Once upon a time there was a princess who lived under the sea with her father, the king of the sea people. She met a man from the land and fell in love and asked a witch to make it possible for her to live on land. The witch helped and the princess walked the land.

We all know how that tale ends (well, Andersen and Disney had different ideas but most people know both endings). But this is not a retelling of either version.

So let's start this tale again. Once upon a time humanity dispersed among the stars, with genetic engineering and technology on a level allowing them to adapt to anything they find out there. Different groups settled on different planets and sometimes in different places on the same planet and changed. Fast forward some time and a princess who lived under the sea fell in love with a man from the land on one of those planet. Add 20 more years and the happy couple and the whole land people clan are in trouble - a plague had struck them and they are dying off. But despite her change and living 20 years with them, our princess, Atuale, is the only one that seems immune - because she is still not the same. And that's where Aimee Ogden opens her tale.

Atuale resolves to go to the World Witch who helped her change all those years ago. Except that they used to be lovers and they had their own agendas at the time, using each other. Add the 20 years of never meeting and some interesting biological processes happening in the clans (apparently people change gender involuntarily under certain conditions although they can also do that on purpose with technology) and things are a bit more complex than one would expect. The World Witch decides to help of course - but they want their price paid - and part of it is Atuale coming with them to a different world to find the cure.

Despite the names and the overall fairy tale feeling of these early pages, this is a science fiction tale - the witch works with nannites and other pieces of technology; all of the magically sounding happenings are really tech-related. And once among the stars, the past comes to haunt both of our heroes - in flashbacks and in conversations.

The end comes a bit too... perfect. It makes sense in the context and it does make sense if you take that as a modern fairy tale but... it misshapes the story a bit - it feels like a balloon getting filled with air and then left to just lose all of it with no attempt to tie it up. I would not have minded it as much if there was a gradual slow down I think but it went from "and now what?" to "and they lived happily ever after" in no time - not abruptly or as if the author did not know what she want to do (it felt planned and it was well done) but it is not how I like my stories to finish. But it works for the story and I cannot be upset that it is not the story I wanted. Part of it I think is that it first lulls you into the fairy tale, then shows you that it is anything but and then throws you back into the fairy tale.

Aimee Ogden's world (and galaxy) building is fascinating - I wish she had expanded that to a full novel (and I don't say that often for novellas), exploring the multiple threads and hints she just throws out there. Maybe she will revisit the world? The fact that we don't even get proper descriptions of the people we see, not even the main characters (we get elements, you can almost make a picture in your mind and then a new element throws you off) and it still works makes that even more interesting.

Whatever Ogden does next, I want to read it (and I plan to go back and read her already published short stories). ( )

I'm not really sure what I expected this to be, but I didn't enjoy it as much as I had expected to. The Little Mermaid angle is definitely there, and the space travel / alien races part was fascinating. Something about either the writing style or the plot just didn't gel with me, though I can't pinpoint exactly what. ( )