Silver Borne - review

Silver Borne

******
Patricia Briggs

First, take a look at the cover of Silver Borne. Mercy, in the books has one small tattoo on her lower abdomen, of a coyote paw, kind of a inner joke with herself. She really is not covered in tattoos as shown. However, the artist has created such striking tattoos, that I still enjoy the covers. My only complaint is that Mercy, who is supposed to be part Native American actually looks a little paler in this cover than all the others that she's been featured in. Not sure why, it may be unintended, since it's the same artist that has done all the other Mercy covers. I do believe that all the covers, including this one, are beautiful works of art. I just wish Mercy was portrayed with the skin tone she had on some of the other covers. Go to the Book Page of Patricia Hurog's website and you can view all the other covers. They are very striking and worth a look if you've never seen them before. The cover I like the best for skin tone is Blood Bound, which also looks pretty Kick-Ass. Mercy looks like she wouldn't be too hesitant about using that big old tool in her hand. The cover I like for body (as in not anorexic looking like some other covers flooding the market) is Bone Crossed. {I remember when I used to look like that...back when I was young, before I started having a 100 babies! LOL} The cover of Moon Called is what made me pick up the book (so long ago) in the first place. The earrings, the obviously not caucasion woman, the tattoos depicted on her arms and the slightly grimy looking bandage on her arm, along with the tools hanging from her belt. It just screamed out, "buy me, I'm different, not your normal urban fantasy woman!" So I bought it and loved this series ever since. Speaking of Mercy's imaginary tattoos, the tattoos seem to also change from cover to cover. The tats on her arms are very different in Iron Kissed from the tats on Silver Borne. Once again, I love the artwork {even if the ever-changing tattoos really don't belong to Mercy, LOL}


Second, I have never, ever been disappointed by any book that Patricia Briggs has written. {Yet, though I'm thinking I probably won't ever be disappointed- How's THAT for pressure?} Not even Cry Wolf, which although not my favorite of hers, was still a very good story, with a satisfying ending. It wasn't one of my favorites, because it seemed more like a romance, than an urban fantasy. In fact, it's listed as a paranormal romance after all, and while I have enjoyed the occasional paranormal romance, I'm partial to urban fantasies. I've read all of the Mercy Thompson series, beginning with Moon Called and finishing with the latest, Silver Borne. I've read Hob's Bargain and Dragon Bones, as well as the short stories by Ms Briggs in the anthologies On the Prowl and Strange Brew. Patricia Briggs is a wonderful writer with a great imagination. She seems to be able to write in a few genres, Urban Fantasy, Fantasy, and Paranormal Romance. (even if Cry Wolf isn't listed officially as paranormal romance, that's how it reads.)

Silver Borne was a great addition to the series. Mercy is drawn into a fae plot, and one of her friends is kidnapped to use as leverage for something that a fae wants from Mercy. While Mercy is dealing with this, she is also worrying about Samuel, the son of the Marrok (alpha to the pack she was fostered in) and a werewolf that she has know all her life. Samuel is a very, very old wolf, living away from his pack and this is something that is usually detrimental to normal werewolves. But Samuel is not your normal, average werewolf. There has been a slowly increasing worry over the last few books of Samuel going Rogue, or fading and the worry gets a lot stronger in this book. Mercy is also still dealing with the fallout (not in a standstill way, but in a slowly improving kind of way). In case you haven't read Iron Kissed yet here is a Spoiler Alert here********* In Iron Kissed, Mercy was kidnapped raped by a person that she had met and had some encounters with. She had changed into her coyote self to deal with the trauma of this, and reading the chapters where she was suffering as the traumatized coyote was so devastating that I actually teared up. I have never cried before while reading an urban fantasy book, or any fantasy book. But this just was written so realistically, that I could just imagine how it would feel. Man, I was traumatized by that book. I loved it, but it really pulls out some emotions. I was trying to hide the tears, from my family, staying in my room by myself to read it, because I didn't want anyone to see me reading and crying and have to explain..."this happened to so-and-so and it's just soooo SAD! *******End Spoiler. I like that Patricia Briggs doesn't make Mercy miraculously get better, or, like I've seen happen in other book, just not mention a traumatic event in later books. She has weaved some of the fallout throughout the stories and plots of the last few books, which feels real. In the past few books, some of Adam's (Mercy's boyfriend) pack members are not happy with Mercy being the girlfriend of the Alpha, and there is a plot against this situation.

There's a lot going on here, and although a lot get's resolved, or almost resolved, there is more that has to be done by the end of the book. So while I'm satisfied at the end, I'm looking forward to more story and obstacles for Mercy and Adam to overcome. One of my favorite character, Warren the only admittely gay werewolf has quite a few appearances in Silver Borne also. We also get to see a little bit more of Zee, that incrutuble fae that has taken Mercy under his wing so long ago. I really like his character also.

Silver Borne was good, very good and I'm happy that Mercy #6 will be out in 2011 (spring).

Patricia Briggs is also working on two of her earlier works; Masques (being re-worked and re-issued in Fall of 2010) and Wolvesbane {sequel to Masques, being edited and released in Fall of 2010}. While all of her other books have been available all along, Masques has been out of print and only available for $100's of dollars, sometimes $400, by collectors. It's amazing, I've never heard of any other paperbacks that aren't over 50 years old (while the author is still alive) being collected and sold for so much money. People are amazing. I'm happy that Masques is being edited and expanded for the rest of us.

Reading Challenges
Colorful Reading Challege 2010
Speculative Fiction Reading Challenge 2010
2010 Coundown Challenge - if anyone knows where to post links to our reviews, or even where to post our progress with this challenge, please let me know. I check once in a while and haven't been able to find anything but the first post talking about the challenge.

I though about using this book for the POC reading challenge, Mercy is part Native American, but there's few references to her race, and not a lot of information about being Native American in this book. So I changed my mind.

I also thought about using it for the Cat Challenge, since Medea (her cat) is very important to Mercy and in fact is in danger here. She (the cat) is also mentioned as the only cat anyone's ever seen that loves the werewolves...Okay I'm using it!

2010 Cat Book Challenge