The Flight Of The Silvers

It is now one month since I finished the first installment of the Silvers series. I have what can only be described as "book hangover" - don't get me wrong, I love getting book hangover. If you didn't know, book hangover is where you read something SO good, as soon as you're finished you enter a curious state of both elation for the brilliance of what you just read and a sort of depression, for knowing that reading anything this good won't happen again for several years/ever again/generations/until the sequel. A bit like comets, really.

I won't say too much, but this is why you need to read this book:

The Flight Of The Silvers opens in our own world and swiftly whisks you away to another, believable and astounding world that you won't want to leave. Six people called "Silvers" are saved from the ending of our universe, dragged from their (our) own sane and explainable reality into a world, while not dissimilar to our own, has moved in a different direction with the advent of fantastical but altogether believable and wholly plausible technology, transport and such (why, oh why isn't "tuping" a thing here? I needed that in my life when I was a student. Cold pizza in the fridge too long? No problem! TUPE! Running low on soup? TUPE-SOUP.)

The Silvers themselves come from varying backgrounds and as characters, they are so well-written and developed, distinct and ultimately human with flaws that you find yourself recognizing and identifying with - which serves to reel you in even more. You see how they change over the course of the book, which is a real feat in writing. Unlike so many of the over-chiseled characters I've stumbled across, they are normal people like yourself with their traits, flaws and neuroticisms, that are ripped into this strange new world. Ultimately, you as the reader are always riding along with the Silvers, as you find yourself awake at 4am unable to stop turning the page for fear of missing something crucial in the action, as though the book is happening in real time and running parallel to your own life. (And hey, going by this book, just maybe it is.)

The pacing of The Flight Of The Silvers is another incredible thing. Every. Single. Page. Matters. There is no boring filler or downtime, like so much in the sci-fi genre these days - two pages to describe a mountain? Not here. 100% filler-free. You will find yourself gripping the book (or your e-reader) with white knuckles, maybe you'll even forget to breathe once in a while as the story twists and certain characters pop-up.

There's powers, paradoxes, parallel worlds, time travel and so many threads of an epic plot that weave together so perfectly and even the "villains" have motives that you're not quite sure are all that evil.

This may be one of the greatest fictional worlds I have lost myself in, along with Mass Effect, Firefly, Lost, the DC Universe, Battlestar Galactica and Continuum. Not since I was 11 (and reading Harry Potter - yes, I know, but this was before the movies) have I felt so strongly a part of, so fully engrossed and enjoying a fictional universe. Having read it, I feel like I'm on the precipice, having discovered something that is about to explode and firmly kick the world in the shins and say "This, you fools, is how character driven sci-fi is done.".

This is The Flight Of The Silvers. Just read it. and let me know when you're done so I can mail you a postcard with "I told you so!" in big, bold letters. Maybe even on a shred of notebook paper. You'll see what I mean when you read this utterly brilliant story.

Thankyou, Mr Price, for sharing this story with us and writing something so damn enjoyable. "Keep walking" indeed, good sir. (Or... "keep writing"? camps with a Thermos of tupe-soup. I need to know what happens next in the Silververse! :o) )