So what starts out as a simple (all right slightly stalkery) mission to track down her birth mother turns out to be a huge political fiasco that almost lands her birth family's world into total chaos. Honestly from what I read in the book about Sophie, it makes complete sense that she would nearly cause that.

To lay it out, as a child I absorbed and loved "portal" fantasies (or portal science fiction books, cause hey they exist). Blame [a:Pamela Dean|4106|Pamela Dean|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1207161079p2/4106.jpg] and [a:Joyce Ballou Gregorian|92610|Joyce Ballou Gregorian|https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] (not oddly CS Lewis, I didn't read the Narnia books until well into my late late teens) as their books in particular sparked my interest (along with the "Unicorn Queen" books). CHILD OF A HIDDEN SEA fits that love of mine perfectly.

Granted there was a lot of doublespeak political mumbo-jumbo that occurred, making it sometimes hard to follow the narrative flow easily, but Sophie (and Bram and Verena and Parrish and Tonio...) were so enjoyable to read about. Sophie and Bram with their insatiable curiosity, Verena with her awkward discomfort of whether she should be happy she has a sister or bitter, Parrish with his tight-lipped honor and slight smiles, Tonio with his resigned attitude that no matter what Sophie is leading him towards angering Parrish. They were such fun to read about.

Sophie is an easy character to relate to. Though intelligent, personable and kind hearted a lifetime of wondering 'Why?' in relation to her birth family and the abysmal first meeting with her birth mother left her feeling inadequate. Add to it that her beloved younger brother is a certified child genius and a general feeling of not quite right, well it makes sense that she's searching desperately for something to ground her. Something that is hers irrefutably. Dellamonica doesn't shove into our face that Sophie is clever and quick. Bram (her brother) says it very often, but Sophie sees connections others didn't. Some of it is obvious stuff that people so close can't see--she knows so little about "Stormwrack" so for her the obvious connections stand out.

The books covers a lot of plots--the A plot being based around something that Gale knew and that would turn the tide of the Cessation with the biggest subplot being Sophie's birth family. Amazingly Dellamonica most of them into each other with the resolution solving the majority of the problems at hand. As mentioned earlier the doublespeak takes a little getting used to. Near the end it becomes really heavy--as legal concerns are tossed around and such stakes as honor are heaved out. Its rapid fire, twisty and with Sophie's despairing inner monologue coloring the reader's subjective perception it can feel endless.

Parts of the book felt more exposition happy then others. Sophie and Bram's curiosity meant they asked a lot of questions and did a lot of research. While this gave the reader a good idea of the world/culture, it sometimes felt redundant as the society at least was presented organically throughout. Also for a non-science lover like myself the more technical aspects of Sophie's observations went straight over me and had flashbacks of school running through my head.

Insofar as romance goes its light and doesn't really distract. Sophie is old enough to understand where flirtations lead and young enough to find it all an adventure. Though Verena comes off angsty at times, in regards to her object of affection, she's a legit teenager grappling with a whole boatload of issues so that's acceptable. I found the LGBT characters (there's two out and out gay guys, and an entire race who loves pleasure in any form) to be handled well and the general attitude towards such treated without fanfare. There's the haters, the indifferent folk and the supporters, and though we get very little background about why certain races felt one way or the other, Dellamonica never makes the discussion the focal point.

The ending can be seen as either an open invitation to more adventures or a satisfying conclusion to Sophie's journey. There's two short stories set in this world (that predate this novel - one is directly about Gale I believe, and is referenced obliquely by Parrish at one point and the other is more of a set in the same world deal I believe) and I hope to see more in the future. ( )

Portal fantasy mostly taking place on an earth-analogous planet of mainly seas where government and jurisdiction is managed by a huge fleet policing the open seas connecting far flung small island nations with very different rules and cultures.
Interesting take on world travel, where the protagonist is a naturalist who tries to research the differences in the two worlds, dragging all sorts of equipment and samples across. At the same time as she is engaged in both a family dispute and uncovering a world-changing conspiracy.
Interesting read, but probably not enough to keep me reading the rest of the series. ( )

This was just the book I needed. Graceful prose pulling me into a different place, characters I love, doing things that make me care, and a wonderfully inventive world. With no infodumps, squicky stereotypes, or gratuitous whatever.

The first night, I stopped at page 102. The second night, I stopped at page 212. The third night, I didn't stop.

