Song in the Silence

One of the rare stories in the fantasy genre where dragons are portrayed as majestic, intelligent creatures looked up to with admiration and respect, for which I loved this book. Being written from a woman's perspective, it felt immersive and portrayed a strong character, who at the same time remained humble, relatable and nuanced.
It also felt like there was a latent tension going on between the human and dragon protagonists that went a little beyond mere friendship and loyalty. If only the author had stopped just merely 40 pages earlier, the book would have been perfect in my eyes. The ending felt somewhat cliché for its time.

Hoo boy. Never re-read your childhood favorites, kids.

I first found this book in middle school, in the school library. The sci-fi/fantasy section pickings were very, very slim at the time and I was slowly working my way through the section when I came to this. I remember being arrested by the cover art and staring at it for a long time - I guess I really loved the design of the dragons.

I've never been a huge romance fan, but I dug on this hard. I suppose the best, or worst, connection I can make is that it was my Twilight - a regular young woman with an irregular mental ability becomes infatuated with an incredibly powerful, much older magical beast, who instantly loves her back for some unfathomable reason, with the climax of the show more novel being the 'man' rushing to her rescue, and some debate over whether the young woman should become one of his kind or not. To be fair, at least there were no instances of stalking, gaslighting, or abuse between them, which I would argue is a very important difference.

Still, hard to believe this pre-dates Twilight by a good decade. But I loved it, I loved them, I loved the world, and the pronunciation/language info at the end gave me one of my first tastes of conlangs, albeit an incredibly simplified one.

I've re-read it a million times since, though I only listed it once since I don't want to have guesstimates in my Goodreads totals.

It really, really shows its age reading it through modern, adult eyes.

Both Lanen and Akhor are Mary Sue/Stus, with special abilities/qualities that are never really explained - they are just special. They fall in love at first sight because *~*destiny*~*, rather than through actual interaction. The dialogue between characters, particularly our protagonist couple, is some of the purplest prose I've ever seen in literature. The antagonists are cartoonishly evil in the vein of a Dragonlance novel. There's almost literal deus ex machina to move the plot along and solve the primary dilemmas of the novel. Its very much late 80s/early 90s fantasy.

If you are a sucker for flowery romance, old school fantasy, or dragons, this should be up your alley. If you have more refined tastes, you'll probably find this too simple. I'm still perfectly happy to re-visit it, flaws and all, because it captured my imagination so well as a kid.

And its still a better love story than Twilight. show less

There are a lot of dragon stories out there; tons of fantasy and sci-fi fiction about people and dragons, magic, sorcerers, demons, quests. It's pretty basic. But this novel stood out, maybe because I hadn't heard about it before or since I read it. And I really, really liked it.

Lanen Kaelar is a helper on her family's farm...until her father dies and she is set free. Off in search of adventure, accompanied by the roguish Jamie, who essentially raised her, Lanen heads for the coast. In her mind, she is determined to find the fabled Dragon Isle, where legends say the exiled true dragons still live. Ever since her youth, Lanen has felt a powerful connection to dragons, and she believes she is meant to have some kind of kinship with these show more legendary creatures she so reveres.

But when Lanen's arduous journey finally brings her to the Isle, she will become embroiled in more conflict than she can imagine. A demon sorcerer in disguise who needs her for a dark ritual. A kingdom of wise, stubborn, and intelligent dragons living in secret, whose world is shattered by Lanen's arrival. And the Silver King of the dragons himself, Akor, who finds himself drawn, against all laws of human, dragon, and nature, to the fiery Lanen Kaelar.

Forbidden love, complex cultures and histories of human and dragon, well-done characters, really nasty villians, and an interesting narrative style that rotates perspective every few pages among at least six different characters, this novel was different than any "dragon fantasy" I've ever read. And because of its little-known status, I try to recommend it as often as I can. show less

I'm not sure why I picked up this book. Usually I find fantasy books of this size daunting and over my head. Not so with "Song in the Silence". It starts deceptively slow but picks up quickly, so that I found it hard to put down. I loved this new take on dragons and could tell the author worked hard on her details. I especially liked the dragons names and their opinion of gold. The romance in the story was lovely and surprising. Although the love declarations were a little melodramatic. I hope there is a sequel because this book left me hanging!

