The Mermaid's Madness is a fantasy novel by Jim C. Hines, published in October 2009. It is the sequel to his earlier novel The Stepsister Scheme (previously reviewed here).
The novel introduces to the setting Hans Christian Andersen's The Little Mermaid, and of course twists it hard in one tiny little place. The characters and setting beneath the sea are fleshed out well.
But...
Well, I enjoyed reading it, but I'm not sure I enjoy having read it. There's little I can say about it without being spoilery (something I'm not generally fond of being, especially for recent works). Which means I'll be speaking in vague generalities.
It's just .... it felt very shounen. Seinen, at best: there was a great deal of politicking and power and action, and the storyline was reasonably strong, but the lead trio felt... two-dimensional at best. Oh, it's not that character development was lacking, but it seems to have all gone to the secondary cast or the antagonists rather than to the lead characters. (Except for the last bit where I promptly lose any and all compassion for Snow. I wasn't expecting that subplot to end happily, mind, but ... yeah.)
I dunno. Don't get me wrong -- I did enjoy it. It's just that I know better than to confuse my own enjoyment for quality or merit. If you've read and enjoyed the first book — as I did — you'll probably enjoy this one, too. Just don't confuse it for anything other than direct-to-paperback high fantasy. 1/1.
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