Starts with unpolished prose, confusing. Conveys a dreamlike world with overembellished description and a plethora of weird sea creatures; low marks for story, and although the lilting dialogues slightly redeemed it, I was wanting this finished. ( )

The is the story of an artist who finds himself in an artless, lifeless desert, big brother state. He is inspired by the fossil remains of distant sea creatures. He works for the museum and spends his time in the fossil beds and drifts off into dreams of an ancient sea and then carves beautiful statues of the creatures that visit him in his dream world. The state mindlessly ignores its history and fills in the fossil beds in tribute to a conformist progressive future. The artist dreamer strikes out in protest and is literally carried away into a dreamy and colorful world of azure seas as he is gradually absorbed into Neptune's service.

This is a strange read. The author goes to great lengths to create a lush contrast between good represented by nature and the sea and water as the source of creativity and life and evil represented by the desert, salt, man, government and progress. In this regard the book itself is a work of art with a beautifully illustrated glossy permanent cover. The reader and the main character however are alternately lead blindly through these contrasting worlds as they both struggle to make sense out of what is happening. This is of course fantasy which makes anything possible. The ending is a surprise of sorts and worthy of Rod Serling stepping out to add "submitted for your approval". For me it was a slow and sometimes arduous read. The story is highly imaginative and full of symbolism but for me, it was not all that interesting ( )