The Silver Horn

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT Fantasy Literature.

Vair, a young pine marten, talks his mom and dad into taking the family to the fair in Watersmeet, but on the way, a group of bandits led by Ragnar, a silver fox, attack them and press Vair into their service. Vair soon discovers that these bandits are working for the evil Lord Owl who plans to take over the whole country. The Lord Owl wants Ragnar???s bandits to find the legendary and powerful Silver Horn in Watersmeet. Can Vair find his family and stop the evil Owl???s plans?

Cherith Baldry???s The Silver Horn is the first book in her Eaglesmount trilogy, an anthropomorphic fantasy for children. I???m not a huge fan of anthropomorphic tales because I can???t suspend disbelief well enough to feel comfortable with animals with paws holding swords and beer mugs or animals without the proper vocal apparatus speaking, singing songs, and playing flutes. And, really, why would they want to wear clothes and shoes? And why don???t the foxes eat the chickens?

But anyway, I knew what I was getting into here, and I had it in mind for my daughter (who has no issues with talking animals) to read, so I won???t complain about those things. Instead, I???ll report that I found The Silver Horn to be a quick and not unpleasant read, but not particularly inspiring or enjoyable either, mainly for two reasons.

First, the story is unoriginal ??? there is nothing here that you haven???t read before and the plot is predictable from beginning to end. Even the character names are predictable, with the good guys sounding like nice perky Scandinavian animals (Vair, Riska, Mirra, Flick, Kyria) and the bad guys sounding like they eat sauerkraut and borscht and don???t know how to smile (Gorm, Ragnar, Ketch, Konrad, Snarg).

But, most disappointing is that the characters, especially the bad guys, are incredibly shallow. Every one of Ragnar???s bandits acts like a middle-school bully, shoving the nice animals when they pass by and snatching their belongings, constantly calling everyone ???scum,??? picking fights, threatening, taunting, cackling, and saying ???Make me!??? and ???What are you going to do about it???? when someone asks them to stop. It was this one-dimensional behavior that ruined the plot for me, making it simplistic and predictable.

Overall, The Silver Horn may be okay for a young boy who wants to read stories about brave animals and doesn???t care much about characterization, but parents looking for excellent fantasy for their children can do a lot better. Try Brian Jacques??? Redwall series if you???re looking for anthropomorphic stories, or anything we???ve got listed in the top half of our children???s page at FanLit.

I was very excited to read this book. Adventures of a pine marten sound great! But - it wasn't great.

It has been very much influenced by Redwall. But being influenced and inspired by something doesn't make it as good.

There are some good ideas here. It ends well. Yes, I am somewhat interested in reading the rest of the story. But probably I won't. Because there were so many bad ideas there. Like - an evil owl wants the price, so you'll hide it in a tree. It's not as if owls flew, is it?

I am bothered by speciesism. The MC a pine marten, is a good animal. All the other pine martens are nice people. All the badgers mentioned in the book are good, and all the otters are good. But all the weasels, stouts, and ferrets mentioned are bad. So, what about minks? Are those “good” or “bad”? Or sables? What about skunks or wolverines?
And then foxes. The villain is a silver fox. Does Cherith know that silver foxes are red foxes who happen to be black? Is she aware that she made the melanistic form of a species evil, while the non-melanistic forms are good?

Then there's the “oh, they see me with these villains, so they won't like me...” “oh, there's no use trying to explain that I'm their prisoner and slave, they wouldn't believe me because I'm with them...” sigh What about not assigning attitudes and words to people before talking with them?

And lastly, the whole village immediately knew the fox and his gang were bad. Just as Vair knew immediately that the villagers were nice people.