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A review by amym84
Lake Silence by Anne Bishop
4.0
Lake Silence marks the next story arc in Anne Bishop's The Others series. This time around we follow human Vicki DeVine, living in a little town called Sproing, who received in her divorce settlement an old run-down resort known as The Jumble - which straddles the line between what can be considered "human run" and "wild country" but more closely associated with the wild country. Basically, it was a place initially set up so the terre indigene could closely study and learn about humans. Vicki works really hard to get The Jumble habitable again, but soon after she's completed renovations, a dead body is discovered on the property. Being a law abiding citizen Vicki immediately calls the police, but when some out-of-town detectives start investigating, they want to blame Vicki for the murder. As Vicki and her friends start their own investigation, that someone is interested in The Jumble and wants to push Vicki out no matter the cost. But what they don't understand is that just because you can't see some of the terre indigene doesn't mean they're not watching.
When I learned that Anne Bishop was ending story arc one with Meg and Simon and continuing the series with new characters, I was a little unsure. I mean over the course of five books I had really grown to love Meg, Simon, and all the other characters in Lakeside. I should have known Anne Bishop wouldn't let me down.
Lake Silence deals more with the human side of Thaisia and specifically it's a chance for us to really see the consequences from The Great Predation - when a group of humans got together to try and attack the terre indigene and subsequently failed - what that did to the smaller settlements in Thaisia. But in addition to focusing more in the human side, we also get a lot more focus placed on the Elders and Elemental terre indigene which were more on the periphery in the first arc with that focus being more on the vampires and shifters.
I liked Vicki, she's a woman who has been through a brutal marriage and still struggles daily to get past the poison her husband spewed to her throughout the years of their marriage. I loved the glimpses we get of her unguarded thoughts that show us this spunky woman. It makes the brutality of what her husband did her stand out more because she's so unsure of herself and she censors or hides herself because she has been told repeatedly that is where her place is, hidden. I look forward to the series continuing and seeing Vicki break out of that shell she's formed around herself.
Vicki's only paying lodger Aggie, a Crowgard, is also a wonderful addition to this series. She's inquisitive, like the Crow we've seen from the first story arc, but I think we see her really begin to understand the humans a bit more than other terre indigene from this series to the point where she really lets her investigative skills shine a couple of times. She's able to put herself into the mindset of the humans in certain cases. I'm interested to see where her character goes from here.
Lake Silence drew me in like all the others in this series, Anne Bishop has a pretty good formula worked out, but even though it does feel a bit formulaic at times, I still enjoyed the read.
When I learned that Anne Bishop was ending story arc one with Meg and Simon and continuing the series with new characters, I was a little unsure. I mean over the course of five books I had really grown to love Meg, Simon, and all the other characters in Lakeside. I should have known Anne Bishop wouldn't let me down.
Lake Silence deals more with the human side of Thaisia and specifically it's a chance for us to really see the consequences from The Great Predation - when a group of humans got together to try and attack the terre indigene and subsequently failed - what that did to the smaller settlements in Thaisia. But in addition to focusing more in the human side, we also get a lot more focus placed on the Elders and Elemental terre indigene which were more on the periphery in the first arc with that focus being more on the vampires and shifters.
I liked Vicki, she's a woman who has been through a brutal marriage and still struggles daily to get past the poison her husband spewed to her throughout the years of their marriage. I loved the glimpses we get of her unguarded thoughts that show us this spunky woman. It makes the brutality of what her husband did her stand out more because she's so unsure of herself and she censors or hides herself because she has been told repeatedly that is where her place is, hidden. I look forward to the series continuing and seeing Vicki break out of that shell she's formed around herself.
Vicki's only paying lodger Aggie, a Crowgard, is also a wonderful addition to this series. She's inquisitive, like the Crow we've seen from the first story arc, but I think we see her really begin to understand the humans a bit more than other terre indigene from this series to the point where she really lets her investigative skills shine a couple of times. She's able to put herself into the mindset of the humans in certain cases. I'm interested to see where her character goes from here.
Lake Silence drew me in like all the others in this series, Anne Bishop has a pretty good formula worked out, but even though it does feel a bit formulaic at times, I still enjoyed the read.