Customer Reviews

Song In The Silence: The Tale of Lanen Kaelar

5 star:		(71)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Song in the Silence is one of the best fantasy books I have ever read, and I have read many! The book is primarily about the relationship between a woman, Lanen Kaelar, and a dragon. The setting is in another world that has an almost medieval feel to it. The author's writing style is superb and the book begs for a sequel. It is hard not to fall in love with the characters. Lanen is very strong willed and goes up against many dangers and terrible odds just to fulfil her dream of meeting real dragons. The book is a must of all who enjoyed Anne McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern series. A pure joy to read. Delightful and entertaining. Romance and fantasy are skillfully interwoven in this brilliant book.

Thank you Elizabeth Kerner! I am so tired of dragons being portrayed as angry, blood-thirsty killer beasts with no concious thought. Dragons are noble, wise, ancient, and fantastic creatures and here Elizabeth Kerner has captured these aspects with a new resounding flare.

When I began this book, the story was understandable and well thought through. The scenes and descriptions were vivid and thouroughly enjoyable. However, first person POV can be difficult for many people,(mainly because few authors write in it) and this book has many first persons - but I recomend patience and persistance. For thos who don't have patience, try to find some (you will be well rewarded), soon after the POV shifting began and I had accepted it, it no longer became a struggle to read, but actually brought a new depth to the story.

I recommend this tale (and *The Lesser Kindred*) to all women. Lanen is a Phenomonal and strong woman, to whom all women can relate and see something of themselves (past, present, and future) in her.

It's not that bad a book.

Of course, it's not that good a book either.

First of all, the good parts (because, after all, quite a few people like this sort of thing, and for all I know someone would like the book for this): The description of the dragons is fairly interesting. For some reason, the book's opening captured me, perhaps because the romantic in me likes to think of a character looking back on her adventures after all's said and done. Wonderful lyricism when she spoke of dreams of dragons. Night scenes in the book that were simply wonderfully described.

And then there are the Unfortunate Diseases it suffers from:

TLAFSS (True Love at First Sight Syndrome): There are people who don't fall in love at first sight. I find them much more realistic than Lanen and Akhor. Yes, she has a grand destiny, we know that. Does she _have_ to have a true love in a few days? While I enjoyed the unusual aspect of an interspecies romance, it didn't last all that long, and was severely undercut by the TLAFSS part.

UFS (Unfortunate Feminist Syndrome): It's yet another spunky heroine! See her prove she's just as good as the boys! See her get underestimated. See her have a perfect love affair with a male who just adores her.

I probably wouldn't mind this story if I hadn't seen it a hundred other times, and if it wasn't for the genre. It's _fantasy_. Authors can create their own gender-equal (or gender-free- even more fun) societies if they want to, and move past the tired old tropes. Getting banged over the head with a message is getting tiresome.

UDS (Unfortunate Demon Syndrome): Why do there have to be demons? Why? Make up something new! Please! This author has proven she can describe dragons breathintakingly; make up a new race and describe them breathtakingly.

CJS (Character-Jumping Syndrome): It was insane. It's the reason I quit reading Robert Jordan. The story might have gotten three stars if not for that.

So: Light, lyrical, romantic reading. Heroine unfortunately is spunky, falls in love at first sight, is pursued by demons, and doesn't step out of 'destiny-ridden-heroine' mode. Too bad.

Well, not really new, since I didn't discover this book until recently!

The world Kerner builds and describes for her readers is convincingly done - I love the description of the different races and their choices at the beginning (it felt a little abstract at first, but becomes very clear in its importance later in the book, and in the sequel as well).

As someone who discovered McCaffrey's dragon books at a young age, and loved them -- it was refreshing to find a new description of the personalities and functions of dragons. Many authors seem to either 'copy' McCaffrey, or else establish dragons as medieval bloodthirsty monsters. This is a new twist on a long-time mythological creature and I applaud it.

I would place Kerner on the same level as Anne McCaffrey, LeGuin, McKillip, etc. Very well-written characters and novels. She's going to be a well-recognized author within this field for quite some time (and I say this as someone who was introduced to fantasy by Tolkien's books, and who maintains him on an entirely separate plane because his works are so well done) -- I have consistently been disappointed with many fantasy authors, who often have copycat plotlines, poor characterization, unbelievable worlds and languages, etc. -- but Kerner has managed to break through those barriers with a novel which really was a wonderful read.

