Originally reviewed on The Book SmugglersIn a small fishing village on the coast of the wide, stormy sea, a bright-eyed young woman named Periwinkle makes her home. After her father, a fisherman, rows out his ship and never returns, Peri's mother lapses into quiet despair, forgetting to talk and always staring out at the roiling sea and fantasizing about the people that live in its depths. Without her parents to watch over her or remind her to do things like brush her hair or hem her clothes, Peri grows from a quiet child to a wild and somewhat neglected young woman - her hair always a tangle, her dresses bleached of all color, too tight in some places, too loose in others. Even the old wise woman who used to brush Peri's hair in her small cottage disappears one day, leaving Peri without anyone to care for her at all. During the day, she works at the local inn, scrubbing floors and cleaning rooms; by night, she returns to the old woman's cottage and makes her own isolated home where she plots her revenge against the sea. Hateful of the ocean that has taken both of her parents away, Peri crafts three crude hexes to curse the sea - it is here that she meets Prince Kir, who also knew the wise woman and years for her counsel. Kir has deep troubles of his own, also connected to the watery depths, and hopes that Peri can help him make his peace with the ocean that haunts his every waking moment. When Peri finishes her hexes and throws them deep into the great water, she also includes an offering from Kir - and to Peri's great astonishment, her hexes start to work. A great sea dragon starts to appear amongst the fishermen's boats on the sea, with an impossibly large gold chain around its neck. Then, a magician comes to town, promising that he will be able to remove the chain and give the gold to the villagers - for a price. And most importantly, Kir's dreams of the sea grow more fevered and frantic, as his own unknown, hidden past catches up to him. And it is all up to Periwinkle to set everything back to rights.To date, I've only read a handful of books and short stories from Patricia McKillip, mostly her recent releases. The Changeling Sea, however, is one of McKillip's earlier works, originally published in the 1980s and instantly endeared itself to me - a changeling fable that takes place by the stormy sea? What better place to jump into McKillip's rich and extensive backlist? And you know what? I absolutely loved this book. Shortly put: The Changeling Sea is another gorgeous, wonderful book from the incredibly talented McKillip.I'm going to say something that sounds incredibly cheesy, but it is so very true: Patricia McKillip has a way with words that is simply magical. Like The Bell at Sealey Head or The Bards of Bone Plain, The Changeling Sea is a slender book, but one written with lush and evocative prose that is as beautiful as it is simple. For example:A sigh, smelling of shrimp and seaweed, wafted over the water... In the deep waters beyond the stones, a great flaming sea-thing gazed back at her, big as a house or two, its mouth a strainer like the mouth of a baleen whale, its translucent fiery streamers coiling and uncoiling languorously in the warm waters. The brow fins over its wide eyes gave it a surprised expression. Around its neck, like a dog collar, was a massive chain of pure gold.Beautiful, no? Such is McKillip's writing, littered throughout with these gleaming gems of description and story. Love and anger are like land and sea: They meet at many different places.As the title suggests, The Changeling Sea is a fable about a changeling, and a story whose heart is inextricably tied to the sea. It's a book about love - no, scratch that. It's actually a book about yearning for what once was, and what can never be again. It's the book of a King that yearns for the beauty of the sea queen in all her splendor, the story of two brothers crossed at birth that yearn for their true homes on sea and on land. It's the story of a wild haired, barefooted fisherman's daughter that dares hex the spiteful sea, and yearns for the love of one that can never return it. Aren't these some of the best of all? These stories of want and hate and love, all jumbled up into one powerful package of emotion?And then there are the characters! Periwinkle, our heroine, is a pinched and angry character at first, who scowls at the ocean but refuses to leave its shores despite her hate. She's bold and wild, who cares little about the conventions that bind others - she doesn't have secret dreams of catching the prince's eye like the other girls who work at the inn, and she doesn't pay attention to her clothes or her hair. She's smart but rough around the edges, passionate but obstinate - and for all that, a character you cannot help but love, flaws and all. There is the tortured Kir, who is...well, defined by his yearning for the ocean and his feeling that he does not belong on dry land. There's also the sea dragon himself, who is not at all what he seems, and a king that has made mistakes in his past but loves his children and lovers dearly. But for all that, my other favorite character in this beautiful little book is Lyo - the canny magician, with his smiling face and his penchant for twisting magic in delightful, unexpected ways.All in all, I loved The Changeling Sea, and absolutely recommend it. I cannot wait to try more of Patricia McKillip's work - now, any suggestions on where to go next?
