Quick Thoughts: Vision in Silver

Vision in Silver

by Anne Bishop
Book 3 of The Others

~ Goodreads ~

Rating:  4.5 Stars

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…

As many have stated, there is something strangely addictive about this series that keeps bringing you back.  And no matter how juvenile the writing style and presentation--which somehow doesn't really contrast too terribly with the not so juvenile story content--these books are easy to read and extremely easy to enjoy.  To the point, I really DO think it's the characters who make this series work; even though Meg started out as one of the most Mary Sue of Mary Sues created in fiction land, like ever.

I mean, who else could just show up in a hostile community, do something as simple as sort everyone's mail, and end up being loved by all?

Vision in Silver (as well as its preceding two books) would probably never win any globally recognized book awards; but I'll be darned if you don't get at least a little inspiration from all the events that happen throughout the book.  Because even with the chaotic outline of the story, Vision in Silver does manage to do something that the previous two books had a hard time with: it actually had a very distinct story line, conflict, and direction.  And it managed to interconnect everything (with a few tangential exceptions) and give us a broader idea of where the author is going with the rest of this series.

I'm itching to start the next book; I might have even whined a little when this book came to an end.  Those are really extreme feelings for me when it comes to books.  THAT is how much I'm enjoying this series.

Vision in Silver touches on a lot of repercussions that have surfaced ever since the events of Murder of Crows.  In order not to spoil the second book, I won't talk about it much, but let's just say that a lot of sadness and death happens, and a very distinctive rift is slowly beginning to form between The Others and the humans.  And then, on top of that, we also are introduced to a whole different set of earth natives in Thaisia that are hundreds of times more dangerous than the terre indigene that have already been introduced... and a lot of the actions across the continent are making them restless.

We get to see a lot more background about the events going on that will probably become the main conflict of the entire series.  We learn more about The Others and their thought processes as they continue to learn and understand the minds of the humans living among them.  Through Meg and her human female pack, there is more interaction between the two types of beings, even though more global actions by others outside of the Lakeside Courtyard are now threatening to rip that connection to shreds.

There's a lot that goes on in each of these books, but to be honest, up until this third book, I never felt like there was a whole lot to think about.  On top of being strangely addicted to this series, and loving it for no other reason than just because, I'm also actually quite impressed with how much time I spent thinking about the actions of characters, and how they kind of parallel real life events, at any one time in history.

It's certainly something to think about.

Meanwhile, the characters really haven't developed much, unless you count Simon, who seems to grow with each book, even if slowly.  Meg continues to be consistently good, and despite learning a lot of new things about herself, still seems to be a fairly flat character, despite also being strangely endearing.  I love the interactions between... well, EVERYONE... in this book, everyone has their moments and it makes me smile.

This isn't a book just about Meg, or just about the blood prophets.  This is definitely a book about the residents of the Lakeside Courtyard, about the beings, human or Other, connected with the Lakeside Courtyard.  This is a book that touches upon a lot of things and a lot of characters, with little snippets of their stories presented.

On a final note, I especially loved the side story line about the little cassandra sangue who doesn't choose a name until the very end of the book.  I thought her slow acceptance of the new life she's been given outside of her imprisoned compound life was kind of touching.  I'm also quite intrigued with the potentials she has set as a possibility for all other cassandra sangue to come--as a younger girl, her development is given a chance to find new survival and life for other girls.  This is in contrast to Meg, we can see, since Meg is already an adult, and it is already too late for her to break free of the life that her keepers at the compound had instilled into her.