Synopsis:
The Urdahl believe pain is inevitable. But if one can lean into that suffering they can achieve anything.
Beneath the desert sands, Bas has spent his entire life training to become a fully-fledged Urdahl. And now his time has come to prove his worth. First, he must drink from the Seeing Bowl to clear his clouded mind and witness visions bestowed to him by ancient deities. Next, he must prove strength of body with the Passage of the High Pass. But destiny is shrouded in red and strength of arm will not be enough to survive its true tests.
Will he ascend to a full Urdahl or will his visions of blood come to pass?
The turning season has begun.
Review:
*I read this novella as part the judging group The Secret Scribes for the Speculative Fiction Indie Novella Championship (SFINCS) semi-finals phase. The following review is strictly my personal thoughts as each novella will be reviewed by two judges to be as objective as possible.*
Silence is Silver is a prequel novella to Andrew Watson’s Shadowbinders series and is a pseudo coming of age story (pseudo only because the main character is a bit older but ready to pass a test to become a full part of his tribe) that comes with a revelation that sets up this character’s arc in the greater series.
Bas is part of the Urdahl warrior-esque tribe that believes in clear minds, harsh training, and extreme detachment from personal relationships (especially family as no member knows their parentage). Said Urdahl live in the desert in some underground caverns/ruins, and each class (kinda like birth year) train daily to become these emotionless members of the group. Bas’ year is ready to take the final test, but only 3 can be winners and choose their paths/roles, those who finish, get assigned paths/roles, those who don’t, they are kinda shunned members of the society. This story follows Bas’ test where he learns some world-shattering things and it falls upon him to decide what his future will be.
The cast is fairly small. We have Bas (our POV protagonist) and he’s deep in the throes of his Urdahl training, so he’s becoming that emotionless member of the tribe. But there is still a smidge of emotion that trickles through at times, making him connectable to readers. Eri is younger than Bas and Eri is an outlier in the Urdahl, he is a dreamer, likes to read, wants to know about the outside world. So Eri clashes all the time with the harshness of the Urdahl way. Mei is a friend to Bas as much as the Urdahl have friends. Their relationship has an interesting dynamic.
The Urdahl way is pretty interesting, but the test (finding a beastie egg and bringing it back before sunset) is what drives this story before the realities of the training take over. The test is fun, action-packed, and full of tension. It has a very Hunger Games vibe to it (hurting another opponent is allowed, just can’t outright kill them), so there is a ton of drama with some of Bas’ other competitors. The beasties are fun birdlike creatures that try to kill left and right, defending their eggs.
But the real standout of this story is the revelations Bas learns after his trial. I won’t even remotely touch on what it entails, but it’s a very nice twist and gives Bas a lot to think about. Very nicely done.
The prose and pace are really steady. Though this is a novella, the lore and worldbuilding is just enough to satisfy. You don’t have to have read the main series to understand the world here, everything we need to know is laid out for us in a simple, yet streamlined way. If anything, I found Bas a little difficult to connect with, and I think that’s mostly due to him being almost devoid of emotion (as the Urdahl way intends) but I know other readers in our group thought the exact opposite.
Silence is Silver sets the tone in the very first scene and doesn’t let up until the last page, opening up to the greater world Watson has crafted.
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