Born of Silence

Born of Silence
By Sherrilyn Kenyon

Lately, I have been reading a great deal of fantasy books written by men. I have found them to be disturbingly violent, especially toward women. I suppose Born of Silence is the book of retaliation because the main character, Darling Cruel, is pretty much tortured throughout the entire book. This is the latest in the League Novel series, which I have enjoyed up to this point.

Although Darling is the nephew of the current leader, he has been playing several games in order to save his life and the lives of his remaining family members. Darling has claimed to be gay in order to save his own mother's life and he has trained to be an assassin in secret. He has also taken on the secret identity of Kere in order to help the rebellion that is trying to overthrown his own government. In this later role he meets the leader of the rebellion, Zarya Starska, and they fall in love and plan to marry. Zarya has no clue who Kere really is. I will say here that this is science fiction romance.

I won't spoil the surprises ahead for those of you intrepid enough (or fans of Kenyon) that choose to read the 614 page novel. I will say that I never understood how one person could be tortured by another individual and yet turn and still love them. I never saw an act of contrition or even a real attempt to do something to make amends. The loss of trust and physical pain would take a great deal of time to overcome in any relationship. And, although I appreciate the back history, I finally grew tired of everyone who met Zarya telling her about another really sad/bad/painful moment in Darling's life -- usually something he has never told anyone else about. At one point, I just wanted to tell them to stop torturing me! In any event, I probably skimmed the last 200 pages. For fans of the series, there are several appearances of previous League characters but it had been so long since I had read them, I had a hard time figuring out who was who.

What did this book have to do with my faith? Despite my reluctance to read more about one man's torture and my suspended belief that anyone could forgive that quickly, I am a follower of one person who did just that: Jesus Christ. Christ was brutally tortured yet forgave his torturers from the cross. I suppose that is the biggest difference as the man tortured in Born of Silence plots revenge against his sadistic captors when he isn't hoping to go ahead and die. This would be the human response. I am then reminded of Jesus' humanity combined with his divinity. It truly would take the essence of God to be able to forgive as he did and still does.

Not recommended unless you just have to read the next League novel.

Happy reading!

Amelia