Five nautical SFF novels to read when you’re far from shore

Vanessa Armstrong is a book lover and writer with bylines at the LA Times, SYFY WIRE, StarTrek.com and other publications. She lives in Los Angeles with her dog Penny and her husband Jon.

At Tor.com Armstrong tagged "five books [she's] read at sea that have the ocean as an integral part of their stories," including:

The Mermaid by Christina Henry

Christina Henry is best known for her dark fairy tale retellings. The Mermaid, however, is less grim than her other works and follows Amelia, a mermaid who falls in love with a Maine fisherman and then, when he is taken away from her by the sea, decides to become an attraction in P.T. Barnum’s American Museum in New York City. Amelia is a wonderfully strong character who, as a creature of the ocean, is unburdened by the societal constraints placed on women in the mid-1800s, especially the expectation that she should be quiet and demure in public. She knows who she is, and she knows who she loves, and her story is an engaging yet soothing one that also made my heart ache in the best way.

Read about the other entries on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue