| Title | : | Lily the Silent (The History of Arcadia, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1935259180 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781935259183 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 224 |
| Publication | : | First published October 16, 2012 |
"Look inside this world and find wonder."—Kate Bernheimer, editor of My Mother She Killed Me, My Father He Ate Me
Lily leads a serene life in Arcadia until the forces of Megalopolis invade. Rescued from slavery by a prince of Megalopolis, Lily is sent to retrieve a very important key. Aided by her friends, her dog Rex, and even Death herself, Lily's adventures take her from the Moons to the Bottom of the Sea, and finally back to Megalopolis, where she faces the decision of her life. Will she choose True Love and relinquish the key to those in Power or will she risk everything for who she is and return the key to Arcadia?
Narrated by Lily's daughter, Sophia the Wise, this is a story about a girl who learns to live by her own light and—no matter how reluctantly—become the queen her people need. Full of Arcadian legends, it is also a fairy tale within a fairy tale about a troubled world not unlike our own, as well as a beautifully illustrated sequel to Snotty Saves the Day, which critics and booksellers hailed as "Lewis Carroll with footnotes by Jonathan Swift," while comparing it to authors whose work can be savored by readers of all ages: Susanna Clark, C.S. Lewis, George Orwell, and L. Frank Baum.
Tod Davies lives with her husband and her two dogs in the alpine valley of Colestin, in Oregon, where she discovered the first Arcadian manuscript, and at the foot of the Rocky Mountains, in Boulder, Colorado.
Mike Madrid, a native San Franciscan, is the author of The Supergirls: Fashion, Feminism, Fantasy, and the History of Comic Book Heroines.
Lily the Silent (The History of Arcadia, #2) Reviews
-
Several voices take turns to tell this tale, some pompously bardic, some pensive and self-critical, some bright and playful. Through it all, the most whimsically magical events blend with Kafka-like critical awareness. It's a fairy tale with a take on what makes evil tick, and a vision of the world's homecoming.
-
Felt somewhat Tolkien-y to me (particularly the bardic part at the beginning), with all the positives and negatives that entails. I was impressed by how much action and how much different adventures got packed into the story (in a way that felt natural, not over the top)—other than the very beginning, it never really felt like it was dragging, which is more than I can say for the first hundred pages of LotR (and all the the Hobbit) (sorry not sorry). I wouldn't necessarily say this is appropriate for a young child (particularly with the semi coupled drawing of Lily and her man), but probably would work for a late elementary/early middle schooler who likes fairy tales (as it is very much told as a fairy tale).
That said, for me, the fairy-tale feel meant that the characters (particularly the main characters) did not feel like real people. And whenever they did start to feel read (particularly the sassy best friend), the narrator would cut away from current events with reflections on the metastory and other releated events...so yes, a lot of Tolkien DNA in the storytelling. There were also what felt like a lot of references to the lore of the world, which is sort of cool but also made me feel like I wasn't really able to get a lot of the deeper meaning of any of the actions of the story because I didn't know it, and in some cases meant that I was confused as to what was going on, because people seemed to be acting with grave significance that was lost on me.
Disclaimer: Received this book for free through Goodreads' First Reads giveaway program. -
Like many others, I did not realize this was a second book in a series; however that really did not impede my reading of it. I enjoyed the story that Ms. Davies concocted. It was full of interesting elements that would draw the reader in. I think the difficulty was that the story was very detail oriented and I found myself having to re-read many portions to make sure I understood who, what, and why things were occurring.
On another note, I found it every enjoyable that the premise of the tale is that it was ‘found’ and the explanation of it and then that the plot itself was told like it was physically being told to you , like an oral rendition. There were even points when Sophia stops and explains how her mother told her the tale and what details she added or left out for whatever reason. I also really enjoyed the pictures, which helped explain some of the content nicely.
I did not dislike this read, but it was very saturated with detail, like most fantasy is, but some of that detail was strangling. I am curious if more would be understood had I read the first book in the series, but then again I am not sure it would have helped… I appreciate the opportunity to read this, even as slowly as I did. -
In her latest novel, Davies continues to weave the language of legend with that of scholarly work to examine how history is created and colored by different perspectives. Lily will capture your heart as you learn her story through her daughter Sophia's investigation into the history of the kingdom of Arcadia. Through adventures wondrous and horrifying, Lily becomes a heroine with reserves of strength to fight for the greater good even when it means breaking her own heart. And in the end, Sophia asks the question that we should all ask about our world: "How is it best for us to live? If I can't discover the answer, I have to leave the question for someone else, the way my mother did, handing it down like an unlit torch from one to another, waiting for the day the light will come to it" (p239 in the advance uncorrected proof). With that, the torch is passed to readers.
PS. I enjoyed this book even more than the first in the series, Snotty Saves the Day (The History of Arcadia, #1), and Mike Madrid's elegant illustrations are beautiful! -
Lily the Silent reminded me of works by authors who blur the line between fable and emotionally realistic, less overtly symbolic (if still fantastic) narrative, like Angela Carter, Rachel Pollack, and Kelly Link. There's a lot I admire about it. It's unambiguously, but not heavily-handed, feminist. It explicitly opposes the conventions of Tolkein-derivative heroic fantasy. At its best, it slips between figurative and literal descriptions with dreamlike fluidity.
But I can't say I enjoyed it much. Partly this may be because it's a middle chunk of a multi-book narrative that may overall be less dour. Partly it may be that I'm not the perfect audience for this novel. But I found myself wishing it were either leavened by a touch more humor, or that there were a little more character development beyond the archetypal, or both. -
Lily the Silent is one novel that I found not only ridiculously fun to read, but also amazingly lovely in and of itself. Reading like a mix between a history lesson, a story my grandmother would tell me as a child and a myth, Lily the Silent had me captivated form the Editor's Note. The author makes us believe that he is not actually the author, but one who has been trusted by the ghost of Sophia of Wise to tell us the story of her mother, Lily the Silent, the first queen of Arcadia. Between the full page illustrations scattered generously through out the novel and the beautiful cover, this book was not only food for the mind, but for the eyes as well.
-
The writing in this book is splendid and the fairy tale is extremely detailed. The artwork is beautiful and deserves it own praise. This book reminded me of reading the Lord of the Rings (the style, not the content). I think anyone who loves a truly good and well-thought out fairy tale will enjoy this book.
-
Lily the Silent reads like a mix of Celtic legend and dystopian fantasy, with charming Art Nouveau illustrations. It is rather like Chronicles of Prydain meets Hunger Games. It is also a clever and well executed alchemical allegory so five stars all around!
-
It's probably my own fault for not knowing this was the second book of a series until I had almost finished it, but I found this book barely readable—it was boring, meandering, and inscrutable.
