In this thrilling and suspenseful fantasy set in the world of the New York Times bestselling Others series, an inn owner and her shape-shifting lodger find themselves enmeshed in danger and dark secrets.Human laws do not apply in the territory controlled by the Others–vampires, shape-shifters, and even deadlier paranormal beings. And this is a fact that humans should never, ever forget….After … never, ever forget….
After her divorce, Vicki DeVine took over a rustic resort near Lake Silence, in a human town that is not human controlled. Towns such as Vicki’s don’t have any distance from the Others, the dominant predators who rule most of the land and all of the water throughout the world. And when a place has no boundaries, you never really know what is out there watching you.
Vicki was hoping to find a new career and a new life. But when her lodger, Aggie Crowe–one of the shape-shifting Others–discovers a murdered man, Vicki finds trouble instead. The detectives want to pin the death on her, despite the evidence that nothing human could have killed the victim. As Vicki and her friends search for answers, ancient forces are roused by the disturbance in their domain. They have rules that must not be broken–and all the destructive powers of nature at their command.
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New cast of characters, but yet it felt like returning home to Anne Bishop’s amazing world.
This is the first Anne Bishop books I’ve read and I really, really enjoyed it. Great, quirky characters with realistic issues – despite the fact not all of them are human. 🙂 Definitely will be reading more!
I was thrilled that the author continued writing in the world of the Others because I definitely wasn’t ready to say good-bye to the series. This is a different setting within the world and a different cast of characters. I didn’t mind that since the author had introduced other settings and characters in the earlier Lakeside series arc. A murder and a plotting group of humans made for an exciting new series story.
Lake Silence is the sixth of The Others series and the first of the World of the Others continuation. It’s tricky to say whether it can make a good place to jump in or not. In one sense, its a new story arc, new setting, and new characters so its very much a doable thing to jump in here. However, the reference to other places, the blood prophets, the Humans First and Last, and the war between humans and the Others are what are at the foundation understanding of this next series arc so missing all that means missing some big pieces in understanding.
The story starts out on a gritty amusing note when Vickie’s boarder proves she’s not human at the same time a murder is discovered. This sets in motion a chain of events for several people: Vickie the downtrodden new owner of a dilapidated resort property on Lake Silence that she got in her divorce, Officer Grimshaw who doesn’t want to deal with people though he wants to serve and protect, Julian the mysterious bookstore owner who came to the small village out in the Wild Country for peace, Ilya Sanguinati who is the Others administrator of this village of humans and now has to come forward out of the shadows when human mischief arises to distract the Others’ plans, and Aggie, the Crow who moved into the cabin at Vickie’s resort and has enjoyed learning human ways from the crime show and thriller book-reading Vickie.
Alongside this group who just want to figure out what is happening and set things straight so they can get on with living, there is a group of greedy humans who have a greedy plan of their own and will stop at nothing to achieve it. They think they can outsmart the Others and they know they can cow the fragile, panic attack ridden resort owner.
Lake Silence, like the rest of the series, builds slowly and had the job of introductions. But, while it got rolling, intense incidents were taking place and building the suspense of the story. Vickie was terribly abused by her ex and never got help for it. He never physically abused, but emotionally and mentally ripped her apart and made her buy into his version of her- an overweight dolt who is incapable and weak. I was angered and sad for her. Her weakened mental state when it comes to fear of men and struggles with self-esteem are extreme, but she had a better support unit of humans and Others around her to help her cope and heal. I did feel that she needed professional help, but there were hints that Ilya was on that for her.
Vickie was the focus, but there were actually a few main characters to add their perspective to the story which I appreciated. It was fun getting to know the Sanguinati and Crowgard better through Ilya and Aggie’s points of view. I liked that Julian was Intuit and Grimshaw was fun to me in his gruff, crabby ‘I hate dealing with people problems’ way.
The villains were properly vile and I was so impatient for the Elders and Elementals and lesser Others to help them meet a bad end. Humans can be so arrogant and obtuse about who are really at the top of the food chain even after empirical proof was given them.
It got exciting and twisting there in the last quarter of the story and I was flipping pages madly. But, in the end, I felt like I do when a book is at the beginning of a series. It finished up all the immediate plot threads with no cliffhangers, but didn’t have a standalone feeling either. However, I know that the next book moves to a new setting, new characters, and new plot so I do have a little disappointment in that minor nagging feeling of needing more with the Lake Silence people. On the other hand, I will be simply grateful to be getting more stories in this world. Period.
So, Lake Silence built and built into a riveting story that I was not ready to put down when it finished. I am still amazed with the Others world and can highly recommend this alternate earth urban fantasy series.
4.5 stars.
Overview:
If you were sad to say goodbye to to Meg Cabot and Simon Wolfgard, I strongly recommend you pick up this book. While this story is not directly related to the original books, the world of the Others continues to be intriguing and engaging, and Bishop’s writing is top-notch.
World building:
This book is set in the world of the other slightly after the end of the original series. The brief human rebellion against the others has been crushed and things are pretty much back to normal except that the elders are paying more attention to the two-legged predators who share their land than they did before.
The majority of this story takes place in a place called The Jumbles, which is a lakeside resort at the edge of a small human city called Sproing. The city is small enough that there is little to no separation from the wild country, but somehow the humans manage to delude themselves that they are removed from the influence of the Others, or perhaps beneath their notice. But when a group of self-important city folk stir up trouble, we get to see that line between civilization and the wild country disappear.
