This might be a little roundabout way to get into the discussion of this book, but I need the input of people who have different reading habits than I have to also chime in.

I was arranging my bookshelf to fill in the missing pieces and see what my inventory looks like, having my GR data transferred to here very recently, and I realized that I gave a 2 star rating in my initial reading of this book. And compared to all the other low star ratings I’ve given to anything else, this one still stands peculiar to me years later for the sole reason of how badly the translation was made for this book (or at least the copy I had back then.)

Hopefully like so many other people who will understand the struggle: English is not my native language. I have a preference of reading books in English if they don’t have an official translation or if I think the subject matter doesn’t have properly introduced translated terms in my native language yet. I’ve decided to go for the translated work for this one however, and I feel like that could have been a mistake. I remember how unnatural the prose sounded and how it actively prevented me from progressing further in the book. Almost like the translator struggled to match the tone of the original, and it showed a bit.

Having said all of that, I don’t want to ascribe it only on the translation or only on the book’s prose, but I want to give this classic a fair chance by reading it in English so the context won’t be lost on me. Are there any specific editions for this one I should go for?

Finally got to “dive straight” into this book after keeping it in my TBR list for so long. The plot and the character depth is fantastic, and the inclusion of so many elements of marine biology actively made me squeal in some parts I looove when biological studies are so integral to plot of a book 🥹. The prose is really vibrant and descriptive, something I appreciate so much as someone who tends to depend so much on the imaginary snapshots in her mind while reading books.

It’s really also interesting how “un-human” the characters’ physiologies are, a good break from stories which underwater characters are fit into the mold of “still visually human with a couple of sea life features” (cough a lot of modern iterations of mermaids). They’re “humanoid” but not “human”.

Looking forward to continue!!