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BooksFantasy

Child Of A Hidden Sea by A.M. Dellamonica (book review).

‘Child Of A Hidden Sea’ is a fun fantasy novel by Canadian author AM Dellamonica. The novel concerns twenty-four year-old Sophie Hansa who, while trying to prevent a strange woman she thinks is related to her estranged birth mother from being assaulted in San Francisco, finds herself flung into the world of Stormwrack, a sea of islands and foreign lands. The problem is Sophie isn’t supposed to be there and it takes all her determination to make sure she remains and finds out the truth about her family.

ChildOfAHiddenSea

The book details Sophie’s journey through Stormwrack and her meeting with her previously unknown sister. She travels the perilous seas, getting to grips with the local languages and studying the indigenous wildlife. Which is handy, because Sophie is actually a marine biologist herself, not to mention a particularly skilled diver, hiker and mountaineer. Let’s be honest, she’s pretty much built for adventure.

Sophie survives encounters in bizarre ports and with icebergs out at sea. She resolves to stay in Stormwrack, despite being consistently told that she should not be there and needs to go home to our world. Which, after a while, seems a little discouraging, but thankfully Sophie sticks with it.

The book’s ecological themes are laudable, providing a unique lens on a fantasy genre, whereas one might usually find discussions around the environment to be something that occurs in Science Fiction. This is one of the strengths of the book and Dellamonica weaves it skilfully into the novel.

I wanted to enjoy ‘Child Of A Hidden Sea’ perhaps a little bit more than I did, though I think that’s down to my reading of the novel as I had to do it in little sections due to life intervening, but this is a good fantasy novel that deserves a little more recognition.

I would recommend checking out ‘Child Of A Hidden Sea’, especially if you enjoy Young Adult fiction, too. While this has been marketed as an adult novel, it felt like a YA novel at times and that is no bad thing.

John Rivers

May 2015

(pub: TOR/Forge, 2014. 331 page hardback. Price: $25.99 (US), $29.99 (CAN). ISBN: 978-0-7653-3449-7)

check out websites: www.tor-forge.com and www.alyxdellamonica.com

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