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StarBridge #5
Silent Songs
On the planet Trinity, Tesa, the deaf human ambassador, and a young telepath become Trinity's last hope of battling an alien race of dangerous amphibious beings that threatens to draw the planet into a deadly intergalactic war. Original.
295 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published June 1, 1994
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About the author
A.C. Crispin
71 books316 followersAnn Carol Crispin (1950-2013) was an American science fiction writer, the author of over twenty published novels. She wrote professionally since 1983. She wrote several Star Trek and Star Wars novels, and created her own original science fiction series called Starbridge.
Crispin also served as Eastern Regional Director, and then Vice President, of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. With Victoria Strauss, she founded Writer Beware, a "watchdog" group that is part of SFWA that warns aspiring writers about the dangers of scam agents, editors, and publishers. Writer Beware was founded in 1998, and has assisted law enforcement and civil authorities in tracking and shutting down writing scams.
Crispin, who also wrote a prequel providing the back story for the popular Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, died on September 6th, 2013 at the Hospice of Charles County in Waldorf, aged 63.
She was married to science fiction author Michael Capobianco.
Crispin also served as Eastern Regional Director, and then Vice President, of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America. With Victoria Strauss, she founded Writer Beware, a "watchdog" group that is part of SFWA that warns aspiring writers about the dangers of scam agents, editors, and publishers. Writer Beware was founded in 1998, and has assisted law enforcement and civil authorities in tracking and shutting down writing scams.
Crispin, who also wrote a prequel providing the back story for the popular Pirates of the Caribbean movie series, died on September 6th, 2013 at the Hospice of Charles County in Waldorf, aged 63.
She was married to science fiction author Michael Capobianco.
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Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews
December 15, 2019
This is book is a direct sequel to Silent Dances, though taking place after Serpent's Gift in the timeline (due to two references). Silent Songs probably presents one of the biggest challenges yet for the Cooperative League of Systems, as an alien species invades the world of Trinity, and Tesa and her friends resist.
It's also one of the most brutal stories thus far in the StarBridge series--we've had violence before, of course, but usually of the criminal or accidental kind, but here, in addition to war, we have some rather gruesome torture and enslavement, both implicit and explicit. I'm not sure that anyone made it out of this story intact.
I can clearly see that the Crispin/O'Malley collaboration is the strongest thus far in the StarBridge series in terms of writing and plotting, though there were a few annoyances in the beginning (). Some characters I didn't like actually were vastly improved in this volume, which was a pleasant surprise. The invading aliens were really interesting, despite how horrifying they can be (how they create their original slaves). There's also a new character that I liked a lot, though he's not introduced until halfway through the book. There's a romance here, too, but while the pairing is fine, it really felt far too quick. I have to say that something that makes me side-eye these books is the emphasis on American Indian spiritualism, since I worry that it feeds too much into stereotypes, though as best as I can tell, they do a good job with accurately depicting Lakota practices.
All that said, I really do appreciate these books with Tesa and following a book with multiple deaf characters. A very sad point is Crispin's afterword in which she writes in 2011 that she wants to write a 3rd Tesa novel--and Crispin died in 2013, so unless O'Malley writes it on her own, we will probably never see this story.
It's also one of the most brutal stories thus far in the StarBridge series--we've had violence before, of course, but usually of the criminal or accidental kind, but here, in addition to war, we have some rather gruesome torture and enslavement, both implicit and explicit. I'm not sure that anyone made it out of this story intact.
I can clearly see that the Crispin/O'Malley collaboration is the strongest thus far in the StarBridge series in terms of writing and plotting, though there were a few annoyances in the beginning (). Some characters I didn't like actually were vastly improved in this volume, which was a pleasant surprise. The invading aliens were really interesting, despite how horrifying they can be (how they create their original slaves). There's also a new character that I liked a lot, though he's not introduced until halfway through the book. There's a romance here, too, but while the pairing is fine, it really felt far too quick. I have to say that something that makes me side-eye these books is the emphasis on American Indian spiritualism, since I worry that it feeds too much into stereotypes, though as best as I can tell, they do a good job with accurately depicting Lakota practices.
All that said, I really do appreciate these books with Tesa and following a book with multiple deaf characters. A very sad point is Crispin's afterword in which she writes in 2011 that she wants to write a 3rd Tesa novel--and Crispin died in 2013, so unless O'Malley writes it on her own, we will probably never see this story.
January 16, 2013
I thought of Silent Dances, a previous book in this series dealing with the deaf protagonist of this book recently when I read Angels and Outcasts: An Anthology of Deaf Characters in Literature. I hadn't known before that there was a sequel about her. I was glad to encounter her again, and see her reaction to another character who is hard of hearing and has a completely different perspective on deafness. I do think that Silent Dances had more character depth. This book was more action oriented, and Tesa was magnificent in an action role.
March 22, 2021
Probably one of the most harrowing books in the series, this one is a welcome return to the world of the Grus and the Hunters, and reunites the reader with Tesa, Taller, Weaver, Lightning and Thunder while introducing a new cast, a young Maori with an addiction to telepathy and another member of the disgraced Simiu clan from the first novel.
Thinks quickly take a darker turn, as another intelligent race is discovered on the planet, and war, invasion, torture and conquest quickly drive the narrative forward in a way that will be familiar to lovers of Westerns.
Thinks quickly take a darker turn, as another intelligent race is discovered on the planet, and war, invasion, torture and conquest quickly drive the narrative forward in a way that will be familiar to lovers of Westerns.
July 25, 2019
And it book 5, the series takes a strong about face. Where all the previous books manage to resolve interstellar issues with no violence, we now have a race who has no desire but conquest and use torture, rape and high level technology to achieve their goals. While in the previous books, the simplistic resolutions seemed to fit the plot, the dichotomy is more jarring in this one.
September 22, 2017
This whole series is awesome.
May 2, 2018
A nice addition to this series. We get to see some characters from previous novels which is always nice.
August 7, 2020
Very powerful book. Very powerful.
February 3, 2021
I have been enjoying this series over the last couple of years and now I am on the second to last one for me. I loved that this book brought us back to Trinity and Tesa. Loved catching up with the Grus, Tesa, and because I was never a big fan of his I was happy to read that Thom had left. A new cast of characters comes to Trinity both for good and ill. This is the darkest story of the bunch so far. I had to skim through some of the torture scenes as they were descriptive and disturbing. Although dark it was still good.
One book left and I will definitely be continuing on.
One book left and I will definitely be continuing on.
September 19, 2008
After having been introduced to Tesa the ambassador to the crane like Grus and the Eagle like Aquila in Silent Dances, I was eager to read more of her adventures in Silent Songs. Unfortunately I could not find this book until about two days ago...I just finished it and was not dissapointed. The world of Trinity that Crispin fashioned and it's various peoples was expanded upon which was delightful. Again as Crispin does so well, she writes about interrelations between the differing inhabitants both on and off world and how they have to deal with each other and themselves. I got so wrapped up in the book it was very hard to put down. This as well as the other books in the Starbridge series will be ones that I read over and over again. Thanks Ms Crispin!
July 26, 2016
The lower rating isn't because it's poorly written--no, it's excellently written and utterly gripping. I'm just not so much a fan of the suspense and thriller aspects for this, nor did I care for the torture (both on page and implied) and murder and brutality and those aspects made the book quite hard for me to read because of how realistic it was and the emotions it stirred.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 6, 2016
This is the most difficult of the Star Bridge books, the hardest concepts to deal with, but also the most rewarding.
Displaying 1 - 12 of 12 reviews