// // Autumn Write Blog

Time stole victory.

Medair an Rynstar returned too late to drive back the Ibisian invasion. Centuries too late. When friend and enemy have become the same thing, what use are the weapons Medair planned to use to protect her Empire? There is no magic, no artefact, no enchanted trinket which can undo the past. But no matter how Medair wishes to hide from the consequences of her failure, there are those who will not allow her the luxury of denying the present. Her war is already lost, but she carries weapons which could change the course of new battles.

With the skirmishes of war beginning, and hunters in near pursuit, it is her conscience Medair cannot escape. Whose side should she be on? What is she really running from?

Putting aside my obvious enjoyment of Host's books, what intrigued me the most about the Medair duology was the premise behind it: What would happen if the hero slept through the war and had no choice but to aid her once-enemies? Its more complicated then that of course, but the implications of the hero missing the war alone made me want to read more.

I could, and might still at a future date, wax poetical about the moral conflict Medair faces. Through no design of her own, a simple night's rest in fact, Medair missed 500 years of her world's history. She awoke to a world where the invaders are so inter-mixed with her former people most would be hardpressed to say they didn't have mixed blood somewhere in their heritage. Medair's oath to the throne of the Empire, to the Emperor and the people of Athere, tore her in two directions. And Host wrote that dilemma and confusion so believably I wasn't entirely sure what side Medair should land on.  

Medair's constant struggle between understanding that the fight she remembers as being just a few months ago is ancient history to (most of) these people is what kept me reading.  She's an intelligent girl, resourceful and clever, smart enough to know her limits, so rationally she understands she needs to move past things.  Unfortunately there's so much unresolved issues from the past she finds it hard to look beyond it.

I'll admit the fact Medair says, often enough, that the White Snakes (Ibisians) of now can't be held responsible for what the White Snakes of her time did....then acts as if they're the devil incarnate got tiring by the end of the novel.  It felt more like her mind was fighting what her heart knew; despite her best intentions she acted in the best interests of Illukar (even if she was under geas, that isn't what made her save him in the first place) and she genuinely seemed to enjoy the company of Avahn and Ileaha.

During its best moments Silence made me think about what honor, loyalty and redemption meant.  Medair couldn't bring back the past, even if she were to use the Horn now, it wouldn't bring back her friends and family.  It wouldn't erase 500 years worth of history that made the Ibisians less of the invaders and more of the people.  This book was thought-provoking and heart-wrenching...and only served to remind me why I lost Host's writing.