) weaves a potent tale, which was inspired by the somewhat frenzied drawings provided by award-winning fantasy illustrator Froud." The reviewer feels the novel "lives up to" its Shakespearean title. [3]
The novel was also reviewed by Carolyn Cushman in Locus no. 405 October 1994, Gary K. Wolfe in Locus no. 407, December 1994, and John C. Bunnell in Dragon Magazine , no. 213, January 1995. [1]
Brian Froud is an English fantasy illustrator and conceptual designer. He is most widely known for his 1978 book Faeries with Alan Lee, and as the conceptual designer of the Jim Henson films The Dark Crystal (1982) and Labyrinth (1986). According to Wired, Froud is "one of the most pre-emiminent visualizers of the world of faerie and folktale".
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The Liveship Traders is a trilogy of fantasy novels by American author Robin Hobb. A nautical fantasy series, the Liveship Traders is the second trilogy set in the Realm of the Elderlings and features pirates, sea serpents, a family of traders and their living ships. Several critics regard it as Hobb's best work.
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The Cygnet and the Firebird is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip, a sequel to her earlier novel The Sorceress and the Cygnet. Despite a mixed reception, it was nominated for the 1994 Mythopoeic Fantasy Award for Adult Literature. It was first published in hardcover by Ace Books in September 1993, with a paperback following from the same publisher in September 1995. The first British edition was published in paperback by Pan Books in July 1994. It was subsequently combined with The Sorceress and the Cygnet into the omnibus collection Cygnet, issued in trade paperback by Ace Books in March 2007. It has also been translated into French.
The Sorceress and the Cygnet is a fantasy novel by Patricia A. McKillip. It was first published in hardcover by Ace Books in May 1991, with a paperback edition following from the same publisher in January 1992. The first British edition was published in hardcover and trade paperback by Pan Books in June 1991, with a standard paperback edition following from the same publisher in May 1992. It was subsequently combined with its sequel The Cygnet and the Firebird into the omnibus collection Cygnet, issued in trade paperback by Ace Books in March 2007.
Gods of Jade and Shadow is a historical fantasy novel by Canadian-Mexican novelist Silvia Moreno-Garcia. It was first published in hardcover and ebook by Del Rey Books in July 2019, followed by a trade paperback edition from the same publisher in February 2020. The first British edition was issued in trade paperback by Jo Fletcher Books in February 2020.
The Witness for the Dead is a fantasy novel written by the American author Sarah Monette under the pseudonym Katherine Addison, set in the same world as her award-winning earlier novel The Goblin Emperor. The book was first published in hardcover and ebook by Tor Books in June 2021, with an audio version issued simultaneously by MacMillan Audio and narrated by Liam Gerrard; a British edition was issued in trade paperback and ebook by Solaris in July of the same year with Liam Gerrard again narrating the audiobook. The novel was well-received by critics.
