The Shongili twins, Ronan and Murel, accompany their friend Marmie on her luxury space craft Piaf to rescue their friend Ke-ola's family from an uninhabitable planet. They arrive to find the planet in the midst of a terrible meteor storm and when they go down to the surface find that the survivors have taken refuge under ground. Ronan and Murel change into seal form and find the survivors and their totem animals or aumakua, the giant turtles, or Honu, and the sharks. Back on Petaybee the twins, in their seal form, escort the Honus to their new home in the middle of the ocean. They also want to warn the otters and seals about the sharks. It is a long journey and Murel falls asleep and gets separated from the rest. She is surrounded by a pod of Orcas who, thinking she is a normal seal, try to eat her. Before they can do so she is caught up in a whirlpool caused by the volcanic activity in the area, as is Ronan, who had swum back to try to rescue her. They are rescued from the whirlpool by the mysterious deep sea otters and taken into their shielded city on the ocean floor. While their leader, Kushtaka, is talking to them her son Jeel sees the sharks and goes to inspect them, Murel races after him but is too late and Jeel is killed. Meanwhile Marmie and her crew are arrested on trumped up charges of kidnapping Ke-ola's family and taken to Gwinnett Incarceration Colony, along with most of the survivors they rescued. When Murel and Ronan return to their family and discover that Marmie has been arrested and the Piaf impounded they realize they need to get off the planet and go to her rescue. While staying with Kushtaka they were told that the deep sea otters were not just otters but beings from outer space who had hidden in the depths of Petaybee's oceans for years. Now that they have been discovered they plan to leave, the twins persuade Kushtaka to take them with her and to help them rescue Marmie.
Industry Reviews
The young heroes of Changelings (2005) depart the planet Petaybee, then return for more adventure.Twins Ronan and Murel are changelings, able to take seal form on their home planet of Petaybee, which is sentient and adapts to its inhabitants. The book begins with the twins leaving Petaybee on a spaceship as ambassadors to help the people of the planet Halau, who will be relocating to Petaybee. But when they arrive, Halau has been hit by meteors and its settlements destroyed. A rescue is mounted, led by the twins, who turn into seals to rescue people in the water. Halau's people are brought aboard the ship. Back at Petaybee, while trying to help Halau refugees adapt to the odd environs, Ronan is kidnapped by some very strange sea creatures who have masqueraded as deep-water otters, but are actually aliens. Murel and her family have to save Ronan, while trying to keep various intelligent animals in Petaybee's ocean from eating each other-and them-during the search.The characters are somewhat over-earnest and preachy, but the conversations between natural predators and prey make this an enjoyable. (Kirkus Reviews)