Strange Horizons, September 24, 2018

“Children of the Endless Sea” by Suvi Kauppila

Reviewed by Victoria Silverwolf

“Children of the Endless Sea” by Suvi Kauppila, translated from Finnish by the author, takes place in a world that is almost all ocean. The narrator is one of many semi-aquatic people who have fins and scales. They live on rafts floating on poisoned waters, above a sea-dragon and a sunken city. With her sister and others of her kind, she battles land-dwelling people in bloody wars.

Although many violent events take place in this story, it is mostly an impressionistic portrait of its fantasy setting. The background is more memorable than the plot. The author provides a wealth of sensory detail, but the characters never come to life.

Victoria Silverwolf would like to mention that the title of this story, in the original Finnish, is “Rajattoman Meren Lapset.”