Silver Borne

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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Being Human

In an effort to remain as human as possible, a vampire and a werewolf move into a house in Bristol, paying their rent with money earned as hospital porters (U.S. orderlies).   The house is already occupied by the ghost of the landlord’s fiancee who loves having people around who can see her.  The whole show revolves around death:  vampires are a source of death and not dead themselves, ghosts are dead but unseen by anyone who isn’t supernatural themselves, and werewolves should have died, but instead face a fate worse than death.

The show revolves around the three housemates attempting to be normal, trying and often failing to be what they no longer are.

Based on summaries of the show, I knew it would make an attempt to explain what it means to be human.  It would analyze people, society, and have a deeper message.  I didn’t expect it to be done so well.  Rather than attempting to make the message subtle, each episode’s variation on the overall theme is described by one of the main characters in the opening scene’s voice over.   the issues are very real, fully-formed concerns of the characters themselves, rather than some overarching theme they remain largely unaware of over the course of the show.

Some other interesting things I noticed were that, despite the fact that there are vampires, werewolves, ghosts and God only knows what else running around, much of the show comes off as slice-of-life.  You have three housemates with problems, some domestic and some personal, and you see how they react to those problems and to one another.

Another interesting choice was to start up the over-arching supernatural politic plots early in the show, rather than building up the characters entirely first.  I think this enhances the believability of the show by throwing life at the characters right off, rather than letting them get settled first.  After all, life isn’t usually kind enough to give you a break when you desperately need one.  Rather than overwhelming the viewer with too much, too soon, this serves to strengthen the bond between the viewer and the characters, making us want to see them succeed and knowing that they very well may not.

Over all, I’m delighted with the first season and can’t wait to get my hands on the second and then the third.

Enthusiastically,

Phantastic Student

 

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