The Silvers by Jill Smith

From the Blurb:  

B, captain of the first crewed mission to the Silver Planet, does not think of the planet’s native race as people. Silvers may look human, but their emotional spectrum is severely limited. B allows his team to capture, study, and even kill the creatures.

When B bonds with a Silver called Imms, everything changes. B’s not sure if Imms’s feelings are genuine or imitation, but B’s growing friendship with Imms becomes his anchor in a strange world. Following a shipboard fire that kills most of B’s team, B takes Imms back to Earth. He sanitizes the story of the fire—for which Imms bears some responsibility—so that Imms is recast as its hero rather than its cause.

Life on Earth threatens the fragile connection between the two men. As Imms seeks independence from a bureaucracy that treats him like a test subject, he begins to experience the gamut of emotions—including a love B is frightened to return. And as B and Imms’s story about the fire threatens to unravel, Imms must use all he’s learned about being human to protect B.

The Review:

The Silvers by Jill Smith is a highly emotive novel, packed with sagacious prose.  The themes of colonisation and assimilation are prominent, making this novel deep, compelling, and intriguing.

An exploratory team is sent to the Silver Planet to investigate whether the water found there would solve Earth's water crisis.  However, when they arrive, they encounter an alien race whom they call Silvers.  The Silvers are humanoid, have a bruised skin hue, and a wandering heart.  Their emotional and physical differences are threatening to some of the crew, who quickly turn to brutality and cruelty - some of it sanctioned for 'Science'.

When the captain, B, finds a Silver, who has been brutalised by one of his crew, he decides to act with empathy and compassion, taking the Silver on board and nursing him back to health away from the other crew.  Although Silvers don't seem to feel much emotion, B soon learns that they are more complicated than the brutish humans first believe.

Imms, a Silver, is intrigued by these newcomers to his land, but soon his entanglements with them earn him castigation from his clan.  He is left with two options: to be alone or to join the humans, especially the one who saved his life, B.

The second part of this book is where the author really shines.  In the haunts of domesticity, Jill Smith successfully interweaves the mundane, the beautiful, and the profound as B and Imms struggle to navigate their relationship and stop more humans from hurting Imms.

Imms' perspective is especially provoking as he tries to become more human, to assimilate.  The pain of non-quite-belonging that Imms feels highlights, I think, the pain of colonised bodies.  Jill Smith provides open allusions this, especially with reference to the story of Pocahontas. 

B is a wonderfully faceted and fallible character.  He is the reluctant hero, and this reluctance sometimes causes him to falter at times when others need him most.  He is quite reflective on his own shortcomings and even when he is not behaving his best, it is still easy to sympathise with him.

There were a few detail discrepancies that I felt could have done with some work.  The premise is that Earth is short on water, but the action that takes place on Earth gives no indication of such a shortage - for example there are and streams, and the humans eat nonhuman animals, who consume a lot of water.  I would expect water shortage to have wide ranging impacts on humans and nonhuman animals, even those living in wealthy countries.  Also, despite the existence of intergalactic space travel, Earth is very much ordinary modern day.  These discrepancies, however, don't affect the story.

The Silvers provides a hesitant happy-for-now ending, which may not be satisfactory for all lovers of m/m romance, but it is an ending that reflects the turbulence and complexity of the characters and their story.

A highly recommended read.

A copy of this novel was given to Speculative Queer Romance in exchange for an honest review.

More Information:

Title: The Silvers

Author: Jill Smith

Genre: Sci-fi/Romance
Length: Novel

Publisher: Bold Strokes Books

Publishing Date:  Feb. 2014

Type: m/m

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Review: Threshold by Jordan L Hawk

From the blurb:

Introverted scholar Percival Endicott Whyborne wants nothing more than to live quietly with his lover, ex-Pinkerton detective Griffin Flaherty. Unfortunately, Whyborne’s railroad tycoon father has other ideas, namely hiring Griffin to investigate mysterious events at a coal mine.

Whyborne, Griffin, and their friend Christine travel to Threshold Mountain, a place of dark legend even before the mine burrowed into its heart. A contingent of Pinkertons—including Griffin’s ex-lover Elliot—already guard the mine. But Griffin knows better than anyone just how unprepared the detectives are to face the otherworldly forces threatening them.

Soon, Whyborne and Griffin are on the trail of mysterious disappearances, deadly accidents, and whispered secrets. Is Elliot an ally, or does he only want to rekindle his relationship with Griffin? And if so, how can Whyborne possibly hope to compete with the stunningly handsome Pinkerton—especially when Griffin is hiding secrets about his past?

For in a town where friends become enemies and horror lurks behind a human mask, Whyborne can’t afford to trust anything—including his own heart.

Review:

I am totally and utterly smitten with the Whyborne and Griffin series thus far.  I read the first book, Widdershins, but decided to give the audio book a whirl for the second novel in the series - Threshold.

It did take me a little to adjust to Julian G. Simmon's interpretation of Whyborne.  I must confess, in my mind Whyborne was always a little more British in his accent, but Julian does such a fantastic job of creating a softly spoken, humble and all round adorable Whyborne.  Now I couldn't think of Whyborne's voice as anything different.

The story of Threshold is very different from Widdershins.  Threshold is more like an episode of the X-files, whereas Widdershins was more like an adventure novel.  And I mean that as a compliment.  Moving the action away from the town of Widdershins was both refreshing and a little sad.  Widdershins was a character in itself.  But it really doesn't take Hawk long to establish the character of Threshold as a setting.

Hawk handles the movement from blossoming relationship between Whyborne and Griffin in Widdershins to established relationship in Threshold phenomenally well.  She never lets the characters remain comfortable for long.  The pain she puts Whyborne through is simply soul wrenching and it made my heart ache.

I loved the way we explore Griffin's past more in this novel.  It helps to make him a little less shiny and heroic.  There is a real sense of equality in their relationship and it warms me.

Whyborne's character development is also key to the forward momentum of this story.  He becomes emboldened.  And it's not just Griffin's presence and support which helps him to make these personal growths - it's also the ways in which he finds himself standing in opposition to Griffin.

I also adored the way we explore Whyborne's family more - especially his mother.  She is fascinating and I really hope we see more of her in the most recent book.

As much as I want to hold out and wait for the audio book version of book 3 in this series, Stormhaven, I don't possess that kind of patience.

Feels. I has them.

Title: Threshold
Author: Jordan L. Hawk
Publishing Date: June 3, 2013
Length: Novel (67k)
Genre: Paranormal/Romance/Historical
Type: m/m

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