The Silences of Home

Liz Dennett is a public service librarian in the Science and Technology
Library at the University of Alberta.

This prequel to A Telling of Stars, convincingly explores several
themes, in particular the veracity of recorded history, the fragility of
home, the irrevocability of choice, and whether the truth matters. The
novel is set during the reign of Queen Galha, renowned in history as the
greatest of all the Queens of Queensland. However, the reader soon
realizes that the Queen’s own consort wrote this glorified history,
and there is much tampering with the truth that occurs for the supposed
“good of the people.”

Lanara is the childhood friend of the Queen’s daughter and working as
an ambassador of sorts in the Queen’s employ. She meets and teaches
Nellyn, who follows Lanara away from his simple people and into the
complexities of Queensland and beyond. Lanara and Nellyn end up living
with Aldron and Alea, who are isolated from their Alilan caravan because
of Aldron’s forbidden use of his powers. And there is also Leish, a
quiet selkesh sea/land creature, who leads his people far from their
home to attack Queensland with disastrous results. The story is told
partly from each of these main characters’ perspectives, in addition
to the viewpoints of a number of smaller characters. All characters
experience the Queen’s deceit, but in different ways and for different
reasons. With so many voices contributing to the story, there is a
complexity that forces the reader to be a relatively objective observer.
While the reader may sympathize with different characters at different
times, the characters’ actions affect and often hurt others, with no
one being entirely blameless or completely irredeemable.

While this book belongs in the sci-fi genre, the focus is not on
complex world building. The otherworldly setting and unique peoples are
interesting, but somewhat incidental. Instead the focus is on the plot,
the characters, and their interactions with each other, which together
reveal the many themes of the book. This is a complex yet highly
readable tale that provides more substantial ideas to chew on than most
in its genre.