In the Dark of Dreams-Marjorie M. Liu

In the Dark of Dreams
Avon, Nov 30 2010, $7.99
ISBN: 9780062020161

Twelve years old Jenny found the injured silver boy on the beach. She is taken aback somewhat by his fins, but also fascinated by them and him. She comforts him until a merman arrives to take the wounded lad home. The sea adult frightens Jenny as he ignored the boy’s pleading not to take him back to the sea. Every morning that summer and several years afterward, Jenny would return to the beach hoping her sea friend would return; he never did but she never stopped hoping.

Because of that incident at the beach, Jenny became a marine biologist. Her goal is to find the silver boy who she considers a friend and more though their acquaintance was for a short duration. Meanwhile, Jenny’s family is divided as some have joined the Consortium while others like her work for A Priori.

Exiled from his world beneath the sea, Perrin constantly thinks of the female surface dweller who befriended him when he needed help. Soon they connect through their dreams at a time when a world threat begins to emerge from a dormant respite at the bottom of the ocean.

This is a tremendous Dirk & Steele thriller (see The Fire King) that grips the audience from the moment the pair meets on the beach and never frees the reader until the final apocalyptic confrontation. Fast-paced, the lead couple and the anticipated fight with the Monster from the Ocean Floor (Roger Corman movie) make for a strong entry as a chance short meeting on a beach as tweeners years later turns into a superb save the world romantic ocean fantasy.

Harriet Klausner