Book Review: Silence Fallen by Patricia Briggs
Mercy Thompson was my gateway drug into urban fantasy. I don’t remember what inspired me to pick up Moon Called so very many years ago, but up until that point, my fantasy reading was much more of the Robert Jordan, Mercedes Lackey, David Eddings variety – i.e. the worlds that were built were other. I still enjoy exploring new worlds (Jeffe Kennedy and Grace Draven are excellent examples of current favorites), but urban fantasy (with vampires!) is where it’s at for me…
I preorder every Mercy Thompson book the moment I can, and because I live on the west coast, they arrive in my Kindle at 9 pm on Monday evening. Plenty of time to finish them before bedtime–if bedtime is after 1 am. Which it was the day this book came out.
The Blurb
Attacked and abducted in her home territory, Mercy finds herself in the clutches of the most powerful vampire in the world, taken as a weapon to use against alpha werewolf Adam and the ruler of the Tri-Cities vampires. In coyote form, Mercy escapes only to find herself without money, without clothing, and alone in the heart of Europe…
Unable to contact Adam and the rest of the pack, Mercy has allies to find and enemies to fight, and she needs to figure out which is which. Ancient powers stir, and Mercy must be her agile best to avoid causing a war between vampires and werewolves, and between werewolves and werewolves. And in the heart of the ancient city of Prague, old ghosts rise…
The Cover
The Review
First, my only real criticism (and this is for the book specifically as well as the series generally): the book basically opens with Mercy getting kidnapped. Again. There are really only so many times a woman should be kidnapped in her life. (I read a book once where the MC was kidnapped at least four times in one book. That’s bordering on ridiculous.) Mercy has spent a lot of time in this series getting kidnapped and assaulted. The saving grace is that she does get to spend some time rescuing her wolves from kidnapping as well.
Sidebar: I would love to read a PNR or urban fantasy series where the main female character is never once kidnapped or sexually assaulted. (I’m totes okay with physical assault, because violence is part of the genre…sexual violence doesn’t need to be.)
ANYWAY – the best part of this book? Mercy is a self-rescuing kidnap victim. (The other best part? Bran. I love me some Bran. He is terrifying and awesome, which is exactly as he should be.)
Oh wait! There’s a third best part! Larry!
[Elizaveta:] “The blue room should be adequate for the goblin king.
“We don’t call ourselves that,” said Larry dryly. “That was just that one movie. I mean, ‘Larry the Goblin King’ just doesn’t have the right ring to it.”
Ooooh – and Stefan and Marsilia! I do enjoy the vampires (Wulf gives me the wig, though.)
One of the interesting parts of this book was that the chapters were split up between Adam and Mercy chapters, and that made the timeline…a bit wibbly-wobbly (Ms. Briggs is a Whovian; there’s a Matt Smith in the book who is definitely not the Doctor). I enjoyed it immensely and thought Ms. Briggs did an exceptional job with that. It was also fun that most of the action took place in Europe – particularly Prague. (Prague, along with research destinations to the southeast, is my next planned destination…the Beer Guy and my PSM were both recently there [oddly enough, at almost the exact same time…were they hanging out without me?].)
The Verdict
It’s hard to keep a series and characters interesting and fresh, and Patricia Briggs has managed to continue to do so. This was more than worth the time and money spent for the latest in the series and I’m definitely looking forward to Mercy’s next adventure.
The Disclaimer
None for this one-I bought this book with my own money, and as far as I know, Patricia Briggs not only doesn’t know I’m writing this review, she has no idea who I am at all.
Further Disclaimer
Once, I made my ex- stop in the Tri-Cities for tacos towards the end of a loooooong road trip on the off-chance we might run into some Fae or werewolves or coyote-girls. (As far as I know, we didn’t.)
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