the silvered by tanya huff
this is not the review i promised you a few posts back, which would have been of kingdoms of dust by amanda downum. which was the third in a trilogy and a perfectly fine book, though i think it would be a terrible starting point in the series (i read the second book first, which worked okay--this book seemed to refer back to the other two every third page). but i don't think i'll review it any more than that because it pales in comparison to the book i just finished by tanya huff: the silvered.
i was scared by the cover descriptions which seemed to indicate that this was going to be about werewolves, which are, may i say, as ubiquitous as vampires and zombies, these days. but i have liked a lot of other books by huff and it was a library book so i figured i'd give it a try. i loved it.
we are looking at two cultures. one is a mix of the hunt pack and mages. the hunt pack are shapeshifters who can become wolves or humans at will, unless they are in contact with silver, which is poison to them. mages have flecks in their eyes to indicate what element they work with: air, water, earth, fire, metal, or healing--the color of the flecks tells you what you are dealing with. these two groups get along and marry and have children and all is well.
meanwhile, back across a few borders, the new emperor is making a land grab. he is all about science and has declared the hunt pack abominations--not people, and the mages are also not people, since they mate with the hunt pack. he gets a prophecy from his soothsayers (one can't rely on science all the time) that six pregnant mages might bring down his kingdom or might cause it to rise above its current dominance, so he sends captain reiter out to capture the six mages. he captures five but the sixth one gets away so he sends the five back to the emperor and goes after the sixth.
so we follow the thoughts of four groups: captain reiter, danika, the head of the five captured mages, mirian, the escaped sixth mage, and tomas, a member of the hunt pack who rescues and is rescued by mirian so they start to travel together, in an effort to rescue the other five mages.
lots of complicated characters--almost no one is completely evil or completely good. interesting world-building and cultures. quite a bit of violence--there is a war going on. when i was done, i wanted another in the same world, please.
i was scared by the cover descriptions which seemed to indicate that this was going to be about werewolves, which are, may i say, as ubiquitous as vampires and zombies, these days. but i have liked a lot of other books by huff and it was a library book so i figured i'd give it a try. i loved it.
we are looking at two cultures. one is a mix of the hunt pack and mages. the hunt pack are shapeshifters who can become wolves or humans at will, unless they are in contact with silver, which is poison to them. mages have flecks in their eyes to indicate what element they work with: air, water, earth, fire, metal, or healing--the color of the flecks tells you what you are dealing with. these two groups get along and marry and have children and all is well.
meanwhile, back across a few borders, the new emperor is making a land grab. he is all about science and has declared the hunt pack abominations--not people, and the mages are also not people, since they mate with the hunt pack. he gets a prophecy from his soothsayers (one can't rely on science all the time) that six pregnant mages might bring down his kingdom or might cause it to rise above its current dominance, so he sends captain reiter out to capture the six mages. he captures five but the sixth one gets away so he sends the five back to the emperor and goes after the sixth.
so we follow the thoughts of four groups: captain reiter, danika, the head of the five captured mages, mirian, the escaped sixth mage, and tomas, a member of the hunt pack who rescues and is rescued by mirian so they start to travel together, in an effort to rescue the other five mages.
lots of complicated characters--almost no one is completely evil or completely good. interesting world-building and cultures. quite a bit of violence--there is a war going on. when i was done, i wanted another in the same world, please.