About the Author

Anne McCaffrey, one of the world’s most popular authors, is best known for her Dragonriders of Pern® series. She was the first woman to win the two top prizes for science fiction writing, the Hugo and Nebula awards. She was also given the American Library Association’s Margaret A. Edwards Award for Lifetime Literary Achievement in Young Adult Fiction, was inducted into the Science Fiction Hall of Fame, and was named a Science Fiction Writers of America Nebula Grand Master. Born in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in 1926, McCaffrey relocated to Ireland in the 1970s, where she lived in a house of her own design, named Dragonhold-Underhill. She died in 2011.

Elizabeth Ann Scarborough, winner of the Nebula Award for her novel The Healer’s War, is the author of numerous fantasy novels. She has co-authored nine other novels with Anne McCaffrey. She lives on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.

Reviews

In McCaffrey and Scarborough's action-packed, kid-friendly sequel to 2005's Changelings, Murel and Ronan Shongili, telepathic 10-year-old twins with the ability to change into river seals, rescue the inhabitants of the environmentally degraded planet Halau and bring them to their home world of Petaybee. The sentient planet's adaptation to the refugees provides dangerous adventures for the twins, their friends and their parents, geneticist/selkie Dr. Sean Shongili and former Company officer Yana Maddock-Shongili, coadministrators of Petaybee, who discover an aquatic alien race. Meanwhile, off-planet, the Intergalactic Enterprises Company arrests their friend Marmion, who helped transport the refugees from Halau. A cliffhanger ending, ecological lessons, anthropomorphic animals and simplistic good vs. evil morality will speak to middle-school readers but not adults. (Dec.) Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.

Adult/High School-In this sequel to Changelings (Del Rey, 2005), twin selkies use their "thought-talk" and shape-shifting powers to help their sentient planet and its inhabitants. Petaybee, the planet, has invited Ke-ola, a sentient sea turtle, and his people to make their home there. The Petaybeans must convince the Federation to allow such a move. The catch is that the Federation is off-world, and people who live on Petaybee for any length of time acquire a symbiotic relationship with the planet. For an adult to leave would mean death. It is therefore up to young Muriel and Ronin Shongili to be the off-world diplomats who can save lives and change worlds. This is the second novel in a planned trilogy that continues the story made popular by the "Powers That Be" trilogy (Del Rey). The story line combines Irish, Hawaiian, and Indian lore to create a rich history that is at once unique and familiar. Teens will identify with the actions and feelings of these shape-shifting river seals as they struggle with their role in Petaybee's transformation.-Dana Cobern-Kullman, Luther Burbank Middle School, Burbank, CA Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.

This sequel to the authors' Changelings in the "Twins of Petaybee" series follows ten-year-old twin telepathic selkies (able to transform from human to seal) Murel and Ronan. The two are part of a mission that transports the imperiled inhabitants of the dangerous planet Halau and resettles them on their own sentient home planet of Petaybee. Subsequent adventures there lead to the discovery of a previously unknown alien race. While Maelstrom is not completely meaningless without the series' first book, it's certainly weak. Though the action is straightforward, if basic, narrator Robert Ramirez has trouble differentiating among the wildly variant characters. YAs might respond to the ecological principles (e.g., life is precious, sea turtles and sharks are revered) and the protagonists' youth, but libraries (especially those on continuous order plans) can get better bang for their buck elsewhere. For fans only.-Douglas C. Lord, Connecticut State Lib., Hartford Copyright 2007 Reed Business Information.