Flesh and Silver [Paperback]

Stephen L. Burns (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 1, 1999

A brilliant doctor gives up his status as a human being when he becomes a Bergmann surgeon--healing fatal sickness and wounds with psychic powers and mechanical precision. Though a great healer, he is an outcast, and he hand his kind wander from emergency to emergency, at the beck and call of MedAm. When not working, he is drinking, lost in a fog, trying to forget the things which he has lost. But when a dying despot hijacks him, he is forced to face what his life has become, and--with the help of a killer for hire--reclaim what it means to be a healer.

Product Details

• Paperback: 352 pages
• Publisher: Roc; paperback / softback edition (August 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0451457528
• ISBN-13: 978-0451457523
• Product Dimensions: 6.6 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 6.4 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,598,285 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Need six stars, November 10, 2000

By 

C. Bickford (Round Lake Beach, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Flesh and Silver (Paperback)

Where can I start in describing this book?

Good characters? Check.

Good concept? Check.

Good ending? Check.

The author resists the impulse to make the story too heavy-handed, and the characters are idealists that don't always suceed just because the plot demands that the good guys win. Although the good guys win, and man and woman are together, and the plot of the bad guys is foiled.

But along the way, we see that the characters are fallable. Not in that annoying anti-hero sort of way - that manages to triumph against all odds. In the way that you and I are fallable. In a way that sometimes, we overcome our failures and rise above them.

To look at the review, it would seem to be another story about another set of people that has a happy ending. While this is certainly true, I find that I lack the words to explain why I read this story as quickly as I could. Perhaps because it is balanced. Trying to put it into words makes the story seem weaker than it is.

Perhaps it is the simplicity that is appealing. A simple story about a man that overcomes his weakness. A man that crawls out of a bottle and makes something of his life. Perhaps not too plausible, perhaps a bit to neat and happy an ending, but certainly one that I read toward, and enjoyed.

And that's all one really needs to say about a book.

Buy it!

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Interesting characters, well paced, great plot line, August 16, 1999

By 

Stephen J Kreckman - See all my reviews

This review is from: Flesh and Silver (Paperback)

This book contains the two major elements that make a story memorable: a good, original plot line and characters that you actually care about. The book starts with an interesting premise and pulls you in very quickly. The plot becomes more convoluted as the story progresses and is nicely revealed/resolved by the story's end.

The characters are original,believable, and come to life vividly with Burns' writing. This was a page-turner that pulled me in enough to really care how the characters fared and how the story ended.

This is a great first novel, well worth the read, and I look forward to his next effort.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Philosophical Adventure Story, January 5, 2000

By A Customer

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Flesh and Silver (Paperback)

Stephen L. Burns had a great concept, then executed it with style, wit, and charm. His prose is sturdy, his cultural references rich (though not overbearing), and his characters well-fleshed. Though I picked this book up in my local library, it was so good that I had to come to Amazon right away. He has gained a steadfast fan with this book--may his writing career be long and fruitful.