Sirena by Donna Jo Napoli
I liked this fairy tale by Ms. Napoli fairly well but I didn't think it was my favorite of hers. Sirena is one of fifty mermaids born of the eggs of a rainbow fish, fathered by the Greek god Eros. To avoid a curse and attain immortality each mermaid must seduce a mortal man to lie with her. However, living near a rocky shoal near an inhospitable island does not bode well for the sailors that Sirena's pod tries to call to their arms.
Set during the onset of the Trojan War the mermaids take advantage of the thousand ships worth of sailors to lure a few in but after seeing that most of the men drown and then watching the angry survivors beat one of her sisters to death, Sirena decides that the seducing beauty of her voice is not the way to attain her immortality.
Sirena lives alone for a time around the deserted island of Lemnos when a ship full of Greeks stops by her shores to deposit a man, effectively abandoning him to her care. The man is Philoctetes - friend to Heracles and therefore disliked by Hera. A sea serpent bit his leg and his fellow sailors left him to die. Sirena saves his life.
This book is good in that Sirena, despite being immortal is not perfect. She loves Philoctetes but doubts his love for her~ thinking that he was only staying with her because of the charm of her voice. However, once she realizes that he does love her too it is because he is going away to end the Trojan War and won't be back. And then the story abruptly ends. Revelation achieved. Story finished. No tidying up.
The action was somewhat stilted too. When Sirena gets into dangerous or harmful situations the descriptions of what are actually going on are sketchy but gets summed up in about a sentence.
I liked this fairy tale by Ms. Napoli fairly well but I didn't think it was my favorite of hers. Sirena is one of fifty mermaids born of the eggs of a rainbow fish, fathered by the Greek god Eros. To avoid a curse and attain immortality each mermaid must seduce a mortal man to lie with her. However, living near a rocky shoal near an inhospitable island does not bode well for the sailors that Sirena's pod tries to call to their arms.
Set during the onset of the Trojan War the mermaids take advantage of the thousand ships worth of sailors to lure a few in but after seeing that most of the men drown and then watching the angry survivors beat one of her sisters to death, Sirena decides that the seducing beauty of her voice is not the way to attain her immortality.
Sirena lives alone for a time around the deserted island of Lemnos when a ship full of Greeks stops by her shores to deposit a man, effectively abandoning him to her care. The man is Philoctetes - friend to Heracles and therefore disliked by Hera. A sea serpent bit his leg and his fellow sailors left him to die. Sirena saves his life.
This book is good in that Sirena, despite being immortal is not perfect. She loves Philoctetes but doubts his love for her~ thinking that he was only staying with her because of the charm of her voice. However, once she realizes that he does love her too it is because he is going away to end the Trojan War and won't be back. And then the story abruptly ends. Revelation achieved. Story finished. No tidying up.
The action was somewhat stilted too. When Sirena gets into dangerous or harmful situations the descriptions of what are actually going on are sketchy but gets summed up in about a sentence.
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