This book was a fantasy that really held about 6 different stories stacked on top of each other to form one novel--so the story was more reminiscent of the Arabian Nights setup than an actual novel. It reminded me of a fantasy I would have enjoyed reading as a kid with Krystl, which made me like reading it now. However, I got tired of the stacked plot near the end and really felt as if things were just "randomly" happening and the book didn't feel very much like a "whole" to me. I almost think the stories should have been featured as 6 separate short stories with a related theme rather than as a novel, because I was looking for a sense of continuity that wasn't quite there.
At first the fairy-tale style of writing got on my nerves (phrases like, "He was but a boy," etc.) but it was so consistent that I fell in with it and actually think it made the book quite charming in the end. The most annoying thing about this book was that the back cover makes it sound like it's gonna be a cool book about a mermaid--and the mermaid is only present in about the first 10 pages. And she never comes back. That's like, false advertising.
Anyway, this book was originally published in 1974 and I can tell it's one of Jane Yolen's earlier books. But it's all right.
At first the fairy-tale style of writing got on my nerves (phrases like, "He was but a boy," etc.) but it was so consistent that I fell in with it and actually think it made the book quite charming in the end. The most annoying thing about this book was that the back cover makes it sound like it's gonna be a cool book about a mermaid--and the mermaid is only present in about the first 10 pages. And she never comes back. That's like, false advertising.
Anyway, this book was originally published in 1974 and I can tell it's one of Jane Yolen's earlier books. But it's all right.