More reviews at: http://www.onstarshipsanddragonwings.com/2012/07/15/song_in_the_silence/

Song in the Silence by Elizabeth Kerner is a bardic high fantasy about a young woman believing in legends and finding much more than she ever hoped possible, including adventure, demons, dragons and love of an unexpected variety

Title: Song in the Silence
Author: Elizabeth Kerner
Pages: 416
Genre-ish: High Fantasy through and through
Rating: ★★★★☆ - Interesting story, slow pace
Setting: Song in the Silence is set in a fantasy world where large but dumb reptiles are called dragons, but legends tell of an island full of riches beyond imagining, and more importantly, intelligent and beautiful True Dragons.
Premise: Lanen is a young woman who has show more just lost her uncle (who raised her from a babe) and has found herself comfortably provided for by his horse business. She finally has the opportunity to follow her dreams and find out if the True Dragons really exist, though of course the journey to get there involves crossing a sea which no ship has made it across in about a hundred years….
Strengths:
Very interesting and unexpected spin on the romance element
Strong and beautifully imperfect female lead (Lanen is rather plain and taller than many men, awesome!)
Seeing as this is listed as #1 of a series, the lore foundation that is laid is really promising and I will definitely find the second book to continue the larger plot that was started
An authentic bardic style telling, with archaic phrasing and a slower pace, very classic fantasy style
Weaknesses:
That last strength (which I was honestly impressed by) also becomes a weakness if you aren’t in the mood for a slow pace, since this book definitely relaxes more than compels
The main plot of the book wasn’t clear for a chunk of the beginning, which leaves the reader feeling a bit lost, but hang in there!
The same authentic bardic feel includes phrasing and some vocabulary that is a little difficult to understand if you are reading fast. I found myself going back over sentences here and there, but it was worth it :)
Summary:
I really enjoyed the story and absolutely LOVED the characters of Song in the Silence and really look forward to reading more from Elizabeth Kerner, but this book is definitely more of a project book than something to take on a trip. It will likely take you a little bit of time but it really is worth it to push through the slower parts. Kerner’s style reminded me heavily of Tolkien’s at various points, though with less large descriptive chunks ;-). show less

Elizabeth Kerner takes up a familiar theme in ‘Song in the Silence’, the relationship between dragons and humans, and gives it a fresh voice. The characters, especially the admirable but very human Lanan Kaelar, are engaging and believable. I liked Lanen’s naivety and innocence, full of confidence in her ability to overcome any obstacle that the world might throw in her path, and determination to reach her goal of visiting and communicating with the dragons. And Akhor is a most intriguing dragon.

Having said that, the villain is not very villainous; the demons are not especially demonic; her father’s ‘deal-with-the-devil’ is a bit predictable; nothing much happens for some time; and the romance is well and truly overblown. show more I’m not over-fond of first person narrative, and initially found the swapping from one character as narrator to another distracting. However, Kerner handles this reasonably well and it did not take long to adjust to the style.

However, the adventures of Lanen and Akhor/Varien look set to continue and I’ll come back to see what happens next. show less

This fantasy is about a girl who falls in love with a dragon. The world is reasonably well realized, the plot engaging, though plot points are signalled ahead of time. It sets up for a follow-up book that I might even read. I think this is a first book, and as a first book, it is quite decent. It is told in first person, which can be difficult when following several threads of plot. The author gets around it by explicitly switching viewpoint characters, and does that very well.

Our heroine has a mysterious past, so mysterious even she doesn't know it until a few chapters in. She has felt driven her whole life to see real dragons, but they live on a semi-mythical island far from civilization, so that is unlikely. She follows her dream, show more and it leads her to that island and to dragons. The scenes with the dragons felt a little too pat, too easy, almost fan-fic-like. And meanwhile, her mysterious past is catching up to her, trying to force her into a life she would not like. But the plot moves swiftly, and the resolution, while foreshadowed, was still a surprise. Recommended. show less