Siren Song

by Sue Welford

When Sabra's mother is posted to Damos, Sabra decides to go along for the ride to get away from earth. She soon finds herself entranced by the mystery of the alien planet and by the Sea-Sirens that sing of Damo's past. But Damos is threatened by disaster and only the Sea-Sirens can help.

Genres: Science Fiction

272 pages, Paperback

First published February 16, 1996

About the author

Sue Welford was born in Sussex and trained to be a secretary before giving up paid work to bring up her children. When they started school, she had several part-time jobs, and then she became an editorial writer with a local newspaper. When she was made redundant, she continued writing at home and had several articles published in magazines. After five rejected novels, her first book for young adults was published in 1989.

Reviews

[Pam Baddeley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Y/A fantasy with a kick-ass female protagonist who learns to relate to nature and to other sentient species after a varied upbringing partly in the totally urbanised earth where fighting is common, but also with the wider perspective of other places/people from planet hopping with her parents. Her family settle on a watery planet when her mum takes a job at a refinery, but political chicanery soon rears its ugly head.

Strong female roles generally with her mum the engineer and dad the house husband. Also some good interaction between the teenage characters who have some complexity/depth, and lyric description of the sea, landscape and alien 'mermaid' characters.

[SBC · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really liked this the first time I read it as a teenager. I liked the kick-ass protagonist, a girl from the future mean streets of Earth and how out of place she seems when she goes to live in a kind-of mid-twentieth century equivalent seaside setting in the farther reaches of space.

[Sinistra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting Sci-fi for teenagers. A 17 year old girl moves from the city to a much less developed planet, on which are mermaids. Pretty good.

[Kate Fromings · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting novella, definitely in the YA fiction sci-fi genre.

I initially read this at high school in the 90s as part of my 'Point Sci Fi' book club. Remembering how it stuck with me, I purchased a copy on Ebay and I wasn't disappointed.

Welford manages to create a world that is eerily close to our own, using Ancient Greek/ Italian influences. The main character, Sabra, is a great female protagonist. Although the book is short it is well worth reading.

The characters as a whole are somewhat predictable, however, this does not take away from the interesting narrative arc or the undertones of political corruption.