Silver Elite: Chapter 3

[penwalla]

Wren telepathically reaches Tana, who was too hungover to do her usual job of alerting them to the incoming military unit. Nice. Luckily, Wren is too busy blaming herself to worry about it, and she makes her escape. She and Jim are "drowning in contingency plans" so she has a motorcycle and a go bag already prepared. After dodging a surveillance drone, Wren reaches a secret tunnel under the woods.

A long time ago, someone dug a tunnel system beneath these woods, back when political tensions were running especially high. Ironically, this is a Prime tunnel. Because at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter who your leaders are—they’re all assholes. President Severn, who ruled before General Redden, was a Mod who believed we were a superior new race. After decades of being persecuted themselves, he and his followers decided it would be a good idea to do the same to the Primes. Fools. Nothing good ever comes from the notion that one group is better than another. I can’t stand General Merrick Redden, but I don’t hate all Primes. Good ones do exist.

Okay, 2 complaints.

First off, I have never seen this "oh, the oppressed guys are actually the bad guys, too" shit pulled off well. I'm having flashbacks to Serpent & Dove where the witches were also evil, so therefore it was fine that our love interest was an unrepentant witch hunter. This is what I call "fake nuance" where the author tries to make both sides bad to make the story seem deeper.

Second...we are still in the middle of a supposedly tense scene where our protag is escaping the military after losing her only family member. She is wracked with guilt. But she's also giving us these infodump internal monologues? Why is she thinking about this?

Wren reaches Tana and her father, Griff. They urge her to lay low and go on the run, but she insists on going to the city to rescue Jim. We don't actually know that Jim is going to the city, because on the exact same page:

“Do you know where they’re taking him?” Griff asks.

“To the city, I presume. One of the officers recognized him. They know he’s a Command deserter.” Panic bubbles in my throat. “They’re going to kill him.”

“Maybe not. Might send him to one of the camps.”

Uncle Jim would slit his own throat before he allowed himself to become a labor slave for the Company.

But in the next scene Wren is on a train to the city, despite the fact it was not established in the prior scene that Jim was going to the city. Wren just says, he would never let them make him a slave, and bam, she's on a train. It's a small plot hole, but it's sloppy writing.

Anyways, Wren is back to monologuing the history of the world at us in the next scene.

Fortunately, over the years, the Uprising has successfully infiltrated every level in the Company, including Intelligence. Ten minutes before I board the train, our operative hacks into my file to lift the flag. She does it under the guise of a system glitch and warns us the system will reset itself in six hours. That gives me just enough time to reach the city. Once I’m there, the flag will return and I’ll be designated a person of interest again. Which means keeping a low profile at all costs.

This is in the first paragraph of the scene, and we have a second paragraph about microchips right after this one. Again, these are supposed to be tense scenes where the protagonist is in danger, why are we slowing down to give these infodumps? Why do we need to know that implanting microchips in people doesn't work right now?

And what sucks is that there is good worldbuilding on the same page. Wren bemoans the loss of her weapon because of the security checks she had to clear to get on the train. She thinks about how she has to catch up to him because he was probably transported by plane. These are things the protagonist should be thinking about in this moment, so it feels natural for us to get this information.

And on page 2 of this chapter? A flashback to Wren's childhood where Jim is teaching her to use her powers.

This bit is okay. I think again it's heavyhanded. The author wants us to know that Wren is special, that her powers are better than other people's powers, but she hits us with this three or four times in one conversation. If this were a movie, this would be the place to put a flashback to childhood, but in a book it just feels like whatever momentum we had is being cut off.

Next scene. Wren is met at the station in the city by two contacts from the rebellion. If she has only had minor involvement with them before, how does she have a usual handler? Hmm. Anyway, one of her contacts, Declan, is immediately shocked by how powerful she is. 

It would have been nice to learn that Wren's telepathy was powerful by having her do something with it that was interesting, instead of being informed she was powerful in a flashback and then having a minor character comment on it.

We learn that Jim has already been sentenced to death for treason, because someone named Valence was part of his trial.

<blockquote>Valence is indisputably the most powerful mind reader on the Continent. She’s also a Prime loyalist and traitor to her people, serving as General Redden’s right-hand woman for more than a decade. She started working for the Company when she was only seventeen and is rumored to be cold-blooded and highly intelligent. But it’s her ability to penetrate almost any shield that concerns me.

My uncle has the strongest shield of anyone I know. If she was able to read his thoughts, that’s extraordinary. And petrifying, because…what does she know about me? How much of me was inside Jim’s head? Is this why he’s not linking with me? Is he worried Jayde Valence will return and somehow uncover my identity?</blockquote>

Wait, wait. What does that mean? If Valence can read Jim's mind, presumably she must know about Jim, because...Jim would just have to think about Wren in her presence, right? I don't really get how mind-reading works yet in this book. Is it just surface level thoughts, or can Valence flip through Jim's memories like a book? 

Wren is shocked to find out no one wants to rescue her uncle, an operative who has been in hiding for fifteen years and is notorious and presumably under high security. Frankly, I'm shocked that they even burned the resources to bring Wren to the city at all. But of course they had to, because she is the protagonist and therefore special.

We also learn about another famous rebel in this conversation--a pilot named Grayson Blake. 

Hey, why does everyone know everyone's name in this rebellion where they can be executed if they're caught? That seems like a fucking terrible idea.

I am now going to posit a theory. It is a silly theory and we are only on chapter three, but I will do it anyway.

This book has real "Star Wars fanfic" vibes. I actually checked earlier to see if it was another Reylo, but couldn't find anything. You would think it would have been found, if it was a fanfic that was repurposed, because internet sleuths be sleuthing. But. I still wonder.

Back to the book.

Wren decides she has to rescue her uncle, but has no idea how to pull that off. She has twelve hours. Chapter end.

Meh. Already I feel like the book is going downhill. It feels so generic, so by the numbers, and it's so obvious about everything it's doing. I can't wait to turn the page and have mysterious hot guy from chapter one reappear, so he can help the protag rescue her uncle while she monologues about how hot and dangerous he is.