Vision in Silver (The Others, #3) by Anne Bishop 
Series: The Others #3
Published by Penguin Audio, Roc on March 3rd 2015
Genres: Fantasy, Paranormal/Urban Fantasy
Pages: 400
Format: Audiobook
Narrator: Alexandra Harris
Length: 16 hrs 4 min
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The Others freed the cassandra sangue to protect the blood prophets from exploitation, not realizing their actions would have dire consequences. Now the fragile seers are in greater danger than ever before; both from their own weaknesses and from those who seek to control their divinations for wicked purposes. In desperate need of answers, Simon Wolfgard, a shape-shifter leader among the Others, has no choice but to enlist blood prophet Meg Corbyn’s help, regardless of the risks she faces by aiding him.
Meg is still deep in the throes of her addiction to the euphoria she feels when she cuts and speaks prophecy. She knows each slice of her blade tempts death. But Others and humans alike need answers, and her visions may be Simon’s only hope of ending the conflict.
For the shadows of war are deepening across the Atlantik, and the prejudice of a fanatic faction is threatening to bring the battle right to Meg and Simon’s doorstep…
Such great world building in this series. I highly recommend this to anyone who enjoys urban fantasy and paranormal novels.
The terra indigene have freed all of the Cassandra Sangue from their benevolent ownership by the man known as The Controller. The problem now is what to do with them. Worse yet, the compound where Meg was kept isn’t the only place where these girls have been kept “for their own safety.” Meg sees a prophecy of a very young and very pregnant girl abandoned by the side of the road being killed by truck, the terre indigene rush to find her before it is too late. The terre indigene and the Intuits come to realize that these girls weren’t only kept to cut for profit and prophecy, they were being bred to make more prophets.
They have spread the girls out among some of the Intuit and simple life farms and villages but they are not equipted to deal with the girls. Some of the girls are so overwhelmed by life outside of the compounds they were kept and the routines by which they existed. They are cutting themselves with no knowledge of how to make the cuts they crave and some are making that final cut. Everyone is scrambling to figure out have to save these girls who only wanted a life outside of captivity and pain. Even Meg, who has been part of the Courtyard for several months, flounders with the need to cut for prophecies and learning when the prickling is crucial and when it should be ignored. Meg has been working with one of her human friends, Merri Lee, on recording and interpreting the images which Meg sees.
It is Meg and her human pack who realize that the girls are being overwhelmed by so much new information, that their minds are shutting down and they come up with a plan to help ease the girls into the real world, but is it too late for many of them?
I think my favorite is the one the terre indigene refer to as the “Hope pup.” She is an artist. She was kept from drawing at the compound so that she did not dilute her ability to prophecize. But the terra indigene are encouraging her in an attempt to keep her from cutting and her drawings are frightening in their accuracy and what they show coming.
This series has such great world building and the terre indigene, who are animals who can shift to human, have a different interpretation of the world than usual shifters in paranormal stories. The Courtyard is unique even in this world since the addition of Meg and her human friends who have become the Human Pack. Simon and the rest of the terre indigene need to keep a balance between the usual needs and desires of the terra indigene and the humans in their small community. What they didn’t realize when they started accepting humans into their group was that not only were the humans watching but so were The Others, the ancient beings that even the terre indigene feared. The Others are seeing what is happening and they are using the examples set by Simon, Meg and the Courtyard on how they will be dealing with the humans causing all the problems.
This is such a great series and I am actually glad I came in late in the series so that I can speed through it. I would recommend the audiobooks on this one since Alexandra Harris does a great job with the various characters here.
Favorite Scene:
This one made me laugh as Simon is trying to buy the human-owned building across the street from the Courtyard.
Don’t bite the messenger. Don’t bite the messenger. If you bite him, he won’t work for you. Do not bite the messenger.
Sitting in the business association’s meeting room with Vlad, Henry and Tess, Simon refocused his attention on Pete Denby and the excruciating list of papers that needed to be filled in or signed or some other such thing in order to purchase a building. Why couldn’t they just the human female a bag of money and then pee on the building so that everyone would know it was theirs? This was one of the reasons a few terre indigene went through a humancentric education which exceeded what anyone wanted to know about the clever meat. But even having that education wasn’t sufficient for enduring such an irritating process.
“Title search, house inspection,” Pete said, “those have to be done. Since you’re paying cash, we might be to push the paperwork through and close the deal by the end of the month.”
“We could inspect the house ourselves,” Simon said. “Give it a good sniff.”
“You still need the paperwork, and from a legal standpoint, a good sniff just isn’t sufficient.”
Simon sighed. He’d rather be out with Meg, doing whatever she was doing.
“You get the papers we need,” Henry told Pete, “then we will give the human the money and claim the house.”
“About that.” Pete smelled nervous. “When you say you’ll pay cash…”
“We will fill a bag with the correct amount of money,” Vlad said.
“You will not give Mrs. Tremaine a sack of money,” Pete said with a snap in his voice which made Simon growl, and annoyed Tess enough that her brown hair acquired broad red streaks and began to coil.
Pete raised both hands, a placating gesture. Not as submissive as exposing his throat, but sufficient that Simon didn’t feel the need to enforce his role as the Courtyard’s leader.
“We will do this the human way and give the woman money for her house,” Henry rumbled.
“Yes,” Pete said quickly. “I wasn’t indicating that you wouldn’t or shouldn’t buy the house in the human way, but…” He studied the four of them. “This money will provide Mrs. Tremaine with food and shelter for the rest of her life. It’s a lot of money. Giving it to her in a bag will leave her vulnerable to thieves. They might hurt her, even kill her if she tried to fight them. It’s not the proper way to buy a house, even when you’re paying in cash.”
“Then what do you suggest?” Vlad asked.
“I saw some kind of bank in the marketsquare. It’s a legitimate bank?”
“Yes,” Simon said. Then he paused, uncertain. No one had ever asked that question before but a bank was a bank, wasn’t it? “The business association also has accounts at a human bank located in the Birdpark Plaza.
“That’s good.” Looking relieved, Pete made notes. “That’s a regional bank, so there should be a branch in Hubnee, which is where Mrs. Tremaine is going. If she also uses that bank, you can take money from your account and she can deposit it into hers. Safe and easy. Or we’ll get a cashier’s check. That would be even better.” He looked up from his note making. “Do you have enough money in those accounts to cover the cost of buying the house? The purchase price and the fees?”
“Fees?” Henry asked, looking at the other terre indigene
“We should have enough,” Vlad said. “But we’ll make a deposit next week to take care of anything unexpected.”
