SciFi Novella Review: Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden

 



Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters by Aimee Ogden

Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters is I believe the debut* novella by Aimee Ogden (who has other short fiction credits).  Oddly, thanks to an eARC I actually read her second novella, which comes out in April - Local Star - a few months back and reviewed it already on this blog - and I enjoyed its space opera polyamorous queer story a good bit.  So I was very interested to see how this novella, advertised as a space opera reimagining of The Little Mermaid, would be.  

And while I'm not sure Sun-Daughters, Sea-Daughters will necessarily remind anyone of The Little Mermaid who hasn't seen that comparison beforehand, it's still a solid enjoyable novella with some really interesting themes and characters.  Like her other novella, it's very much a queer tale, featuring a girl from a sea dwelling race who change genders who had a childhood friend, a witch, turn her into a land-dweller so she could be with the man she loved....only to be forced to confront her past choices once her love falls ill with a plague.  The themes of love, of choices not taken, and of being okay with that in the end and still finding happiness work pretty well.  

Quick Plot Summary:  Atuale was the daughter of the Greatclan Lord from under the sea and was expected to change to male and marry for the benefit of the clan.  But with the help of the technology of the World-Witch, a childhood friend (and lover), Atuale changed her body to allow her to survive on land and ran away.  Atuale's escape resulted in a war under the sea, but she put that past behind to be with the landbound man she loved.  

Now, a plague is tearing through her new landbound clan, affecting everyone but Atuale due to her undersea origins.  Atuale's only hope of saving the one she loves is to go back to the World-Witch, years later, in hopes that the witch will gift her with tech from the stars to save them all.  But the World-Witch has his own feelings for Atuale and the journey that he takes her on to the stars will make her question her past and her future.  


Thoughts:  So you can see the Little Mermaid inspirations from that plot summary - as our protagonist went to a witch to make her able to live on the land to be with the one she loved....but this takes place after that, with the bulk of the story dealing with Atuale remembering and reconsidering the choices that led her to that choice when confronted with needing the witch - who she loved as a girl and who the reader will quickly realize still does love Atuale.  And yet the Witch, Yanja, also used her in changing her, and had ulterior motives besides helping Atuale (her people benefitted from Atuale's father going to war) and Atuale can't easily get past that, leading to them both feeling a little betrayed by the other.  

And so the plot advances, as Yanja takes Atuale into space in search of someone who can help her new clan and love, and Atuale, through both flashbacks and the present plot - where she has to convince people to help even though Atuale might herself be a carrier of the plague, which makes the choice to help her quickly difficult or the alien-esque humans she meets (a plot point that might seem especially apt right now) - begins to reconsider her past actions and whether those choices were right.  And the interesting answer this book comes to is that well, her choices were right, but that doesn't mean she can't regret choices not taken, and can't try for the future to do something a little different to make up for her misgivings about her past.  And that she can love more than one person or people, with all those loves working together to make a healthy and happy future.  It's a conclusion that I liked a lot, through the end.