Shades and Silver (ebook)

In The Veil the Astfriour live and are then reborn, each life choosing a metal which will guide them all of their days, this gives them purpose and a place within their communities. Britt and Astrid are two Astfriour who feel that they do not belong at all, Britt being a Tova, one who does not have any memories of their past lives and due to an accident lives in fear that they will never be able to be a Copper, the metal aligned with creatives, again.Astrid has no metal magic at all, it does not sing to them the way it does others, and their caregiver Yvle has spent Astrid's whole life keeping this a secret and keeping Astrid away from the rest of their community. Yvle says it is to protect them but when Astrid finally is able to move to their own home they begin to realize that Yvle's reasons for protecting them were not as caring as they seemed.Many years ago now my father fused his neck in a rollover accident in his tractor/trailer. At the time of the accident, he opted to forego treatment as his most pressing concern was the minivan full of children returning from a soccer game that his truck almost went over on. Had he opted to allow the truck to shift the way it wanted to he would have still walked out of the windshield with no injuries but nine people would have been dead, he fought the trailer to get it to spill in the opposite direction and for that, he got a medal from the city and we discovered a few months later crushed and fused vertebrae. My dad is an artist, he has made some of the most beautiful abstract art I have ever come across and I am not saying this because I am biased towards him. His art evokes emotions that I find and many others have found few abstract artists can realize. Yes, there is a point to all this you must be patient. The way we discovered his neck was broken for all intents and purposes was he dropped a lamp he had been holding and I don't mean an accident I mean he had no control over his hand and it just fell. He went to the Dr which is where he was told there was a possibility he'd never regain use of his hands fully since it had been months since his injury. The depression that came over him at this point was something I'd never seen before. Not being able to paint or draw or drive a truck for that matter was a thought that simply never crossed his mind. These things were very much who he was and still is. It was difficult to watch and thankfully his surgeries were able to restore regular use of his arms thank every god ever.I am sure all of you are wondering what the hell this has to do with the review of this book, well my dad's story is very much Britt's story and to an extent Astrid's as well. Being able to read and understand even a fraction of what that felt like for my dad makes this a five-star read right off the bat. However, even without this, it would have been five stars. Murray has created a world unlike any other I have read by using a unique magic system, a unique version of reincarnation, and in both MCs extremely likable characters who are relatable.Highly recommend it for the disability representation alone, but as a fantasy reader this was such a great blend of classic fantasy elements and new twists on them! I will definitely be reading book 2!

This is a good enough very quick read to be worth a snag. The world and magic are interesting and the writing easy to read. I would love to see this fleshed out into a full book.

This is the first book I've read by this author, and I will absolutely be reading more! The prose was so beautiful and reminiscent of This is How You Lose the Time War in some ways. I loved the absence of gender in the stories!!

I really enjoy unique twists on legends and fairy tales and magical creatures. To take something that is considered established, even if not necessarily real, and create something new out of that magic is quite the feat. So I was pleased to read Dax Murray's Shades & Silver, a twist on the legends of unicorns and fairies, all in one.This book follows two different Astfridur as they work to discover who they are. The first is Britt, a disabled Astfridur who is about to craft her horn and choose which metal will represent her life. They are unsure of themself and must delve deep to discover what path they want to choose, and whether they will let their disability define them or merely be a part of them. The second Astfridur is Astrid who is afraid that the others will discover their secret; that they cannot manipulate metal like the other Astfridur. But there is more than a secret at stake, there is love, and lives.I was really not quite sure what to expect when this book first started. It began with Britt's story and the language was very poetic, flowing, that I immediately got lost. Then, Britt's chapter ended and Astrid'ss began, which was a bit jarring. I expected the two to weave together, but it felt very much like Britt's story was merely an extra scene or a prequel or something. Related, but entirely unconnected. Still, once I understood this, I could dive into Astrid's story.The chapters were very short, which was fine given that the story was relatively fast-paced. But there wasn't a lot of explanation given as to what was going on with the other characters that wove in and out of Astrid's life. There was her first love, who sort of disappeared from her life for reasons I still don’t quite understand. And the reason for her oddness was never really explained. I'm not sure why it happened, not completely.As a short story, I think this piece works quite well since not all the threads of the story are necessarily resolved. As a novella or novelette, I don't think it works nearly as well since my expectations are that more threads will be explained.I will say that the disability representation was done quite well, and having the Astfidur be a completely non-binary society was very interesting.Overall, I would say that this book was interesting and unique, but it was a bit disjointed regarding having Britt and Astrid's stories in the same volume, and it didn't really provide the closure I felt like I needed. A good book.

Dax Murray does a fantastic job in writing this element and does a great job in bringing a prequel element to this story. The characters were everything that I wanted and left me wanting to read the whole story. It had that element that I enjoyed from Dax Murray's writing.