Some have commented on the love story - yes, there is a love story. I think for some people, that will color their interest in the book and how they assess it, especially if they're used to the 'love story' being an incidental part of the action, only really addressed at the end of the book. But I thought it was well done (and yes, there are people who do have 'love at first sight' type experiences, at the friend level and at the romantic level - I may not be one of them, but I've known couples who've been married 50 years and more who *did* meet that way. Far be it from me to contradict the validity of their experience!).

First, I *love* dragons, and I'm a fiend for romance, so it's no surprise that I really enjoyed this book! Lanen was a great character to "live" with, and Akor (the dragon) was amazing. However. The reviews are true -- the book is a bit predictable with the "evil" that they face. I also found the long, drawn out explanatory passages a bit tedious, and the narrative style was difficult to adjust to, as well. I don't tend toward first person narrative, and this book is written in MULTIPLE first person narrative. The POV character switches in the middle of the scene, and often, in the middle of dialog. It's not confusing, it's just not "typical." Sometimes I felt like I wanted the author to pick one POV character and stick with it!!! I didn't need the internal thoughts of EVERYONE -- the good guys, the bad guys, minor characters, EVERYONE has their own POV.

Of course, if you can get past that, the book is amazing. It takes a while to get to the romance, and in that you have your typical fantasy plot, but all in all its a good mix of the two. The romance is very enjoyable, however.

Ms. kerner did a good job, and I look forward to reading the future books in this series!

This book changes the way a fantasy reader will look at everything. It is up there on my list with Tolkien and C.S. Lewis as a great fantasy.

She builds a character you can relate to and doesn't make the plot seem impossible. The reader never really knows who the bad guy is until the end, and a cast of supporting charcters that will make you smile everytime they're mentioned. I have read and re-read this book so many times, and I never get tired of it.

If you want a fantasy book with action, mystery, suspense, romance, it's all here. It's all waiting to be opened and to draw you into a world of magic, courage, and choices. The reader will be guessing what will happen to the last battle. Read and Enjoy.

This is the tale of Lanen Kaeler (the Wanderer). She leaves her home for the first time in search for the True Dragons (Kantri)and once leaving the safety of her home she goes through an adventure not easily forgotten. She travels to the Isle of the Dragons ,where no ship has returned for a 100 (?) years. And when she goes there she finds a friendship and a love that can never be broken even by death! This book has magic, dragons, a little bit of action, and has that good and evil thing going for it. When she begins her journey you are then sucked into the book and you find yourself not able to put it down! THIS SERIOUSLY IS A GOOD BOOK TO READ!

An interesting book. True, it does provide a fresh perspective on the human-dragon story; and Lanen is an intriguing character. But I found this book a bit too quixotic and flat for my taste. It succumbs too often to the ever-present temptation of any author, a desire for things to be ideal. It needs a few more flaws. The multiple-first-person narrators are very confusing, particularly in high-action sequences when the switches between them come every few paragraphs. And I found the ending of this book fairly disappointing and a bit contrived.

_Song in the Silence_ is a good book for killing time, but don't expect too much.

I bought the ubridged version by accident, certainly did not mean to. How ever, it was not so bad. Since I haven't read the original unabridged book, I cannot say whether the book benefited from the compacting. :-) Anyway, the story was good, and if you like dragon fantacy, you'll propably like this book. It was entertaining and did not just repeat something that has been written a hundred times already.

When I finished this book, but a few hours past, I immediately went in search of a continuence. When I found it, I was overjoyed. I have to read 'The Lesser Kindred' now. I will spare you my own little summary of this book...you've had enough of that, I'm sure, but I will tell you that this book has touched me. I had checked this book out of my school library last year, but never picked it up to read it. I recently checked it out again, and still put off the reading of it. I finally picked it up yesterday and started reading. Almost from the start I found in Lanen a kindred spirit. I have this unshakeable need to leave my home...and the love of Dragons. It's almost laughable, but I would give anything just to speak to such a being; such power and wisdom. Somewhere deep, despite all logic from my mind, I believe that dragons had to have existed, somewhere. In reading this, I was able to myself in the shoes of someone living two of my dreams...I have always wanted to find true love, as well. To end, this book has touched me on a more than personal level, and I am looking so forward to reading books following it. It is definitely a book I would recommend to anyone, even if their normal interests range outside of the fantasy realm. I wish that everyone would take the time to read such an amazing book.
Go you safe and keep you safe, and come safe home to me,
(Lanen's heart-father's farewell to her)
Sapphira