The Silence of Medair by Andrea K. HöstMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
I cannot truly overstate how much I enjoyed this story(and by this book, I mean both The Silence of Medair and Voice of the Lost)
It is not often when I find a book that neatly reunites so many things I enjoy in such a spectacularly well-done whole. Beautiful prose? Check. Attractive characters? Check. Interesting world-building? Check!
Captivating story? Oh boy!
Its a very interesting premise, really. Our heroine, seeing her homeland about to be overrun by invaders, undertakes a mystical quest, and actually succeeds against all odds in finding the mystical muffin. Except, sure of her victory, instead of hurrying back home with her prize, she makes the most fatal, and yet the most innocuous-seeming mistake of overstaying her welcome in the muffin factory, with the end result of emerging 500 years too late to actually fulfil her mission.
It sounds deceptively simple, but the author makes an excellent work of exploring every last one of the intricate nuances of this mishap, and in a supremely engaging way too. How do you live with yourself knowing that you had the keys to save your world and way of life from the invaders warring unexpected war with your nation, and that you botched it in the most unbearably stupid of ways? This and over equally interesting issues are constantly explored in the story as Medair struggles again and again to come to terms with the catastrophic proportions of her failure.
She is caught, understandably, in a present that abruptly becomes a 500-year old past. But what really quicks the history on is that she is not the only one unable to let the past, or her, be.
Medair is, for many reasons, the most developed character in the story, but the author does a very good job of fleshing and texturing the whole cast, and you never really feel you are wasting your time when any one character is in the lime-light. You might, however, regret every minute you are not reading or learning more about a particular few, but that just goes to prove you can be damned for being too good.
The above being said, I do have some grievances. The story never quite satisfyingly concludes a few scattered and relatively minor threads that I would have liked elaboration. Most of those pertain to the pseudo second book, (view spoiler) But such things are not enough to mar just how much I enjoyed every last page of this and how much I hung on every letter as the story neared its end
Really, just stop reading reviews and go get it. Just remember, its two books, but it is definitely and most assuredly a single story.
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