reviews.metaphorosis.com3.5 starsPeri, daughter of a fisherman lost to the sea, meets Prince Kir, who has his own strange ties to the sea. When a sea dragon with a gold chain appears, she tries to unravel the mystery with the help of an enigmatic magician.The first Patricia McKillip book I read was The Forgotten Beasts of Eld. I didn't care for it, and mostly found it dull. I think I considered The Throme of the Erril of Sherrill, but the strange title put me off. Somehow, though, some years later I happened across, as I hope everyone does, The Riddle-Master of Hed. If you haven't read that, drop everything and go get it now.Despite Riddle-Master's success, not everything McKillip tackled worked so well. The Changeling Sea was preceded by McKillip's only (I think) fling with science fiction (the Moon-Flash stories) - an interesting but uneven duology. It was followed by the Cygnet duology, which started well, but ended weakly. McKillip seems to have been finding her feet before finding the storytelling style she later perfected.I recall being disappointed by Changeling Sea.I liked it better this time, but it's still not great. It doesn't have the depth of Riddle-Master - not in the story, the characters, the emotions, or the magic. It's a thin volume, and it reads that way. It is charming, in the way of later McKillip books. Peri is a likeable, capable young woman who does the things we might. There's no simpering, no coy smiles, no damsel in distress. Most of the other characters are similarly pleasant.Changeling Sea should probably just have been a bigger book. There's no room in this limited space to explore everything that's going on, or, better said, McKillip doesn't use the space well. The ending is thin, and tends more toward golden sunsets than the credible, real people that the book is built on. Looking back, it's as if McKillip has found the tone that suits her, but hasn't yet found stories to go with it. Changeling Sea is the start of a good story, but the end of a weak one.If you're a McKillip fan, go ahead and read. You'll like it well enough. If you're new to McKillip, this is not the place to start. She's an amazing writer, but this book won't prove it. For everyone else - this is light, harmless fun. If you can borrow it or get it cheap, have at it. If not, make it one of the later books you add to your collection, after some of her stronger works.
What do You think about The Changeling Sea (2003)?
This short, standalone novel (a novella really) written in McKillip's usual beautiful yet elliptical style is exactly the sort of thing that I come to expect from her work.A lowly scullery maid, who's fisher father died at sea and who's mother is psychologically lost to the sea, hates the ocean and tries to put a hex on it but ends up becoming embroiled in powerful magic and the King's family who's one time tryst with the sea queen is coming back to haunt him.Those who have read McKillip before will find the evocative prose and the opaque dialogue, in which the characters seem to talk around each other, quite familiar. Once again the emphasis is not on action but rather the emotional conflict and tension.Not quite up to the standard of The Forgotten Beasts of Eld but a very good book nonetheless.
—Simon
I had a difficult time rating this one as I'd give it 4.5 stars if it was possible. 5 points was too much though as despite reading it almost at one siting it lacked something. Maybe if I didn't expect this book to have a certain ending I would have given it higher note, I don't know. What I'm certain about is that it was an extraordinary story, I almost felt the sea's smell and wind's blow at my back while reading it... I love stories that take place on the shore, they are somehow exciting for me, especially when they tell about the mystical, magical creatures like The Changeling Sea. I'll definitely come back to this one during my daily daydreaming!
—Martyna
If there is one word I’d use to describe the sea, that word would be enchanting . The sea has magic. A strange kind of pull is felt by anyone who wishes to feel this magic. When most people visit the seaside, the first fear that strikes them is that the sea water and the harsh sun will tan their skins. Very few people really understand the beauty of the sea. The different moods it experiences. The rage of the sea when expressed by giant waves crashing at the shore. And then, the calm. The serene flow of the water when the sea is at peace. We take water for granted, don’t we? No one pays attention to the sea until finally, the sea demands attention in a way that terrorises us humans who are at her mercy. The sea, it’s water and everything in it, is beautiful. If only one opens their eyes.This is my first book by Patricia A. McKillip. I had never heard of this particular authoress but the cover of my copy has mentioned her as one of the masters of Fantasy in America. That led to some pretty high expectations. The story is about a young girl by the name of Periwinkle, Peri for short. She has lost her father to the sea and her little family consisting of her mother and herself is in a state of mourning. Peri’s mother is much aggrieved and she stops communicating with her daughter and gazes out to the sea in hopes of seeing her husband again. Peri loses both her parents in that tragedy. She is all alone and she feels resentment towards the sea that took her father so she, in a fit of rage, hexes the sea. She doesn’t believe that her hex would have worked since she knows very little magic, so she resumes her life as a floor-scrubber in the inn she works at.Little did she know that her simple hex would bring so many changes into her life. Suddenly she meets the two sons of the King. Princes by birth, both are very different from each other. Peri wonders how men of royal blood would look twice at a humble maid such as herself. What Peri doesn’t know is that she has magic as well. Not only the kind of magic we read in books and hear about in fables. There’s magic in her heart. The kind of magic that attracts people simply because it is irresistible. This magic in Peri is what attracts a magician named Lyo towards her. He takes interest in Peri’s life because her sorrow speaks to him. Her selfless heart makes him want to know more about her. Peri and Lyo help both princes while they await their fate and eventually achieve their destiny. The novella is about so many different things, love, hope, friendship, coming of age and even sorrow. Some books can never express so many different topics in 500+ pages and then there are books like this one, that makes you sit up and take notice. It overwhelms you in many ways. While the words are sheer poetry and makes you yearn for the sea, the plot makes you root for the characters and hope that they can achieve all the things they want in their lives. Many thanks to Manju for this wonderful recommendation and apologies for taking so long. But I really needed to savour this one.
—Shinjini
