March 4, 2015 / Leslie

Vision in Silver – Urban Fantasy at its Finest

Vision in Silver
by Anne Bishop

Genre: Urban Fantasy
Publisher: Penguin | March 2015
Format: Print: 400 pages | Audio Book: 16 hours
Rating: 4½ of 5

From the Publisher

The Others freed the Cassandra Sangue to protect the blood prophets from exploitation, not realizing their actions would have dire consequences. Now the fragile seers are in greater danger than ever before—both from their own weaknesses and from those who seek to control their divinations for wicked purposes. In desperate need of answers, Simon Wolfgard, a shape-shifter leader among the Others, has no choice but to enlist blood prophet Meg Corbyn’s help, regardless of the risks she faces by aiding him.

About the Story

This is the third installment of The Others, a paranormal fantasy series for adults. The setting is on an earth inhabited by preternatural beings – shape-shifters, vampires, and other predators known as the Others – who rule over humans and consider them to be prey. In the first book, Written in Red, much of the focus was on world building and character development. In book two, many of the familiar names return, and several of the earlier story lines begin to develop along with a few new twists.

Do you need to read the first two books to enjoy Vision in Silver? The author does a fantastic job of weaving in the necessary background information throughout the story. The book begins with a prologue giving a brief history of the world, a map, and the names of the important cities and villages. So no, it’s not absolutely necessary to have read the previous books. However, the first two books are so good, and contain so much character development, that I highly recommend reading them in order.

Vision in Silver picks up right where book two, Murder of Crows, left off. The freed Cassandra Sangue are learning to live on their own, the situation between humans and the others is reaching a breaking point with the formation of a humans only supremacy group, and Meg’s presence is becoming more important in restoring harmony between the humans and the others.

More Thoughts

I have mentioned before that fantasy is a hit or miss genre with me, and this one is a hit. I love this series. The world building is fantastic; it’s creative and original with interesting story lines and well-developed characters. There is an ongoing attraction between Meg, the blood prophet, and Simon, a shape-shifting wolf that has been building slowly. No absurd romantic triangle, but instead a realistic story with a relationship between two very different individuals that works. My only complaint, if one could call it that, is that less time was spent with Meg and Simon in this book, and more on the some of the new characters and developing story lines.

For those who enjoy adult urban fantasy, or want to try a different genre, this series is highly recommended.

Audio production

I listened to much of the book, but also read parts of an eGalley.

As in books one and two, the audio was narrated by Alexandra Harris. She did a nice job in differentiating each of the many characters by changing her tone and inflection. Voices for Meg, Simon and other main characters were readily recognizable; however, there are a lot of characters and some of the minor ones began to sound similar. Listening, rather than reading, required a little extra attention to pick up on whom is speaking.

Audio Listening Level: Intermediate – Difficult

——————————–
Source: Review copy provided by Penguin Audio and
© 2015 Under My Apple Tree. All rights reserved.
Advertisements appearing on this site are placed by WordPress and are not endorsed or approved by me.