As a young girl playing on the beach, Jenny stumbled upon a
merman, just a boy her own age. Her wonder at the discovery
soon turned to terror when the boy's father suddenly
appeared out of the ocean and dragged his screaming son
back to sea. Jenny never stopped thinking about that boy.
In time, she began to share his dreams. As a woman, Jenny
makes her living as a marine biologist and has never
stopped searching for boy with the silver hair who shares
her dream-life.
Banished from the sea, Perrin has always kept Jenny in his
heart. He knows their shared dreams are important. They are
both about to find out that the power of their dreams will
keep a sleeping monster at bay and avert an Apocalypse.
Their quest to save the world and quiet a sleeping beast is
interrupted by both their people. The merfolk think of
Perrin as tainted and see Jenny as unworthy to carry their
mark; she is a mere human after all. Humans are hunting
them both; Perrin for research and Jenny is a little
different, as well. There are many, her own family
included, who think she is worth studying, or at least
worth controlling.
This is a wonderful story: a strong story arc that knows
where it's going with characters who capably lead it to its
conclusion. Liu chooses creatures of myth and fantasy that
we hardly ever see stories about. No vampires or werewolves
tearing through her pages. The characters have a strong
connection dating back to their childhoods, so there is so
much more to their relationship than the physical, although
the physical is there too. Liu keeps getting better and
better, her stories are dark, lyrical, magical and
sometimes...dreamlike.
She could never forget the boy with the ice blue eyes...
She was only twelve when she saw the silver boy on the
beach, but Jenny has never stopped dreaming about him. Now
she is grown, a marine biologist charting her own course
in the family business - a corporation that covertly
crosses the boundaries of science into realms of the
unknown...and the incredible.
And now he has found her again, her boy grown into a man:
Perrin, powerful and masculine, and so much more than
human, leaving Jenny weak with desire and aching for his
touch.
But with their reunion comes danger. For Perrin and Jenny -
and all living creatures - their only hope for preventing
the unthinkable lies in a mysterious empire far beneath
the sea...and in the pwoer of their dreams.