In Diana Laurence's "Hunter," curiosity might not kill the cat, but it sure catches the mermaid. Loreste's besetting sin was a powerful curiosity about humans. All the merfolk were careful to stay away from humans. All except for Loreste. Loreste was a fearless, overconfident risk-taker with a reputation for independence. She had once encountered a boy on a beach and held him entranced with magic long enough to examine his legs and feet with great fascination. But that was just the start.

Her compulsion to know more about humans drove her to establish a habitual hiding place under the dock near the Town, where she heard tales of Hunter, a human with "a power over fish." She saw him in action, and he did indeed have a power to entrance fish. And when she observed him, she found him to be: striking, tall, wiry, lean, bronzed, dangerous. Especially dangerous. One inevitable night, she swam too close. . . .

Laurence looks at humans from the unique vantage point of a young, inquisitive mermaid. Except for Loreste briefly mentioning the Elder's taboos, there is no real dramatic conflict; any dramatic tension is promptly "put to bed" to move the romance forward quickly within the short format. In this short story, the sexuality is all lightness and nothing dark; the encounters are graphic and fairly explicit without being crude.

This is no detailed examination of the old saw "a fish and a bird may love each other but where will they live?" As in the movie Splash, it would have been just too ambitious to devise not only the mythology but also the science behind an ongoing mermaid-human day-to-day relationship. Diana Laurence's "Hunter" is a sweet short fantasy about a mermaid and a man. The story has a gentle fairy-tale like quality. It is a quick entertaining read.

Reviewed By: Allie B
© July 2004

This story has been combined with others to create SOULFUL SEX: EROTIC TALES OF FANTASY AND ROMANCE VOLUME III