★★★★☆ We return to the world of the Others

Lake Silence

Anne Bishop

Lake Silence continues Anne Bishop's series The Others, except it doesn't quite. The Others consists of five novels about blood prophet Meg Corbyn and the city of Lakeside, which is located where, on Earth, Buffalo, New York is. Lakeside and Meg, however, are on Namid, a world that is geographically much like Earth, but ruled mostly by beings that call themselves terra indigene, who regard humans as prey. In The Others a group of profoundly stupid and badly informed humans take on the Others (as they call the terra indigene) and are very nearly wiped out. A few humans survive by learning to live with the terra indigene.

The story of Meg finished, we now move on to a different part of Namid and other humans. Three such novels constitute the successor series the World of the Others. We don't actually move very far. Lake Silence takes place on the shores of Lake Silence, one of the Finger Lakes. The Finger Lakes of upstate New York are a real geographical feature, and a comparison of Bishop's map with a map of the Finger Lakes shows that they are all there. Lake Silence is, on our version of Earth, called Honeoye Lake. The story takes place shortly after the events of The Others. Humans are few and cowed, and the wise ones try to live with the Others without making trouble.

Our heroine Vicki DeVine runs a small run-down resort on the west shore of Lake Silence. Her sole lodger, Aggie Crowe (who, it transpires, is actually Agatha Crowgard, a terra indigene shapeshifter) discovers a body on the grounds and Vicki calls the cops. They send Highway Patrol Officer Wayne Grimshaw to investigate. After that things get very complicated and the Others are dragged in.

Vicki is an appealingly vulnerable heroine, no clichéd statuesque martial arts warrior, she. In her past she was treated badly by people who, it transpires, want to keep doing that.

I was glad to return to Namid. Also, the series has special appeal to me because I grew up near Buffalo and went to college at Cornell, which is located on the shores of another of the Finger Lakes. I will certainly continue reading the World of the Others.

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