Silver Elite: Chapter 41
Nov. 20th, 2025 12:28 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
penwallaWe skip ahead two months in the next chapter. Wren is brooding over Tana, because their relationship has broken down now that Wren has saved her by getting her sent to a labor camp.
A gilded cage? A gilded cage? She's a prisoner doing 12 hour days mining and you're calling it a GILDED CAGE?
Wren mourns that she is now alone...except for all her new military friends. Including Cross.
Wren goes on with being a member of Silver Block, then sneaks out at night to use her telepathy to pass info to Adrienne. As she does, she's interrupted.
I haven't really focused on the bad writing in this book because there are so many problems with the worldbuilding and characterization and plot, but just look at this description of Travis. First off, insane that Wren can only evre describe a man based on his hotness. Second of all, look at this incredibly heavyhanded description of Travis. How is Wren getting all this just by looking at him? And why are we getting this explanation of Travis's personality instead of getting to glean that info from watching him actually kill someone?
This is how most characters in this book are described. Francis just has Wren tell us every character's deal up front, so we can spend the rest of the wordcount on what matters...Wren being horny over Cross, I assume.
Travis is here to meet Cross, but of course what he wants is to ask Wren about her relationship with his brother. He says Wren isn't Cross's type, and Wren tells him nothing is going on between her and Cross and leaves. In the hallway outside, she runs into Cross, flirts with him, and then gets horny again.
WHEN HAVE YOU EVER DENIED IT. BITCH.
Next scene. Wren has lunch with Lyddie, who she misses, and Lyddie, of course, is only there to ask Wren if she's getting laid. Their meal is interrupted when Wren is called away to a mission.
Wren arrives for a briefing to find that the Uprising has bombed a weapons cache, or tried to, using a new kind of bomb. She is glad to see that the info she passed to Adrienne appears to be of use. This is the first time in the entire book Wren has successfully aided the rebellion on the page. We are 76% of the way through the book.
We get a mention again of the Uprising's hotshot pilot, and when I do my review of the whole book at the end I will be dedicating a section to the theory that this is a reskinned Stars Wars fanfic.
Wren walks through the base, runs into the healer who fixed her arm earlier in the book. She is freaked out by his powers, describing them as too powerful for any human to have. This is another weird moment where it feels like the author forgot that Wren herself is a Mod. She talks about them like she is not one of them, and has no pride in her own abilities. It could be an attempt at having Wren internalize the anti-Mod sentiment throughout society, I guess?
Also, why is healing the thing that freaks her out?
Anyways, the healer is here to do mandatory wellness checks, and I don't know why they can't just get a regular doctor to do this bit. Yeah, the healer is healing them up if they have any injuries, but would it not make more sense to just have everyone checked after a mission if they needed healing? Why randomly have everyone in one room, stripping one at a time, to get spot-checked by a healer?
I will also point out that just like in Fourth Wing, it seems like healers are a rare commodity, and in this world extremely advanced medical tech exists. They can grow new organs for transplant! So this is not an effective use of their healer.
But the point of this scene is that Wren has to strip down in front of everyone so that the healer can offer to fix her old burn scar, the one that hides her bloodmark.
Contrived as fuck.
And with that, the chapter is over. How will Wren get out of this? Will she come up with a clever gambit, or will Cross Redden save her? We shall see.
As Elite, I have clearance now, and I’ve checked in with the guards at the salt camp. I can access the camp’s daily logs. I can see when Tana scans into the mine, and when she scans out. They work twelve-hour days out there. I’ve seen photos of the women’s quarters. They look comfortable. Everyone gets leisure time. The food seems decent.
But a gilded cage is still a cage.
And I put her there.
She should never forgive me.
A gilded cage? A gilded cage? She's a prisoner doing 12 hour days mining and you're calling it a GILDED CAGE?
Wren mourns that she is now alone...except for all her new military friends. Including Cross.
Yes, I definitely have Cross. Almost every night. He’s an addiction I can’t conquer, and these days, I don’t want to conquer it. When I’m in bed with Cross, it’s the only time I’m able to shut off my brain and just…feel.See, in a good book the isolation of being a spy driving Wren into the arms of the enemy could be an interesting conflict. But here it doesn't hold any water, because this book has had Wren spend way more time and effort on these Primes than she has on her so-called friends she's now mourning. Wren has never convincingly struggled against Cross, or against the friendship of these people. She's always been perfectly willing to overlook the bigotry of others as long as they're nice to her personally.
