Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits [Library Binding]

Robin McKinley (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2003

Haunting, captivating, and beautifully rendered, Water explores the magical creatures that inhabit the sea. Some are as almost-familiar as mermaids; others are as strange as the thing glimpsed only as a golden eye in a pool at the edge of Damar's Great Desert Kalarsham. And then there is the unknowable, immense Kraken who lives beyond the darkness of the deepest ocean-a shadowy being who one day will rise and rule the world...

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Each highly respected authors in their own right, husband and wife Dickinson (The Ropemaker) and McKinley (Spindle's End) collaborate for the first time on a collection of enchanting tales linked by an aquatic theme. Infused with selkie legends and Greek and Roman underworld myths, the tales possess a consistently compelling, rhythmic tone, despite the fact that the authors alternate in the tellings. Dickinson's opening "Mermaid Song" sets the tone for a tenuous relationship between those who dwell on sand and in sea; only the landsman who has listened to the stories passed down through generations can accord the sea its proper respect. McKinley's "The Sea-King's Son" builds on the traditional tale of the Sea-King's daughter who falls in love with a musician, but with a satisfying twist. Taken together, the installments also raise some thought-provoking issues. In "Mermaid Song," for instance, Pitiable Nasmith must lie in order to escape her grandfather's abusive home, while Hetta in "A Pool in the Desert" struggles with what constitutes truth. The workings of the Guardians' magic in McKinley's "Water Horse" remains mysterious, and Dickinson never entirely explains the gender-divided mythology in "Sea Serpent" but fans of myths won't mind filling in the gaps. These creative interpretations brim with suspenseful, chilling and wonderfully supernatural scenes, from Iril's daring plan to kill the murderous sea serpent to Hetta's literal leap of faith. Ages 12-up.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From School Library Journal

Grade 6 Up-Two generally brilliant writers alternate first-rate tales in this six-story collection. McKinley allows hearts' desires to be achieved in all three of her contributions: one young woman braves a curse and falls in love with "The Sea-King's Son"; another discovers her own subtle kind of magic in defeating a giant, wildly destructive "Water Horse." A third dreams of Damar, the setting of McKinley's Blue Sword (1982) and Hero and the Crown (1984, both Greenwillow), then finds a way to travel there, escaping through space and time from a soul-deadening existence. In Dickinson's tales, which are darker in tone, a "Mermaid Song" helps an abused child escape her violent father; a lame ferryman, caught in a struggle between old gods and new, battles an immense "Sea Serpent"; and while helping to save human lovers from drowning, a mer-princess draws the attention of an immortal, coldly alien "Kraken" from the deeps. The masterfully written stories all feature distinct, richly detailed casts and settings, are free of the woodenly formal language that plagues so much fantasy, and focus as strongly on action as on character. There's plenty here to excite, enthrall, and move even the pickiest readers.
John Peters, New York Public Library
Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Library Binding
• Publisher: San Val (May 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1417670665
• ISBN-13: 978-1417670666
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (20 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Robin McKinley has won various awards and citations for her writing, including the Newbery Medal for The Hero and the Crown and a Newbery Honor for The Blue Sword. Her other books include Sunshine; the New York Times bestseller Spindle's End; two novel-length retellings of the fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Beauty and Rose Daughter; and a retelling of the Robin Hood legend, The Outlaws of Sherwood. She lives with her husband, the English writer Peter Dickinson.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A humble review, July 23, 2005

By 

S. Barker "Managarm" (The Forest, Neverland, Nowhere) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits (Hardcover)

I've been a fan of McKinley's writing ever since I randomly selected "Spindle's End" off the shelf at the local Borders, and so when I discovered the collection of short stories put together by her and her husband Peter Dickenson (all based around my favorite of the four elements), I was thrilled.

Once again, Robin has not let me down in her production of fantastic tales. From the hopeful, innocent, and adorably naive Sea-King's Son to the continuance of her famous Damarian stories, I was sucked into the worlds that Robin creates once again and came out the other side with a smile on my face.

Peter Dickenson's stories were a delightfully dark contrast to Robin's upbeat and cheerful writing style. I admit that, at first, I found his stories to be slightly dry and slow (though The Kraken was wonderful), and even left off reading Sea Serpent for boredom. However, just this past week, I decided to give the story another go, as it was the only one in the book I hadn't read and I was desperate for new material. It took me but a few pages to realize that he was, in fact, writing about one of my favorite subjects: Arthurian Legend. I'd read in one of the other customer reviews that they felt that the gender-issues presented in this story were never fully explained. They must have, however, not caught the obvious references to Merlin, Stonehenge, the English Channel, and the battle between Christianity and Paganism (the male Church vs. the priestesses of Avalon). After seeing the connection, I paid closer attention to the story and, while it didn't become my favorite, it certainly raised my opinion of Dickenson as a writer.

Overall, the stories were well worth reading and were a great source of entertainment and enjoyment. I can only hope that the pair will release a book for each of the other three elements. Congrats Robin and Peter, you did a great job.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Six short stories (3 by each author), December 24, 2005

By 

Michele L. Worley (Kingdom of the Mouse, United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Water: Tales of Elemental Spirits (Hardcover)

On the whole, I was drawn into RM's stories more quickly than PD's (my favourites are "The Sea King's Son" and "The Water Horse"), although after repeated exposure I've developed some liking for two of his three. McKinley's stories herein seem to me to have more detailed and polished world-building. None of the six, to my knowledge, have been published previously.

