This is the opposite of the opposites attract trope, and that is what I loved best, although the nix's point of view was really well done, and a close second. I always appreciate a truly non-human protagonist. The nix's relationship to his water versus his struggle to connect on land was terrifically represented in lovely, vivid imagery. I loved this world, and the ending is just perfect. Go read it. :)

CW: violence; explicit sex ( )

Oef I got shivers from this story... ugh and I lost my ability to translate how awesome this story was. So in Dutch it is.

Geweldig verhaal. Kreeg hetzelfde gevoel toen ik jonger was en fantasy voor het eerst las. Die spanning die je voelde als een verhaal te spannend werd en je niet kon wachten om meer te lezen!

Voor een kort verhaal supergoed gedaan... ( )

4.5 Stars

Hell ya, I'd read more about these guys!

Warning: taboo (sex with merman in 'fishy' form!) ( )

This short story is the second story I've read by this author. And it would have been another five star read as well. Except . . . for the graphic depiction of sex.

The story jumps right in with a merman (well, a nix, which appears to be a much more vicious version of a merman) swimming around, starring at beavers, then deposing of dead human bodies. Well, the nix called it human, though it wasn't actually.

Then he, the nix, is almost killed, but he is who he is, and some of his past snapped back to him, as in his abilities and the like, and he easily defeats the attacker. Almost drowns but doesn't.

Next time he pokes his head back up out of his lake, he spots the sheriff. Who came by to invite him to town because a dead body had been found.

It's all a rather neat, well-constructed fantasy world of, mostly, shifters. Living near each other. As mentioned, it was good enough to be up there near five or at five stars until the graphic sex started. Which, in a way, is confusing. I mean, I don't normally penalize for sex scenes. At least I think I don't. And I had just read a long book by this same author that had many (uh, hmm, three? four? 12? I forget now how many) sex scenes. Which I was actually able to read without any problem, and which I could actually see the humor and eroticism of it.

There are two reasons, well two I can think of at this exact moment, for my different 'take' from the scenes. The sex scenes in the book were part of a much larger story and seemed to naturally flow with the story. And were told with loads of humor. The sex scene in this one seemed to come out of left field, interrupted the flow of the story, and lacked any and all humor.

Now to be fair it was probably pushing it to think this was five stars without the sex. Probably close enough I might have gone ahead and rated it such, but also probably closer to 4.5 stars. So it's less 'penalizing' the story than having a 4.5 star story and deciding to rate it 4 instead of 5. It might be a 4.75, it might be a 4.25. So I'll rate it 4.5.

All that said, just like the first book I read by this author, I want more. As in, a sequel to that superhero book I read, and more stories in this fantasy universe of this book here. Short story. Whatever. ( )