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Changelings (Book One of The Twins Of Petaybee) by Anne McCaffrey and Elizabeth Ann Scarborough
01/02/2007 . Source: Geoff Willmetts 
Pub: Del Rey/Ballantine Books. 258 page hardback. Price: $19.95 (US), $27.95 (CAN). ISBN: 0-345-47002-8pub: Bantam Press. 273 page hardback. Price: £17.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-593-05612-4. pub: Bantam Press. 332 page paperback. Price: £6.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-0-552-15440-6. Buy Changelings in the USA - or Buy Changelings in the UK  check out website: www.delreydigital.com , www.randomhouse.com , www.annemccaffrey.net and www.eascarborough.com
I missed the original 'Petaybee' trilogy and this is the start of a new sequence on the same planet. Sean Shongili is a selkie and so are his twin children, Ronan and Murel. Add water and they turn into seals automatically. In either form, they are also short-range telepathic between themselves and can communicate with the mostly sentient animals around them including various freshwater and sea-going otters. Petaybee itself appears to like Gaeia impersonified and looks after all in its domain reading behind the lines of the story. Not all of its secrets are given to the outside worlds in general, including the ability of the selkies to instantly metamorphose themselves. If anything, the small group of colonists spend some of their time tracking and deporting visiting scientist groups who outstay their welcome and capturing the local wildlife.
'Changelings' follows the removal of one scientific team and the twins spending three years on the space station being educated and come across a member of that team acting as a teacher. On the surface, Petaybee is also going through a disturbance and their father, in seal-form, has gone missing investigating it. The two plots merge and the twins return to locate their missing father.
When I started this book I found myself effortlessly reading a hundred pages at a time thinking that there was far too much dialogue or not plot-intensive enough. At least, not with what I know from reading Anne McCaffrey alone. Elizabeth Ann Scarborough is still an unknown element to me so not sure where the balance is between the two writers working together. By the second hundred, it became more apparent that this book, despite no indication on the cover, should really be targeted at the teen market. If your kids love ecology, telepathically talking animals - the otters are a delight, and mild adventure I can see them falling instantly in love with this book. I'm not entirely convinced its enough for an adult audience but if you go into it with few expectations then I think you'd probably have an interesting time.
GF Willmetts
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