Helpful Score: 3
Great read! I had a bit of a tough time getting into the book at first but ended up not being able to put it down. Wonderful fantasy book.
Helpful Score: 1
Good story. I totally thought it was going one direction and was surprised how it turned out.
Helpful Score: 1
This is a greatly detailed book with many worlds and numerous characters in all three worlds. Figuring out what is going on is easier than figuring out all the characters, who is who, where they are and how everyone is related.
We have the Shadowlands where the mortals reside. This includes Cecily (one of the three important females), her husband, Donner, and her lover Kian...these are some of the good guys. So of course, we also have bad guys...Donner's heir, Cadwyr is the lone human one. On the other side of the land, we have Nessa (another of the important females), her father Dougal who is missing presumably in Faerie. Her friend Griffin who is a blacksmith and enslaved by Cadwyr.
The world of Sidhe is more complex and dangerous for all mortals. Delphinea (the last of the important females) thinks the land of Faerie is being poisoned by the Silver Caul and goes to court to try to get help. Queen Alemandine is pregnant and presumably dying. Her twin sister, Vinaver is a wicked woman and plotting the death (rebirth?) of Sidhe. Artimour is their half human half sibling who is involved in the defenses of Sidhe. Finuviel is Vinaver's son and a wicked man as well who is plotting to dethrone Alemandine and become King of Sidhe.
And last but not least, the Wastelands filled with treacherous and dangerous Goblins whose King is Xerruw who also is plotting the takeover of Sidhe for himself.
Because all that isn't quite enough going on, Samhain is coming. This is the time of year (halloween for us humans) when the veil between all worlds is so thin, being can cross over. The Silver Caul is supposed to keep the goblins from wreaking havoc on the mortals but it is failing. What happens to all the plots if the Caul fails completely?
It sounds complicated as hell and it is but well worth the read. The female characters are spectacular and the male consorts are great as well. Even the bad guys are portrayed well. Cadwyr is the only character that I hated on sight and I hope his plots fail.
We have the Shadowlands where the mortals reside. This includes Cecily (one of the three important females), her husband, Donner, and her lover Kian...these are some of the good guys. So of course, we also have bad guys...Donner's heir, Cadwyr is the lone human one. On the other side of the land, we have Nessa (another of the important females), her father Dougal who is missing presumably in Faerie. Her friend Griffin who is a blacksmith and enslaved by Cadwyr.
The world of Sidhe is more complex and dangerous for all mortals. Delphinea (the last of the important females) thinks the land of Faerie is being poisoned by the Silver Caul and goes to court to try to get help. Queen Alemandine is pregnant and presumably dying. Her twin sister, Vinaver is a wicked woman and plotting the death (rebirth?) of Sidhe. Artimour is their half human half sibling who is involved in the defenses of Sidhe. Finuviel is Vinaver's son and a wicked man as well who is plotting to dethrone Alemandine and become King of Sidhe.
And last but not least, the Wastelands filled with treacherous and dangerous Goblins whose King is Xerruw who also is plotting the takeover of Sidhe for himself.
Because all that isn't quite enough going on, Samhain is coming. This is the time of year (halloween for us humans) when the veil between all worlds is so thin, being can cross over. The Silver Caul is supposed to keep the goblins from wreaking havoc on the mortals but it is failing. What happens to all the plots if the Caul fails completely?
It sounds complicated as hell and it is but well worth the read. The female characters are spectacular and the male consorts are great as well. Even the bad guys are portrayed well. Cadwyr is the only character that I hated on sight and I hope his plots fail.
"Nessa, Delphinea and Cecily are each driven by a personal destiny, yet share a fierce sense of love, justice and determination to protect what is tehirs. Will teh spirit and strength of these women be enough to turn back teh tide of teh goblin hordes waiting to overrun the kingdoms?"
GREAT SCI-FI AND FANTASY
good story about faerie folk & men
A novel of the shadow lands... Three women stand agains the encroaching evil in the Otherwold of the Sidhe and the mortal world of the Shadowlands.
Silvers Edge
By
Anne Kelleher
Samhain is soon approaching. The time of year when the human world and the Sidhe world or the Otherworld have their boarders thinned. A magical time of year that is celebrated by both the humans and the Sidhe.
This year however, an odd occurrence has happened. The Sidhe Samhain and the human Samhain coincide on the same day. No one, not even the immortal Sidhe can remember this happening in all of history. It could not have come at a worse time either. The Great Silver Caul, or magical net that keeps the boarders between worlds solid has been stolen from the great palace in the Otherworld. Not only that, but the humans are gearing up for a war, something that could weaken the boarders even more and spill out the vicious goblin horde into their lands.