I need the next one. Now. ( )

A fun, action-y portal fantasy with a little mystery as a side to a whole lot of world-building.

Sophie's adoptive parents have been tight-lipped about her birth family, so she's been stalking her birth mom while they're on an extended vacation. When an introduction goes down like a lead balloon, she tries her aunt...only to interrupt what looks like a mugging. In the middle of the scuffle, aunt and niece end up in the middle of a storm in an ocean that ought, by the stars and moon, to be on Earth, but which definitely isn't: a water world full of island nations with widely different societies, all tied together by the great Fleet of ships representing each nation, which has maintained peace for over a hundred years with the deterrent of a magical ship-destroying weapon. Politics are complicated, as you'd imagine, especially with an overarching strict code of honor and a tangled bureaucracy. Magic is prevalent in this world but it requires writing and a precise combination of materials, and cumulative magic takes its toll on the person or object on which the spell is cast.

Sophie is in absolute nerd heaven. She may not have the scientific degrees to match her professor parents and super-genius younger brother, but she's got a naturalist's eye and an ocean diver's drive to explore. Unfortunately, the Fleet send her packing back to our world. Fortunately (for Sophie's curiosity), her encounter with her aunt triggered a magical succession crisis, so when her new-found half-sister shows up demanding she hand over the rights of the family heir, Sophie happily agrees to go back and look around while ironing out the legal issues...as long as she can bring her equally nerdy brother along for the ride.

Her aunt's not happy. For reasons she won't disclose, Sophie isn't supposed to be in this world...which becomes an even bigger problem when her aunt is murdered and Sophie, as the reluctant heir to the family estate, becomes responsible for the inquiry into her death.

The book is packed full of action and world-building--the latter sometimes to the detriment of the former, when descriptions of island scenery or (admittedly, really cool) sea otters interrupt the flow of the story. The plot took a little time to rev its engines, too, as we had to get Sophie and aunt to safety, then back to San Fran, then back to the fantasy world before the plot proper could kick into gear. But once we were going, we were really going! It's hard to believe how much Dellamonica managed to fit into these pages, unspooling a pretty good politically knotty mystery while also giving Sophie chances to show off her diving skills. There are duels, storms, chases, treasure retrievals, and a courtroom showdown, but none of it felt rushed or crammed in.

It was fun, too, to have a more open portal between the fantasy and real worlds: Sophie's birth mother lives in San Francisco, her half-sister is considering university, her aunt travels between worlds freely, and a few other people in her aunt's circle have at least visited our world--so there are some people in the know, even if they don't fully understand Sophie's slang and her brother's technical language. With time to plan, Sophie also brings along diving, camera, and recording gear, though she's never obnoxious about her superior technology, even acknowledging when her own knowledge of, for example, wooden sailing ships is lacking. Her scholarly interest is the perfect excuse to give us readers details of the places she visits. Sophie's more modern phrasing was usually a fun contrast to the more typical fantasy-formal, though it did occasionally make her come off as much younger than 26--more around the age of her 17-year-old half-sister.

I mentioned that the action sometimes slowed to give way to the world building, and the same can be said of the character development. To me, it felt as though Sophie was the only character with real emotional depth. Though it seems that everyone mourns her aunt, there are few specific stories to share; Sophie's half-sister has no anecdotes about her childhood; the people who have visited our world don't have any thoughts about their experiences; and though everyone in polite circles distrusts and dislikes "Captain Tasty" (as Sophie privately dubs the attractive captain of her aunt's ship) no one hints at why he's so out of favor. Put another way, the characters do seem well fleshed-out in the moment, but aside from Sophie and the captain (who barely escape my "stupid romance" label) none of them feel like they have much history.

So, overall, a fun book to read on a sailing trip...but definitely more action-y than character-y.

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"You're using the official spy box to hide presents?" ( )

This is one of those stories where someone from the world we know is magically transported to another realm. Sophie was on a mission to find out more about the biological family who gave her up for adoption - she loves her parents and brother dearly, blood ties or no, but she’s curious. When she and her newly discovered aunt fall through a portal into another world, that curiosity continues to drive her, and it’s awesome. Usually the characters these things happen to just accept it or refuse to accept it, but when Sophie finds herself in this land of pirates and magic, she decides she’s going to science the shit out of this. She’s all “I don’t recognise those constellations, gotta take photos of every new species I encounter, please help me collect samples, hmm what language does this language resemble, tell me more about your culture!” and I love it. ( )