Language and mechanics:
Ann Bishop remains a masterful storyteller. Her writing is both detailed and concise, and flows with a grace that pulls a reader in and takes them for an immersive ride.
This book’s chapters are divided by POV, with a heading at the beginning of each that tells you which character you will be following. Most of the book is written in third person, the one exception being Vicki’s chapters, which are written in first.
Character and voice:
I love most of the characters in this story, especially Aggie, one of the Crowgard, and Grimshaw, the gruff police officer who take his oath to serve and protect very seriously.
Probably the only character I didn’t care much for was Vicki, which was disappointing since she was the primary protagonist and the only character written in the first person. There was nothing wrong with her character per se. She’s an emotionally-damaged woman with low self esteem and serious body image issues. She’s written well. But she never really did anything. She was like an object other characters would move around so that they could make interesting things happen. The police move her to town, the Sanguinati move her to Silent Lodge, the bad guys move her back to the Jumble. People tell her where to go and what to do through the whole book, right up until the very end. I kept waiting for her to come into her own, but she never really did. My ambivalence to Vicki is the only reason I don’t consider this a five star book.
This book is on sale right now (August 23rd, 2019) and highly recommended.
“Challenge them at your peril.”
There’s something about Anne Bishop books that drag me in and refuse to let me go. This new spin-off series is just like that. I didn’t want the story to end.
The bad creatures are believably bad. The good are multi-layered and you can’t help rooting for them. And then there’s the whole bad good-people and good bad-creatures. It’s awesome!
I absolutely loved it. I’d give more than five stars if I could.
This world is unbelievably good. I’m desperate to read more.
Highly recommended!
The Other series is one of the most unique worlds I have ever come across. If you have not read the first one yet I highly recommend it. For me, it was wonderful to visit this world once again. In some ways, it says a lot about humanity’s arrogance over the world today, that you can take without consequences. Unfortunately, the world cannot fight back as it does in the land of the others, however, there are still consequences.
As with the previous books, well with all her book, I was completely immersed in the story, as if I was more a participant than just an observer. It is one of the reasons I love to read. For those times you find that really good book that transports you away from everything around you. The characters are so very real and not just one dimensional, but they have life breathed into them.
I fully recommend this book and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.
This first installment in the second set of books about the “others” is a winner. New characters in the “others” world of Simon and Meg that takes place in another area with different challenges. Well written, real challenges listed – good read, looking forward to the next one.
Love her work,
Even though it’s part of a really good series, it can be read alone. A great and believable world with awesome characters. Not only did I read this book 3 times during the Covid shutdown last year, I read the whole series twice. Anne Bishop is my favorite author.
Love this world and the characters that Ms. Bishop has created!!
I can hardly wait for the next one!
The entire series is fantastic!!! I hated when I finished the last book because I wanted the stories to keep going. Unrealistic given the story line. Excellently written books!!
It was hilarious with good world building great characters great ending
I have been looking for a new paranormal author and I think I’ve found her. Lake Silence a whole new and wonderful place to explore.
Some authors create a compelling world with fascinating characters but cannot translate that world away from the characters with which the author created that world. Anne Bishop is not one of those authors. The meticulously detailed fascinating world of “Written in Red” with Meg and Simon has been shared successfully in a small town with a very different heroine and hero and again, the local terra indigene require human translation of a very human social justice issue and its effect on the heroine who managed to wiggle her way into their hearts. Terra indigene do not have domestic abuse; how do they deal with a human female who reacts so unusually to males?
I was a little skeptical that I would enjoy this spin-off series as well as the original, but I did! It still had the aspects that I really enjoyed — the play between the “others” and the humans. While I did miss the characters from the original series, there was quite a bit of this one that mimicked that series. In some ways it felt like a copy of the original series, but I liked the characters, so I was fine with that.
I will say that the jumps between POVs was a little jarring (especially as you’re jumping between 1st person and 3rd person), and it wasn’t really necessary to get quite so many different POVs.
This series isn’t deep and the world isn’t constructed well, but there’s something really endearing about the characters that pulls me right in. I can’t wait to read more.
Occasionally you come across a gem. This was one of them! I can’t wait to read more in this series.
A new story, set in the world of the Others, but in a small town near Lake Silence called Sproing, where humans live but do not control the town. In her divorce settlement after an abusive marriage, Vicki DeVine was awarded a rustic resort on Lake Silence, which she learns is a very active terra indigene area, but apparently they’re happy to have her running the place. Unfortunately some crooked businessmen, including her ex-husband, have other plans for the property and this leads to much danger and conflict with the Elders and Elemental Others. Vicki is fortunate to have made some friends, including Julian, the bookstore owner and Officer Grimshaw, the new police presence in Sproing, as well as some of the Others, who work to help keep her safe. I’m always surprised at just how much I root for the vampires, shapeshifters and other beings against my fellow humans, but those humans just can’t seem to get it through their heads that they are not the top of the food chain and are so not in charge of anything, and they deserve the consequences of their actions. Once again, I was so immersed in the story I had trouble putting it down to get back to real life and was sorry to see it end. I not ready to leave this world, so now I’m reading Wild Country, the next book in the series.
Anne Bishop was already one of my favorite authors with her Dark Jewels series. When BookBub recommended Lake Silence I found a whole new series and I now own all of them. I laughed and gasped all the way through the book.
Out of the box fantasy. Not your regular type characters.