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Yesterday We Saw Mermaids by Esther M. Friesner
reviewed by XXXX
Original appearance: Albedo one issue ??, date?
I recently stumbled across a TOR fantasy title. A slim one, by an author I had meant to try. And with a title that is in my opinion one of the most evocative I have seen in years. To be truthful I was hooked even before I read the first line.
YESTERDAY WE SAW MERMAIDS is the title in question - and also the first line. Previously, I had always been put off Friesner's novels by the fact that they had 'amusing' titles like HOORAY FOR HELLYWOOD and seemed to be attempting to masquerade as Pratchett clones. To be fair, my opinion was speculative, biased and highly personal, but if YESTERDAY had instead been called HERE BE DRAG QUEENS and featuring a recognisably Josh Kirbyesque cover I would have assumed it was a stinker, or at least not my cup of tea. Thank the Lord for that title and a restrained cover painting.
YESTERDAY WE SAW MERMAIDS is a line from the diary of Christopher Columbus' first voyage to the Americas and though I doubted it was possible, Esther M. Freisner has done justice to that wondrous succession of words. The plot concerns a ship, propelled by magic, which has set out to reach the New World before Columbus. Upon the success of that mission rests the future of magic in the world.
The ship's complement consists of a Moorish princess, her gypsy companion, a frightened and pregnant Jewish (it's important to the plot) girl a gaggle of nuns (the most reviled of whom - by her severely uncharitable sisters - is the narrator) and a couple of rabidly unsympathetic clergy. The mix is piquant, the approach is light, sure and original, the result is magical. On this evidence the TOR fantasy line is definitely something special.
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