"Mermaid Song" (PD) Setting = very like Puritan New England. (I'd have enjoyed it more if PD had simply made it an alternate Puritan history.) While the mundane setting may be off-putting at first, the sea-people's introduction is well handled when it comes. In a way, this is two stories - a family tradition (handed down from mother to daughter) and the story of the protagonist, young Pitiable Nasmith, left with her maternal grandparents upon her mother's death in childbirth.

Near the end of her life, Pitiable's grandmother tells her the story behind the most unusual of her songs - how their ancestress Charity Goodrich really survived shipwreck upon arriving in the new world as a girl. Although the People's culture isn't fleshed out much, the first contact scene between Charity and her sea-children rescuers is realistically detailed. In a neat reversal of some sea-people stories, the air-breathing person was a pet, kept in an undersea cave with no way out.

The present-day story turns grim when the grandfather takes to drink after his wife's death, which seems to have quenched what little of his heart survived his daughter's passing. Eventually he takes to walking along the seashore, and finds something that only Pitiable has learned to recognize, shaping up to a possible reversal of the secret tradition.

"The Sea-King's Son" (RM) Jenny, only child of a well-off farming family, grew into shyness as she grew up, and never let on that she had fallen in love with Robert, a good-looking younger son of another farming family from a village on the far side of the harbour separating the small towns they live in - a harbour under a curse by the king of the sea people, to avenge an injustice inflicted by the land people in the days when the two races had dealings with one another (though only a trade in luxury items, never friendship, each race considering the other too alien to grow close to). But when Jenny's parents make plans to send her away to the city for a season, in the hope that she might shake off her shyness, and perhaps find a good husband, Robert finally makes a move - for love of Jenny's inheritance rather than for her. But late in their courtship, Jenny makes an unannounced visit alone to Robert's family home, and what she learns there is more terrible for her than any ancient tale of sea-curses, and drives her onto the shortest road home - the direct route across the harbour.

"Sea Serpent" (PD) I was disappointed with the initial scene-setting, although the wave-riders eventually won me over a bit. The conflict between the New religion's chief god and the Old's chief goddess comes to a head as the builder of a new temple seeks building stone taken from the goddess' shrine (which seemed unoriginal). The magic-working temple-builder forces the neutral wave-riders, worshippers of the Sea God, to help transport the stones. The details of the minutiae, practical politics, and ethics of the wave-riders' work make the latter portion of the story a decent read.

"Water Horse" (RM) "This island is a strange place...a threshold between land and water; and the boundary between us is striven for, and fought over, and it shifts sometimes this way, and sometimes that...it is over this one island that the war is fought, and if once we yielded, then all those lands behind us - farther from the boundary we protect - would immediately come under threat, and they have no Guardians. We are the Guardians; and here we hold the line." So says Western Mouth to her inland-born apprentice, Tamia, who began her training at fourteen as do all apprentices, and can't help worrying that she's not really suitable for the work. But Western Mouth was a very old woman by the time Tamia came along...When Western Mouth has a stroke five years into Tamia's apprenticeship, the defenses are torn open, allowing a creature of sea-magic to slip through that Tamia must face in her Guardian's stead.

"Kraken" (PD) Somewhat similar to "Mermaid Song", although the two humans swept into the water are saved by more supernatural means and for more complex reasons. The protagonist, a young sea-princess indulging in her last rule-breaking before coming of age, runs serious risks to try to return them to the upper air.

"A Pool in the Desert" (RM) The only Damar story herein - not surprising, for a country bordered by desert in the more recent ages of the world. The protagonist, a present-day Homelander (not unlike our own present), begins dreaming of a time so far in Damar's past that it has become legend, and finds it far more like home than her parents' household, with their stranglehold on their children.

12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars I enjoyed this book, October 2, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Water (Paperback)

I am a major Robin McKinley fan. What I love best is her facility with the English language. For someone who reads with an internal ear to the music of the written word, her prose is rich with melody and grace.

If you expect Peter Dickinson's writing to be like McKinley's, you will be disappointed. His voice is very different - a sparer cello & oboe melody compared to her dancing flutes and trumpets. It's not better or worse, but it is different. His stories are more stark. The themes are darker. But they have their own beauty.

I also really enjoyed the one Damarian tale. As McKinley's writing has matured, her female heroines have become less fairy princesses, and more survivors who find it within themselves to meet challenges and endure. Her heroes also have a few more realistic warts. This story is about a survivor. A woman who keeps her soul intact against all odds, and ultimately finds it within herself (with her sister's encouragement) to follow her dreams and change her destiny. I also liked that it was set in the present day. Perhaps there's just to much realism in it for some - we all know creeps like Hetta's parents - but I think that makes it even more satisfying. Who needs dreams more than those whose reality is a prison?

In any case, if you read the book, read it one story at a time, and enjoy the changing voices.