Three women have been thrown together in extraordinary circumstances. Nessa, a simple blacksmiths daughter who only longs to find her father who she believes was lost in the Otherworld, Delphinea, a noble Sidhe woman who finds her queens life endangered and a stumbles onto a plot to overtake the Sidhe throne, and Cecily, a human queen who must defend her country against the vicious wolves who have come knocking on her door.
Together these unlikely allies must come together to solve the same problem: protect their worlds and the ones they love.
I was super excited to read Silvers Edge. High fantasy at its max, what could be better? Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed. It had all the high fantasy characteristics I was excited about, elves (Sidhe), goblins, different worlds, wars, kidnappings, etc. But unfortunately the high fantasy could not save the plotor lack thereof.
That was my main gripe about Silvers Edge. Where was the plot? Ya, OK, I got that they had to save the sliver caul and make the world better, while stopping a war and yadda yadda, but the cover boasted that the women would have to work together to get this to happenI never got to the part where that happened. I kept waiting for it and waiting for it and when I was finally more than ¾ of the way through and there was no indication that any of the three women would be getting together, I finally gave up (which I HATE doing by the way).
Really, there were three books happening in Silvers Edge. Three completely different plots that just happened to take place in the same settings, it was more than a little irritating I have to admit. I loved the Sidhe world Kelleher created and I thought she could have done a lot with it. Maybe I just didnt get far enough, but sigh. Silvers Edge just left me drained imagination-wise.
There were just so many characters and different plots to keep track of. It started to make my head spin. Once again my husband (who has to be the worlds fastest speed reader) finished Silvers Edge and taunted me that I would be sorely disappointed with the ending if I didnt own the second book to start right away. Instead of thinking: oh awesome, its a series! my first thought was: Oh Good God, Ill have to read another one? After that thought came along, I gave up Silvers Edge as a bad job.
I wanted to like Silvers Edge, it has all my normal wants in fantasy books, but it just didnt do it for me. I had to put it away with a feeling of utter let-down and deflation. The best way I could describe Silvers Edge would be with a single word I used earlier in this review: Sigh.
1.5 stars.
By
Anne Kelleher
Samhain is soon approaching. The time of year when the human world and the Sidhe world or the Otherworld have their boarders thinned. A magical time of year that is celebrated by both the humans and the Sidhe.
This year however, an odd occurrence has happened. The Sidhe Samhain and the human Samhain coincide on the same day. No one, not even the immortal Sidhe can remember this happening in all of history. It could not have come at a worse time either. The Great Silver Caul, or magical net that keeps the boarders between worlds solid has been stolen from the great palace in the Otherworld. Not only that, but the humans are gearing up for a war, something that could weaken the boarders even more and spill out the vicious goblin horde into their lands.
Three women have been thrown together in extraordinary circumstances. Nessa, a simple blacksmiths daughter who only longs to find her father who she believes was lost in the Otherworld, Delphinea, a noble Sidhe woman who finds her queens life endangered and a stumbles onto a plot to overtake the Sidhe throne, and Cecily, a human queen who must defend her country against the vicious wolves who have come knocking on her door.
Together these unlikely allies must come together to solve the same problem: protect their worlds and the ones they love.
I was super excited to read Silvers Edge. High fantasy at its max, what could be better? Unfortunately I was pretty disappointed. It had all the high fantasy characteristics I was excited about, elves (Sidhe), goblins, different worlds, wars, kidnappings, etc. But unfortunately the high fantasy could not save the plotor lack thereof.
That was my main gripe about Silvers Edge. Where was the plot? Ya, OK, I got that they had to save the sliver caul and make the world better, while stopping a war and yadda yadda, but the cover boasted that the women would have to work together to get this to happenI never got to the part where that happened. I kept waiting for it and waiting for it and when I was finally more than ¾ of the way through and there was no indication that any of the three women would be getting together, I finally gave up (which I HATE doing by the way).
Really, there were three books happening in Silvers Edge. Three completely different plots that just happened to take place in the same settings, it was more than a little irritating I have to admit. I loved the Sidhe world Kelleher created and I thought she could have done a lot with it. Maybe I just didnt get far enough, but sigh. Silvers Edge just left me drained imagination-wise.
There were just so many characters and different plots to keep track of. It started to make my head spin. Once again my husband (who has to be the worlds fastest speed reader) finished Silvers Edge and taunted me that I would be sorely disappointed with the ending if I didnt own the second book to start right away. Instead of thinking: oh awesome, its a series! my first thought was: Oh Good God, Ill have to read another one? After that thought came along, I gave up Silvers Edge as a bad job.
I wanted to like Silvers Edge, it has all my normal wants in fantasy books, but it just didnt do it for me. I had to put it away with a feeling of utter let-down and deflation. The best way I could describe Silvers Edge would be with a single word I used earlier in this review: Sigh.
1.5 stars.