I don’t have to think about how I’m surrounded by Primes all day, every day.
I don’t have to worry about how I’m going to maintain my cover.
I don’t have to do anything but lose myself in sensation.
Wren goes on with being a member of Silver Block, then sneaks out at night to use her telepathy to pass info to Adrienne. As she does, she's interrupted.
stiffen when Travis Redden enters the war room.
The resemblance really is remarkable. And unnerving. I know what it’s like to have his brother’s lips on mine, and now I’m staring at lips that are eerily similar.
His demeanor is harder, though. Not that Cross is soft; he’s equally inflexible. But I pick up on a hint of cruelty in Travis. Same way I think Cross can kill without batting an eye, I think this man can, too—only Travis would enjoy it.
I haven't really focused on the bad writing in this book because there are so many problems with the worldbuilding and characterization and plot, but just look at this description of Travis. First off, insane that Wren can only evre describe a man based on his hotness. Second of all, look at this incredibly heavyhanded description of Travis. How is Wren getting all this just by looking at him? And why are we getting this explanation of Travis's personality instead of getting to glean that info from watching him actually kill someone?
This is how most characters in this book are described. Francis just has Wren tell us every character's deal up front, so we can spend the rest of the wordcount on what matters...Wren being horny over Cross, I assume.
Travis is here to meet Cross, but of course what he wants is to ask Wren about her relationship with his brother. He says Wren isn't Cross's type, and Wren tells him nothing is going on between her and Cross and leaves. In the hallway outside, she runs into Cross, flirts with him, and then gets horny again.
As much as I try to deny it, I can’t ignore the truth any longer. I am hopelessly, helplessly infatuated with Cross Redden.
WHEN HAVE YOU EVER DENIED IT. BITCH.
Next scene. Wren has lunch with Lyddie, who she misses, and Lyddie, of course, is only there to ask Wren if she's getting laid. Their meal is interrupted when Wren is called away to a mission.
“I’ll comm you later. We need to plan our shopping trip for Jubilee dresses.”Wren, as far as I can tell, you forget this fact the vast majority of the time. It doesn't seem to have penetrated your thick skull that all your so-called friends would kill you on sight for being a Mod.
The last thing I’m thinking about is the General’s ridiculous Silver Jubilee. Who wants to celebrate twenty-five years of that man’s iron fist up our asses?
Everyone here.
Right.
Sometimes I forget that I’m surrounded by Primes who actually like and respect General Redden.
Wren arrives for a briefing to find that the Uprising has bombed a weapons cache, or tried to, using a new kind of bomb. She is glad to see that the info she passed to Adrienne appears to be of use. This is the first time in the entire book Wren has successfully aided the rebellion on the page. We are 76% of the way through the book.
We get a mention again of the Uprising's hotshot pilot, and when I do my review of the whole book at the end I will be dedicating a section to the theory that this is a reskinned Stars Wars fanfic.
Wren walks through the base, runs into the healer who fixed her arm earlier in the book. She is freaked out by his powers, describing them as too powerful for any human to have. This is another weird moment where it feels like the author forgot that Wren herself is a Mod. She talks about them like she is not one of them, and has no pride in her own abilities. It could be an attempt at having Wren internalize the anti-Mod sentiment throughout society, I guess?
Also, why is healing the thing that freaks her out?
Anyways, the healer is here to do mandatory wellness checks, and I don't know why they can't just get a regular doctor to do this bit. Yeah, the healer is healing them up if they have any injuries, but would it not make more sense to just have everyone checked after a mission if they needed healing? Why randomly have everyone in one room, stripping one at a time, to get spot-checked by a healer?
I will also point out that just like in Fourth Wing, it seems like healers are a rare commodity, and in this world extremely advanced medical tech exists. They can grow new organs for transplant! So this is not an effective use of their healer.
But the point of this scene is that Wren has to strip down in front of everyone so that the healer can offer to fix her old burn scar, the one that hides her bloodmark.
Contrived as fuck.
And with that, the chapter is over. How will Wren get out of this? Will she come up with a clever gambit, or will Cross Redden save her? We shall see.
