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A review by sophiarose1816
Lake Silence by Anne Bishop
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
I was thrilled that the author continued writing in the world of the Others because I definitely wasn't ready to say good-bye to the series. This is a different setting within the world and a different cast of characters. I didn't mind that since the author had introduced other settings and characters in the earlier Lakeside series arc. A murder and a plotting group of humans made for an exciting new series story.
Lake Silence is the sixth of The Others series and the first of the World of the Others continuation. It's tricky to say whether it can make a good place to jump in or not. In one sense, its a new story arc, new setting, and new characters so its very much a doable thing to jump in here. However, the reference to other places, the blood prophets, the Humans First and Last, and the war between humans and the Others are what are at the foundation understanding of this next series arc so missing all that means missing some big pieces in understanding.
The story starts out on a gritty amusing note when Vickie's boarder proves she's not human at the same time a murder is discovered. This sets in motion a chain of events for several people: Vickie the downtrodden new owner of a dilapidated resort property on Lake Silence that she got in her divorce, Officer Grimshaw who doesn't want to deal with people though he wants to serve and protect, Julian the mysterious bookstore owner who came to the small village out in the Wild Country for peace, Ilya Sanguinati who is the Others administrator of this village of humans and now has to come forward out of the shadows when human mischief arises to distract the Others' plans, and Aggie, the Crow who moved into the cabin at Vickie's resort and has enjoyed learning human ways from the crime show and thriller book-reading Vickie.
Alongside this group who just want to figure out what is happening and set things straight so they can get on with living, there is a group of greedy humans who have a greedy plan of their own and will stop at nothing to achieve it. They think they can outsmart the Others and they know they can cow the fragile, panic attack ridden resort owner.
Lake Silence, like the rest of the series, builds slowly and had the job of introductions. But, while it got rolling, intense incidents were taking place and building the suspense of the story. Vickie was terribly abused by her ex and never got help for it. He never physically abused, but emotionally and mentally ripped her apart and made her buy into his version of her- an overweight dolt who is incapable and weak. I was angered and sad for her. Her weakened mental state when it comes to fear of men and struggles with self-esteem are extreme, but she had a better support unit of humans and Others around her to help her cope and heal. I did feel that she needed professional help, but there were hints that Ilya was on that for her.
Vickie was the focus, but there were actually a few main characters to add their perspective to the story which I appreciated. It was fun getting to know the Sanguinati and Crowgard better through Ilya and Aggie's points of view. I liked that Julian was Intuit and Grimshaw was fun to me in his gruff, crabby 'I hate dealing with people problems' way.
The villains were properly vile and I was so impatient for the Elders and Elementals and lesser Others to help them meet a bad end. Humans can be so arrogant and obtuse about who are really at the top of the food chain even after empirical proof was given them.
It got exciting and twisting there in the last quarter of the story and I was flipping pages madly. But, in the end, I felt like I do when a book is at the beginning of a series. It finished up all the immediate plot threads with no cliffhangers, but didn't have a standalone feeling either. However, I know that the next book moves to a new setting, new characters, and new plot so I do have a little disappointment in that minor nagging feeling of needing more with the Lake Silence people. On the other hand, I will be simply grateful to be getting more stories in this world. Period.
This is only my second opportunity to listen to the audio of this series and I was just as enamored as ever by Alexandra Harris' fabulous work narrating this story. She had a large cast of characters and several narrators both male and female which he deftly handled. I love what she brings to a story.
So, Lake Silence built and built into a riveting story that I was not ready to put down when it finished. I am still amazed with the Others world and can highly recommend this alternate earth urban fantasy series.
Lake Silence is the sixth of The Others series and the first of the World of the Others continuation. It's tricky to say whether it can make a good place to jump in or not. In one sense, its a new story arc, new setting, and new characters so its very much a doable thing to jump in here. However, the reference to other places, the blood prophets, the Humans First and Last, and the war between humans and the Others are what are at the foundation understanding of this next series arc so missing all that means missing some big pieces in understanding.
The story starts out on a gritty amusing note when Vickie's boarder proves she's not human at the same time a murder is discovered. This sets in motion a chain of events for several people: Vickie the downtrodden new owner of a dilapidated resort property on Lake Silence that she got in her divorce, Officer Grimshaw who doesn't want to deal with people though he wants to serve and protect, Julian the mysterious bookstore owner who came to the small village out in the Wild Country for peace, Ilya Sanguinati who is the Others administrator of this village of humans and now has to come forward out of the shadows when human mischief arises to distract the Others' plans, and Aggie, the Crow who moved into the cabin at Vickie's resort and has enjoyed learning human ways from the crime show and thriller book-reading Vickie.
Alongside this group who just want to figure out what is happening and set things straight so they can get on with living, there is a group of greedy humans who have a greedy plan of their own and will stop at nothing to achieve it. They think they can outsmart the Others and they know they can cow the fragile, panic attack ridden resort owner.
Lake Silence, like the rest of the series, builds slowly and had the job of introductions. But, while it got rolling, intense incidents were taking place and building the suspense of the story. Vickie was terribly abused by her ex and never got help for it. He never physically abused, but emotionally and mentally ripped her apart and made her buy into his version of her- an overweight dolt who is incapable and weak. I was angered and sad for her. Her weakened mental state when it comes to fear of men and struggles with self-esteem are extreme, but she had a better support unit of humans and Others around her to help her cope and heal. I did feel that she needed professional help, but there were hints that Ilya was on that for her.
Vickie was the focus, but there were actually a few main characters to add their perspective to the story which I appreciated. It was fun getting to know the Sanguinati and Crowgard better through Ilya and Aggie's points of view. I liked that Julian was Intuit and Grimshaw was fun to me in his gruff, crabby 'I hate dealing with people problems' way.
The villains were properly vile and I was so impatient for the Elders and Elementals and lesser Others to help them meet a bad end. Humans can be so arrogant and obtuse about who are really at the top of the food chain even after empirical proof was given them.
It got exciting and twisting there in the last quarter of the story and I was flipping pages madly. But, in the end, I felt like I do when a book is at the beginning of a series. It finished up all the immediate plot threads with no cliffhangers, but didn't have a standalone feeling either. However, I know that the next book moves to a new setting, new characters, and new plot so I do have a little disappointment in that minor nagging feeling of needing more with the Lake Silence people. On the other hand, I will be simply grateful to be getting more stories in this world. Period.
This is only my second opportunity to listen to the audio of this series and I was just as enamored as ever by Alexandra Harris' fabulous work narrating this story. She had a large cast of characters and several narrators both male and female which he deftly handled. I love what she brings to a story.
So, Lake Silence built and built into a riveting story that I was not ready to put down when it finished. I am still amazed with the Others world and can highly recommend this alternate earth urban fantasy series.