Unraveling Words: Review: Of Silver and Beasts by Trisha Wolfe

Saturday, May 4, 2013

Review: Of Silver and Beasts by Trisha Wolfe

Title: Of Silver And Beasts

Series: Goddess Wars Book One

Publication Date: April 18, 2013
Rating: 3.75 Stars

In the sand-covered queendom of Cavan, the goddess once saved a young Kaliope’s life, preventing the mercury her father attempted to hide in her blood from reaching her heart. Now, a cybernetic clamp filters it, but the silver streaks swirling faintly beneath her skin are a constant reminder that she’s different.

When nineteen-year-old Kaliope is chosen as head of the Nactue Guard, she becomes the sworn protector to her empress. In the midst of an invasion on a neighboring land, Kaliope is placed in charge of guarding Prince Caben, the last heir to his kingdom. But when they’re attacked by the feared Otherworlders, Caben and Kaliope are abducted and taken below to a realm where they must fight for their life in a caged arena.

Kaliope struggles to protect her princely charge, keeping him and herself alive while battling inhumanly opponents, and trying to save the stolen, sacred relic that will restore her empress’s life force and all of Cavan. And if she can somehow awaken the goddess within her, she may save what’s most important.

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My Thoughts

This book came soo close to 5 stars, but botched it at the end. Not that I didn't like the actual ending or anything, I thought it was pretty awesome till we come to that one scene.

At first I had a hard time coming to terms with the new world of Cavan, mostly cause in my mind fantasy means old school living with magic or some such, but in this case it's advanced science and goddesses. So every time they would mention holograms and transmitters and Cury-crafts I'd be thrown off. I'm still not sure how that all ends up working, but it is a fantasy world so I just need to wrap my mind around the whole thing.

Science progress aside, I really did enjoy this new world. The 3 main realms with their respective rulers and goddesses and beliefs. We find out that all their special gadgets are powered by Mercury, because it's the purest element. I don't know the technical why's but I would liked learning some more in regards to that aspect. Not sure if anyone else would though xD. I very much enjoyed how in the realm of Cavan the heads of family are actually the women and the men are the ones who cater to them. Thought it was great, specially their scientific reasoning for this.

All the characters that we are introduced to are fleshed out nicely. I liked Caben's instinctive reaction to always try to lighten the mood, specially in such a dire situation. Kaliope came across at times as a little too serious, which is why Caben's humor really was needed to balance her out. Also, as much as she kept bashing Caben about demeaning women, she kept demeaning his beliefs without even trying to understand them either. But there was character growth and they both do learn to about each other's beliefs.

The pacing of this book was perfect, there was always something going on, whether that was in terms of action, romance or plot development, there was never a dull moment. In the beginning we are introduced to the world and a little of their politics and the brewing war but once they got down to the Otherworld realm, that's when the crap hit the fan. Caben and Kaliope are both taken as fighters in the Cages and they have to fight to the death against their opponent.

While some might think the whole cage fighting thing and all against each other is being over done, it really works in this case. The killing isn't just for the hell of it, nor does it have a flimsy excuse. It serves a big purpose and that's one of the many things that they have to find out while stile managing to come on top. During their time down there, they are all scouting, plotting, forming alliances and finding out information to get them and everyone else out. While I was able to figure out the main reason behind the dark priests scheming it still didn't detract from my enjoyment of this novel.

As I mentioned at the start of this review, there was one scene that kinda killed it for me towards the end. I just don't understand why it had to happen that way. The whole issue could have been resolved so easily by doing one simple action and yet it didn't. I understand that it hadn't happened like that then there would have been no need for more books, but if that was the case then it should been done differently, cause it was all just really flimsy.

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Other books in the series: