Just finished Silver Borne, the latest installment of the Mercy Thompson series by Patricia Briggs. It’s yet another wonderful installment of the series, this particular book focusing on issues with the fae, and with Mercy’s new pack-b0nds. I liked it better than the last book, Bone Crossed, for the simple fact that I barely remember the contents of BC, but Silver Borne is going to stick with me as well as the first three novels.
For the purposes of full disclosure, I feel that I should warn everyone that this is one of my all-time favorite urban fantasy series and the series that introduced me to UF as a genre. I won’t claim that it’s particularly literary, because it isn’t, but I can say that it is an amazing series. The world-building/updating is amazing, and the characters are easy to connect to, despite the fact that most of them are some supernatural Other. They still have a lot of the same issues as the rest of us, and their problems with the Other are believable. Also, this series isn’t half as racy as a lot of other UF series tend to be, which I view as a good thing.
One the reasons I adore this series is because the secondary characters keep coming back and the author never stops developing them (including my favorite character, who I won’t name for the sake of anyone who hasn’t read this series yet).
Another reason I like it is because this particular UF world, in addition to having the usual vampire and werewolf citizens, also has the fae and other, non-were, shapeshifters. Plus it has the distinction of being one of relatively few series in which the everyday human is aware, at least partly, of the supernatural element of the world around them.
A spin-off series featuring the Marrock’s son, Charles, and his Omega mate Anna is also available (the first books is called Cry Wolf). This series looks more closely at the structure of werewolf society and is still very good. It has a different feel than the Mercy Thompson books, with romance taking center stage, rather than being a subplot, and therefore isn’t quite as high on my list as the Mercy Thompson series.
Briggs also has a graphic novel prequel to the Mercy Thompson series called Homecoming, which depicts the events of Mercy’s first visit to the Tri-Cities and her meeting with Adam Hauptman and his pack. More graphic novels, based on both series, are on the way.
I highly recommend the Mercy Thompson series to anyone who enjoys UF featuring werewolves and fae (the vampires aren’t in the forefront here), or UF with strong character. Hell, I recommend this series to anyone who wants to give UF a shot but is wary of detective-centric UF and the racier stuff.
Happy reading,
Phantastic Student
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