The Silver Tide (Copper Cat/The Copper Promise Trilogy book 3) by Jen Williams (book review).

‘The Silver Tide’ by Jen Williams is the third and final book in the Copper Cat/The Copper Promise Trilogy.

This time the Black Feather Three are venturing into the centre Euriale, an island famed for devouring anyone who ventures past the small pirate town of Two Birds. To most people, this is enough to make them think twice but, where Wydrin, Lord Frith and Sir Sebastian are concerned, this is child’s play. Let’s remember that in previous books they’re fought gods, and evil magicians and lived to tell the tale! This time, not only do they have to travel into this island but they have to go with Wydrin’s mother, Devinia aka the succubus of the silent sea. Speaking of gods some show up in this book as well in both a weird cult and also later on in the book (I don’t want to give too much away!).

First things first, this book deals with a topic that might be a trigger for some readers, as it was for myself, that is cannibalism. This is one topic that I really find hard to read about and it did make me think twice about reading this book, but it wasn’t gratuitous and I trust Williams to only use things like this if it moves the story on and, in this case, my trust was well founded. Secondly, there is a little sex in this book including a gay story line and there is a great deal of swearing, mostly on the part of Wydrin!

Having said previously that our protagonists have managed to survive killing gods and other monsters, I didn’t say they had done this without getting some scars both physically and mentally. I liked the way that Williams shows that heroes do not get away unscathed and that the things they have had to go through do make them different people. It was interesting to watch them all trying to work through their various issues, using various methods, such as humour for Wydrin, and working with new powers for Frith.

This book is definitely a lot darker than the other two because of this. They’re finding it harder to laugh things off, which I feel makes them much more real as characters. It certainly made me buy into them more and want to keep reading to make sure they’re not hurt too much during this book.

Jen Williams is a great character writer. She manages to make the main protagonists realistic, plus she makes you feel sympathy for the evil creatures and characters as well. She manages to round them all out so you get to see the reasons behind why they do what they do. In this book, we get to do a bit of time travel and can see the beginnings of one of the characters the BFT meet in a previous book, if that makes sense! This also gives us a little more background to the history of the worlds which I thought was an interesting way of going about things because, usually, you get some kind of time travel or looking back at the history of a world in the first book, ‘The Copper Promise’. I have to say I like this way of doing things because the reader has already bought into the main protagonists and we’re also met a few of the characters from this bit of time travel in the future. This meant that I didn’t feel lost in the past because it almost felt like it was a past I know about having read the previous books in the series.

Overall, I loved this book, even if I did finish it hardly able to read because of the tears in my eyes and recommend this trilogy to everyone who loves a good story whether you’re a fantasy fan or not. I believe that this is now one of the classic fantasy series as it’s just so well put together both in terms of the characters and the plot in the individual books and over arching the whole series. I’m just sad that it has come to an end, but glad that Williams has written what I consider to be the perfect ending to the series. Now I can’t wait for her next book!

Sarah Bruch

February 2016

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(pub: Headline. 629 page small enlarged paperback. Price: £ 8.99 (UK). ISBN: 978-1-47221-116-3)

check out website: www.headline.co.uk