Release Day Review: Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop

 

Vision in Silver
(The Others #3)
Anne Bishop
Release: March 3, 2015
Links: Goodreads Amazon

Summary: The Others freed the  cassandra sangue  to protect the blood prophets from exploitation, not realizing their actions would have dire consequences. Now the fragile seers are in greater danger than ever before—both from their own weaknesses and from those who seek to control their divinations for wicked purposes. In desperate need of answers, Simon Wolfgard, a shape-shifter leader among the Others, has no choice but to enlist blood prophet Meg Corbyn’s help, regardless of the risks she faces by aiding him.

Meg is still deep in the throes of her addiction to the euphoria she feels when she cuts and speaks prophecy. She knows each slice of her blade tempts death. But Others and humans alike need answers, and her visions may be Simon’s only hope of ending the conflict.

For the shadows of war are deepening across the Atlantik, and the prejudice of a fanatic faction is threatening to bring the battle right to Meg and Simon’s doorstep…  

Review: We love this series so much we couldn't agree on who got to review it, so we both did. We broke it down by topics so it was easier to follow. We've tried to avoid spoilers for this book, but did assume you've read the earlier books in the series. (If you haven't started yet check out our Read This F@!%ing Book post on The Others.)

Overall impressions:
Gretl: When Written in Red came out, I read a lot of reviews that commented on how inhuman The Others were. I’ve always maintained that they’re better people than most of the humans in the story. With Vision in Silver, that point is really driven home when we see how both groups treat children.

Rose Red: Vision in Silver brings us back to the wonderful and frightening world of Thaisia. Now that the rest of the cassandra sangue are free, Meg and Simon are facing new challenges while attempting to hold off the repercussions stemming from the Humans First and Last movement. This book really drove home the fact that plenty of humans are more monstrous than the terra indigene.

Explain your rating:
G: I gave it 5 stars. I feel like there’s not as much action in Vision in Silver as in the previous books in the series. Instead it has espionage and political intrigue which I found fascinating. This book kept me up all night. I couldn't put it down!

RR: I gave this book 5 stars too! Like Gretl, I found the political intrigue in this book fascinating! We’re starting to see how events in the Lakeside Courtyard and the repercussions of freeing the cassandra sangue are affecting the world of the Others on a global level. As much as I love Meg, this book gave us a chance to get to know more about the other members of the Courtyard and the police that interact with them. I especially loved that we got to learn more about Simon in this book. I didn’t think I could love him more but I do.

Thoughts on the world-building:
G: Events in the Courtyard are starting have global implications. Simon and his people have landed on a lot of people’s radars with the way they have integrated humans into the Courtyard and by leading the charge to rescue the blood prophets. A war is brewing and even though the aggressors are across an ocean, the people of Thasia, the continent here Lakeside is located, may be the first casualties.

I appreciate having a map in this book because the naming conventions don't make sense to me and I keep forgetting the new names of the countries. I swear Bishop does it just to confuse me. Seriously, why isn't Thasia on the continent of Asia? It didn't really distract me while I was reading, but at the end I used the map to fill in the holes in my understanding.

RR: Anne Bishop’s The Others is utterly brilliant when it comes to worldbuilding. There’s no two ways about it. The first two books spent a significant amount of time introducing us to the terra indigene in the Lakeside Courtyard and developing their interactions with Meg and the humans around them. We now have an emotional attachment to Lakeside that makes us worry about it now that events have expanded globally and have been forced to acknowledge there are scarier things than Tess. Everything works together perfectly from the fascinating characters to the tiniest details in the plot. So many things happen at once, but nothing is random and nothing is without significance for our favorite inhabitants of the Courtyard.

Thoughts on the creatures:
G: I've always thought of The Others, especially Simon and the shifters, sort of like Castiel in Supernatural or Drax in Guardians of the Galaxy. They look and act human most of the time, but they don't quite get all the subtleties. But in this book I found out there are real monsters in this world. We learn how The Others who live in the wild areas enforce the contracts that allow humans to use their land and resources. Even though their punishments are extreme, I’m left thinking that The Others are arguably more moral, since their rules and the consequences for breaking them are clear and immutable. And just as Montgomery and the members of the Courtyard’s human pack show that not all humans are corrupt, The Others in the wilds show that not all of their kind are benevolent.

RR: The Others are what I adore about this series. Bishop never lets us forget that the terra indigene are not even remotely human. Some of them have learned to live in human skin but find it extremely uncomfortable and tend to avoid it if at all possible. Take Simon. He thinks like a wolf and acts like a wolf. And even though he interacts with humans almost everyday, his understanding of them is only a very basic one. The scary thing is Simon is not scary at all when compared to the Elementals and their ponies. What’s even scarier is that this book points out there are creatures scarier than they are. This series is basically about the clash of two cultures that have a history of horrible violence to each other. I love how far the Lakeside Courtyard and their allies have come in trying to find a way to live together peacefully. I’m interested to see what other terra indigene we’ll get introduced to as the series progresses.

Favorite characters:
G: I really enjoyed getting to know some more of the Others that live outside of the Courtyard, as well as the girls they rescued in the last book. There are some really charming moments with Simon’s friend Jackson and the blood prophet that he has “adopted” trying to figure everything out.

Also Nathan Wolfgard who finds Montgomery’s daughter on the train and becomes her advocate.

RR: Meg is a very interesting character and I love her to death, but I’m not ashamed to admit that Simon is my favorite. He has the instincts of an animal and the ingenuity of the most successful businessman, but he often fails to understand the human way of things. He tries, though, and I love him for it. Even though it’s mostly because understanding humans means understanding and helping his Meg. Unfortunately, the process is slow and often results in hilarious interactions between the two of them. Slowly but surely Meg and Simon are finding their way to each other. They are, for all intents and purposes, in a relationship, even if they don’t seem to realize it. They practically live together and mostly act like an old married couple, but the way they show their affection is somewhat different from what we’ve come to expect.

Other than Meg and Simon, I absolutely adore Jake Crowgard and his obsession with pens.

What are you most looking forward to in the next book?
G: This book raises some interesting questions about what it means to be human. Simon wonders if he’ll have to become more human in order to be with Meg, but just like him I haven’t really decided what that means yet. I’m really looking forward to watching him figure it out in the rest of the series.

RR: I agree with Gretl and I look forward to everything she mentioned. I’m deeply invested in what’s going to happen to the cassandra sangue after the events of this last book. I’ll admit that I’m more than a little worried about them even though they’re in good hands now. Also, I can’t help but wonder what other disasters the Humans First and Last Movement is going to bring down on the Lakeside Courtyard. I just need to know what happens with everything! Why is book 4 so far away?



Recommended for fans of: exceptional supernatural worldbuilding and original, quirky characters

ARC provided by the publisher

    

5  stars

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