The Silvered

The Silvered by Tanya Huff

Rating: 🍁🍁🍁🍁

Link to Blurb

Overall: So good. Minimal romance, maximum adventure. A bit slow to start, but once it finds its stride The Silvered is a wonderful read.

The Good Stuff:

1) The world Huff creates is rich in detail and nuance. So rich, in fact, that it felt real and greatly added to the story's legitimacy.

2) I liked the fact that 'science' and 'magic' exist in this world, in a way that is both complementary and antagonistic. It's also pretty clear that neither is obviously dominant.

3) Interesting commentary on the nature of humanity and the methods by which we distance ourselves from those we consider "other".

4) Mirian was a wonderful character. She's practical and well-grounded and very, very real. Her feet bleed and she's terrified, but she keeps going because she knows she's the only one who can do what needs to be done.

5) There's a refreshing lack of so many of the tropes associated with this type of story. The werewolves were people with slightly more animalistic tendencies - but they were also part of the ruling class in Aydori. There's no clear romance, though there are hints of it, but not in any way you might actually expect. No love triangle or fight for male dominance over the lead female.

6) Some of my favourite sections of the book were from the POV of the captured Aydori mages, who weren't so much damsels in distress as prisoners of war. They dealt with a lot of hard, painful treatment with real strength and dignity.

7) My favourite character by far was Captain Reiter. He showed himself to be a person of great integrity and honesty, who while not perfect, did his best to do the right thing despite the cost to himself.

The Not-So-Good Stuff:

1) The pacing of the story was a bit rough, especially at the start. I almost gave up on the book after the first chapter dragged so dreadfully, but I'm glad I persevered.

2) Tomas was my least favourite character. While he wasn't totally awful, and he did genuinely care about Mirian, I had a hard time accepting that he'd be so unrelentingly impulsive and unaware of others.

3) There was never any real sense that the bad guys were actually going to win. It was very obvious, very early on that Mirian was developing superpowers (although at a cost, which I appreciated), and by the end not only was it obvious that the Empire would pose no significant threat, it was excruciatingly obvious how she was going to defeat the Emperor.