The Call of the Sea
May. 5th, 2007 05:17 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kerravonsenI've just finished re-reading "Ultramarine" by Jenny Nimmo, and before that I was reading "The Changeling Sea" by Patricia McKillip. It's interesting comparing the two of them.
Both stories are about people who live on the edge of the sea, where the sea has magic, and about people who are (or may be) half-human and half sea-person. How the sea calls them and they cannot live away from it. About those who have been left behind in sorrow because the sea killed someone they loved.
As is usual for Patricia McKillip, "The Changeling Sea" is poetic, magical, mysterious, atmospheric. "Ultramarine" is magical and atmospheric too, but it is rooted in the real world; the touch of the Other is ambiguous, a feather-touch, it may or may not be real. The plot in "Ultramarine" is more plotty and makes more sense than the plot in "The Changeling Sea"; oh, it isn't that the "The Changeling Sea" doesn't make sense, but there are certain details that don't really hold up to closer examination. Whereas in "Ultramarine" the pieces of the puzzle come together in a satisfying conclusion. But it's funny, I remember liking the atmosphere in "Ultramarine" when I first read it, but reading it back to back with "The Changeling Sea", it seems almost prosaic in comparison.
Both stories are about people who live on the edge of the sea, where the sea has magic, and about people who are (or may be) half-human and half sea-person. How the sea calls them and they cannot live away from it. About those who have been left behind in sorrow because the sea killed someone they loved.
As is usual for Patricia McKillip, "The Changeling Sea" is poetic, magical, mysterious, atmospheric. "Ultramarine" is magical and atmospheric too, but it is rooted in the real world; the touch of the Other is ambiguous, a feather-touch, it may or may not be real. The plot in "Ultramarine" is more plotty and makes more sense than the plot in "The Changeling Sea"; oh, it isn't that the "The Changeling Sea" doesn't make sense, but there are certain details that don't really hold up to closer examination. Whereas in "Ultramarine" the pieces of the puzzle come together in a satisfying conclusion. But it's funny, I remember liking the atmosphere in "Ultramarine" when I first read it, but reading it back to back with "The Changeling Sea", it seems almost prosaic in comparison.
