Book Review: Sun- Daughters Sea Daughters by Aimee Ogden

 

Sun- Daughters Sea Daughters by Aimee Ogden

112 pages, Paperback, Tor

First published February , 2021

This was an impulse grab at the library, I was scanning the new books, it was short and SF so I figured why not and checked it out cold. Didn’t read the back before I was thirty pages in. I honestly don’t know if a lyrical retelling of Little Mermaid would have turned me off but I was already interested enough to keep reading. I am not sure how those right-wing nut jobs would feel about a far-future gene-edited Seaclan lord but that is our main character.

One of the things that attracted me to this was probably its biggest weakness. This is lyrical, and well-written at times but SDSD suffered from a short page count that tried to do too much. It is rare that I feel something is too short, but the ending felt a little rushed.

That said I enjoyed this but light and fun science fiction reading experience that was more fun than heavy. The world-building feels almost more fantasy and until I read the back cover did I realize that this was a far-future-adapted human society that adapts to alien world by gene-editing.

Once our mermaid stand-in Atuale meets a space rogue Yanja – The World-Witch who takes her into space the story gets a bit more adventure. “Yajna's chair and its harness show signs of long wear and tear scratched metal, fraying straps, a small explosion of foam from an overworked seam. The twinned seat beside it showed no such over-use.”

I quote this as showing an attention to detail I quite liked in this narrative. The adventure has a fairy tale as jumping-off point but space culture that reminded me a bit of Dune, and of course you’ll think Star Wars with the space rogue, a hero’s journey, and a light blade.

There is a disease, a dying home world, a mission to save it, and a subtle love story. This is not groundbreaking stuff but at 105 pages it is a light time investment. At times it felt like it needed more room to grow and yet I am not sure how many more pages the concept could carry. I had fun with it, overall I would give this book a recommendation. Most importantly  I have a new author to put on my radar.