Review: Vision in Silver

Vision in Silver by Anne Bishop
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

With the Cassandra Sangue unable to cope with life outside of the compounds, escaping their prison has only changed their problems. Living in the compound under the control of the overseer, the blood prophets were given small breaks outside their sterile cells, and taught of the outside world through images in a book. They were only given enough information to interpret the prophesies they had when their skin was cut, for their captors profit. Simon and the rest of the terra indigene (others) freed the blood prophets, but with only Meg's experience to go by they lost a few of them to suicide before they figured out how to help them. Meg is busy working for the Lakeside courtyard, and helping Simon with the blood prophets. The HFL (Humans First and Last) movement is inciting the hatred some humans have for the Others. The humans have a short memory, because there has never been a time when they have gone up against the Terra Indigene and won, though they keep trying.


***Spoilers***
Detective Montgomery's daughter Lizzy makes her way to Lakeside by herself, carrying only a suitcase and her favorite bear. Her mother Elayne was dating the head of the HFL Nicholas Scratch, but she was killed in the train station before they were both able to flee the city. The police from Toland call Lakeside wanting to interview Lizzy and retrieve the bear. Simon offers him one of the apartments at the courtyard, so that Lizzy is safe while they find out what's going on. The wolves find a bag of jewels hidden inside the bear, and replace them with glass from the Crows shop before giving the bear to Burke at the police station. Wealthy donors were donating their jewels to the HFL, and then claiming the Crows stole them and collecting the insurance. Without the money those jewels represented, Scratch and his lackeys are getting desperate. They end up finding out that Elayne's brother was working with Scratch, and he's the one who hid the jewels there. In Lizzy's diary, they find that Elayne has spilled all of the secrets she had on the HFL, including the fact that the current food shortage was all planned, so they could blame the Terra Indigene and bring more people to their side. At the end of the book, a few of the crows, and several of the human pack go to the outdoor market to shop and let the crows have some fun. It was all set up, and the HFL attacked their group. Luckily Meg was able to give them a little warning, but Crystal, one of the crows and Lawrence Macdonald the human police officer were both killed. Many of them were hurt, but the betrayal will have far reaching effects. The earth natives living in the courtyards are like a buffer for those living in the wild country. Humans are only allowed to lease a small amount of land, because they have things the others want, but in the end they are no more than clever meat. Simon finally receives word from the wild country about their plans following the attack, and they have declared a breach of trust. Their message to him is this: The sweet blood has changed things. You have changed because of her. We are intrigued by the humans who have gathered around your courtyard, so we will give you some time to decide how much human the terra indigene will keep.

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