It is a season of many wonders, with many secrets ripe for discovering ...and some best left in shadow, unexplored. Summer has come to Sauterelle Lake. And inquisitive young Nick is discovering many things he doesn't want to know: About a pretty girl with hypnotic eyes who talks to his soul... About a wild creature--a wolf--whose features shine with an intelligent, un-lupine knowing... About a strange, inhospitable family occupying a cabin that is meant to be empty. This summer, nature's magic is not the only sorcery traveling on the wind. And the real trick will be surviving until the autumn.
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Customer Reviews
Most helpful customer reviews
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Exceptionally-intriguing fantasy novels by Nina Kiriki Hoffman, who's won all kinds of writing awards--Bram Stoker, World Fantasy. The Thread that Binds the Bones and The Silent Strength of Stones deal with an extended family of magic-users, and all the moral/social/familial dilemmas in which they find themselves, in relationships within the family and with outsiders. The magic is believable, all tied up with dead ancestors and unseeable spirits and ancient family history, and it varies from person to person, family to family, generation to generation, like any other inherited trait (instead of "Oh, she's got her grandmother's blue eyes!" it becomes "Oh, she's got her grandmother's second sight!"). Thread deals with the arrival of an outsider, unrelated to the Family in any way, whose inate powers are different from, and stronger in some ways, than those of the Family, and who falls in love all in an instant with a semi-despised daughter of the Family, and between the two of them, the slow steady decline into evil behavior begins to reverse. Stones deals with a long-lost unknown cousin of the Family, living on his own, unaware of his potential, who meets up with some of his relatives and comes of age.
They're good, really really good. Eerie, resonant, by-the-pricking-of-my-thumbs stuff...
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
4.4 out of 5 stars
18 reviews
25 of 26 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
A fabulous book, but...
Nov 4 1999
By ratkin
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
"The Silent Strength of Stones" is a wonderful book. Hoffman builds her own world that looks exactly like our own, except for those strange people with the mysterious (sometimes even to them!) powers. There's only one thing that made this a less-than-phenominal experience for me: I'd already ready "The Thread That Binds The Bones", Hoffman's first novel. "Thread" makes this book seem anemic! The two are loosely connected, since Hoffman scatters clues (names and pieces of her Ilmonish vocabulary) that Willow, Evan and their strange family are related to the main characters of "Thread". Since "Thread" is, sadly, out of print and hard to find, "The Silent Strength of Stones" will have to suffice for people new to Hoffman's work. Even a book that is, in my opinion, her second best, is still head and shoulders above the work of most other fantasy writers. This is a book that will carry you along, envelope you in its world and characters, and leave you begging for more of Ms. Hoffman brilliant writing.
15 of 15 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
Harry Potter for grownups
Mar 14 2000
By Laurie Wigham
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Like the Harry Potter stories, this book is about a magical child growing up among non-magical people who eventually discovers his own heritage and powers. But the story of this boy's discovery of his true nature is much richer and darker, and much less predictable. The characters are more complex--even most of the "bad guys". The mother who abandons him and the father who mistreats him turn out to be doing the best they can in struggling with their own demons. As in "The Golden Compass", another of the few truly original fantasy novels written in recent years, not everything is spelled out. Tantalizing hints of greater mysteries and stranger worlds leave the reader craving more.I found this book to be much more satisfying and well-written than her earlier "The Thread that Binds the Bones", although I did enjoy that book too. My only criticism is that the book is much too short--it's one of the rare books that truly deserves a sequel. And the author deserves to sell at least as many books as J.K. Rowling.
12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars
An exciting new discovery!
Aug 27 2003
By Tom Knapp
- Published on Amazon.com
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Nina Kiriki Hoffman is a new discovery for me, and one long overdue. The Silent Strength of Stones is an excellent introduction to her writing, which -- like contemporaries Charles de Lint, Emma Bull, Terri Windling, etc. -- crafts a highly developed fantasy world within the framework of a thoroughly modern, very real society. Her characters are finely drawn and wholly believable in this setting, and the story resolves neatly while still leaving ample room for a sequel.
Hoffman is an exciting writer -- I can't remember the last time I found one who intrigued me this much!
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4.4 out of 5 stars
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