Undersea

Finnbranch #2

by Paul Hazel

Undersea continues the strange saga of Finn's adventures, during the years of war between the seafolk and the men on land.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Speculative Fiction

Hardcover

First published July 1, 1983

About the author

In his long career in Ridgefield Paul Hazel has been an educator, a novelist, and a matchmaker. A native of the Nichols section of Trumbull, the Yale graduate came here in 1972 as head of the English Department at Ridgefield High School. A year later Superintendent David E. Weingast (q.v.) put him in charge of professional personnel and he’s worn that hat for 27 years, searching for and hiring teachers and other professional staff. “It’s about matching,” Mr. Hazel said of his job of hiring staff. “It’s not only who I find capable, but who will fit in with the teachers that are there, who will be a good part of the school community and who the principal thinks is interesting," he told The Press. "It’s not a match unless a lot of other people buy into it.” As the century ended, Mr. Hazel had served more years as a central office administrator than anyone else on the staff. But through those years, he’s had a second career: a writer of sophisticated and well-reviewed fantasy novels, mostly with Celtic themes: Yearwood (1980), Undersea (1982), Winterking (1985), and The Wealdwife’s Tale (1993). When not hunting for teachers or perfecting plots, Mr. Hazel enjoys building finely designed rock walls in his garden. He also enjoys long distance bicycling, both here and in Europe, with his wife, Reggie, who is the first selectman's administrative assistant and a former school board chairman. Source: Notable Ridgefielders-Jack Sanders

Reviews

[Althea Ann · Rating 1 out of 5]

Scandinavian/Celtic myth-influenced tale.
The trilogy reminded me rather a lot of A.A. Attanasio's Arthurian fiction - a comparison I haven't seen elsewhere, but that I nonetheless feel is rather apt.
They take an unusual view of myth, playing with time and reality...
The first book, Yearwood, with its giants, heroes and witches could almost be straight from the Mabinogion. The second, Undersea, is more experimental, playing with multitudes of identities and the concepts related to how mythological figures and gods can be conflated over time.
The third, Winterking, is strikingly different - but, I thought, more entertaining - moving the characters and concepts into an alternate American of indeterminate (but more modern) time. An immortal man conspires to keep him immortality secret, while pursued by the keepers of his fortune, the women who may love him, and the god of death himself....

[Kit Campbell · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very hard to follow. I'm not sure what, if anything, was accomplished.

[Othy · Rating 1 out of 5]

...what?

I've read a lot of mythology and legend and I know at times they simply don't make sense, for whatever reason. I've read Norse and Celtic myths as well (two areas that Hazel uses as source/inspiration for many of his ideas) and I know their creepiness and strangeness. But "Undersea" simply doesn't make sense. It begins as eerily and strangely as its predecessor "Yearwood" but soon degrades into small, two- to four-page snapshots of strange events that, at times, have no connection to the plot (which, I might add, is disconnected as well). For a while I enjoyed the imagery and the grandness of it all but soon I found that, after finishing sections, I had no concept of what happened. Then dialogue failed to make sense, characters sighed or became angry at odd places, and I felt like I was reading a dream. I feel like Hazel was trying to get at something, perhaps a "dreamlike" prose, perhaps a mirror of Celtic oddness, but all he ended up with was disconnected phrases, a nonsensical plot (is this even a plot?) and a sense that something larger might (-might-) be going on. It reminded me of reading not Celtic myths (which DO in fact have things going on and CAN be penetrated, though with some work) but of reading modern poetry where many many lines are written but nothing is said. What a strange, odd, weird, and completely mysterious (though without any mystery) book.

[Martin · Rating 1 out of 5]

This book never should have been released as written.

First off, let me say I mostly enjoyed the first book. And despite my better judgment I've started reading the third book, and I'm enjoying. I enjoy reading the subject matter and the author has obvious skill as demonstrated by the other books. But this book, undersea is awful.

What do I mean by awful? Much of the time I literally could not understand what was happening. And I don't mean that in a "the story will evolve and all shall be revealed" sort of way. No, it's just bloody confusing.

I think that the editor of this book, assuming there was one, must have either been pulling out their hair arguing with the author and publisher that it wasn't ready to go, or simply was incompetent. There doesn't seem to be any middle ground.

If you are at all interested in this series, and I think it offers a lot despite the challenges of this book, I recommend reading the first book and the third book but not the second. Undersea is not worth reading. Pick up book 3 and begin. You will be confused at the beginning. But you will be less confused than if you had a read book two.

Undersea should have been kept beneath the waves, far from human eyes.