Review: Silver Borne (Mercy Thompson, Book 5) by Patricia Briggs

   

The blurb for Silver Borne tells us the story will be about the book Mercy borrowed from the Fae during Bone Crossed.

What the blurb doesn't tell us is that there are two major plots and one substantial subplot in Silver Borne, and that there is so much going on that you'll stay up until 3:00 in the morning to finish the book, even though you must get up at 5:30.

Here is the blurb:

When mechanic and shapeshifter Mercy Thompson attempts to return a powerful Fae book she'd previously borrowed in an act of desperation, she finds the bookstore locked up and closed down.

It seems the book contains secret knowledge-and the Fae will do just about anything to keep it out of the wrong hands. And if that doesn't take enough of Mercy's attention, her friend Samuel is struggling with his wolf side-leaving Mercy to cover for him, lest his own father declare Sam's life forfeit.

All in all, Mercy has had better days. And if she isn't careful, she might not have many more to live...

Obviously the pacing is excellent. If there had been a lag in pacing then perhaps I could have gotten more than two and a half hours of sleep last night. But from 11:00 on, there was simply no place I even considered to be an appropriate place to put the book down in order to finish it later.

And Mercy has grown so much in five books, which is one of my tests for how good a series is. You have to learn from what life throws at you, and that means changing and growing. Mercy is smart, and she's picked up more than a few life lessons in her adventures. I liked her in the first book, but I like her so much better now. I know her a lot better now, of course. But I like that she's survived what she's been through, without letting it destroy her. After some of what she's been through, I'm not sure I wouldn't have gone running back to the safety of Bran's pack. But she didn't. She stubbornly stayed put and fought the battles that came to her. And made a lot of friends in the process.

I don't remember how I found the Mercy Thompson series, though I do remember that it was a new series when I first found it. With an established series that you find, you get to breeze through a number of books all at once. But when you find a new series you have to wait for the books to come out. I probably should have re-read the series before Silver Borne came out. I will certainly start over with book one a few weeks before the next book is released next year, and I'm really looking forward to starting over with Mercy again.

I think that the later books in the series are even better than the first books, and the first books were pretty darn good. You don't often get that, but it seems that Patricia Briggs is also learning and growing, and getting better and better at what she does: giving us a great character who has some fantastical adventures with nice secondary characters.

I'm not going to be able to talk about Silver Borne specifically too much, because I don't want to give spoilers. I will say that I was thrilled with the way the book ended. We see a lot of Samuel, a lot of Adam, and a decent amount of Zee. Mercy has to deal with the Fae, with Samuel's issues, with phone calls from Bran, and with some problems going on within Adam's pack (which at some point will need to be Adam and Mercy's pack, but she's a coyote, and you can guess how some of the wolves feel about that). There is also a decent amount of relationship stuff going on between Mercy and Adam - nothing terribly annoying, it's mostly what you'd expect for a couple at this stage of a relationship.

We see a repeat character that has now shown up briefly in two books, and who I'm betting will play a larger role at some point. And we get a new character that I know will be playing a larger role in future books.

As for what I rate Silver Borne, it easily gets a 10 of 10. I've given the series a 10 of 10 in the past, and it will remain so.

Book Rating: Silver Borne: 10 of 10
Series Rating: Mercedes Thompson: 10 of 10

In the past I've rated the Mercy Thompson series my 7th favorite series on my Series Ratings at a Glance posts, but I'm thinking that after Silver Borne that the next time I compile my list, this series will be moving up to a higher ranking.


According to Patricia Briggs' site, the next Mercy book is still unnamed, and isn't scheduled for release until the spring of 2011. The next Alpha and Omega book will be out in the fall of 2011. Bummer.







Mercedes Thompson Series 
1. Moon Called (2006)
2. Blood Bound (2007)
3. Iron Kissed (2008)
4. Bone Crossed (2009)

5. Silver Borne (2010)



Alpha and Omega Series:
 . On the Prowl (Anthology)
1. Cry Wolf (2008)
2. Hunting Ground (July 2009)