The Desert Mermaid

I rather liked the idea as well, though I think I was sort of in the minority... I actually read it in a class, and since about 3/4 of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Society was in it, we'd have discussions about it at the dinner table. Granted, I'm a little squicked by the tentacles, or I would be, I expect, and I am not sure how I would deal with eventually being squicked out by touching my non-ooloi partners, as I am a ridiculously tactile person... But the idea is tempting nonetheless.