Mermaids are protected by the government under the Endangered Species Act, which means you aren't able to kill them even in self-defense. This is especially problematic if you happen to live in the isolated fishing village of Siren Cove, where there exists a healthy population of mermaids in the surrounding waters that view you as the main source of protein in their diet.
The only thing keeping these ravenous sea women at bay is the equally-dangerous supply of human livestock known as Food People. Normally, these "feeder humans" are enough to keep the mermaid population happy and well-fed. But in Siren Cove, the mermaids are avoiding the human livestock and have returned to hunting the frightened local fishermen. It is up to Doctor Black, an eccentric representative of the Food People Corporation, to investigate the matter and hopefully find a way to correct the mermaids' new eating patterns before the remaining villagers end up as fish food. But the more he digs, the more he discovers there are far stranger and more dangerous things than mermaids hidden in this ancient village by the sea.
Like a Lovecraftian version of David Lynch's Twin Peaks, Village of the Mermaids is a dystopian mystery that proves once again how cult author Carlton Mellick III brings the weird to a whole new level.
This work provides examples of:
- Animal Wrongs Group: Endangered Species Security (ESS) is an influencial organization established to protect mimic species. They successfully implemented policies that placed the mimics above humans, as harming and/or killing a mimic (even in self-defense) is punishable by mutation into Food People used to feed the mermaids.
- Apocalyptic Log: Doctor Black dutifully continues dictating his experiences to a tape recorder even as a mermaid has him in its grip. Justified in that he doesn't have long to live regardless and has made his peace with that.
- Artistic License – Biology: The mermaids, within a few generations, was able to mutate naturally into near countless variations of monsters (including spider-like qualities, power-drill attachments, etc).
- Fantastic Nature Reserve: Siren Cove is this for mermaids.
- Fish People: A new breed of mermaid is found dead. This mermaid has the upper-half of a fish and the lower-half like a human male, complete with a venom-injecting phallus.
- Living Aphrodisiac: The mermaids exude a natural aphrodisiac-like pheromone said to "smell like peaches" in order to reel in their prey.
- Our Mermaids Are Different: The mermaids (and the various subspecies found) are a race of "mimics" - or animals that have an appearance close to human-beings - who's primary diet is human-beings.
- Tears Of Ink: The discovered breed of mermaid seen on the cover releases an ink with a paralyzing toxin from its eyes, looking like tears.
- To Serve Man: Death-Row Criminals, Environmental Volunteers and those who have harmed or killed a mimic are mutated and psychologically conditioned into Merchow - or "Food People" - to be fed to both the mermaids and even the general populous.
- The Virus: Doctor Black is afflicted with a fatal disease known as "Zimmer's Disease", a condition that slowly turns a person's entire body into clay. It is transmitted through sweat and makes him undesirable to the mermaids.
- Your Days Are Numbered: Doctor Black knows he is not long for this world and only hopes to carry out one final assignment before he dies.
