The Flight of the Silvers

De: Daniel Price

Narrado por: Rich Orlow

A thrilling genre-bending saga about six extraordinary people whose fates become intertwined on an Earth far different from their own.

Without warning, the world comes to an end for Hannah and Amanda Given. The sky looms frigid white. The electricity falters. Airplanes everywhere crash to the ground. But the Givens are saved by mysterious strangers, three fearsome and beautiful beings who force a plain silver bracelet onto each sister' s wrist. Within moments, the sky comes down in a crushing sheet of light and everything around them is gone. Shielded from the devastation by their silver adornments, the Givens suddenly find themselves elsewhere, a strange new Earth where restaurants move through the air like flying saucers and the fabric of time is manipulated by common household appliances. Soon Hannah and Amanda are joined by four other survivors from their world - a mordant cartoonist, a shy teenage girl, a brilliant young Australian, and a troubled ex-prodigy. Hunted by enemies they never knew they had and afflicted with temporal abilities they never wanted, the sisters and their companions begin a cross-country journey to find the one man who can save them - before time runs out. Brilliantly imagined and electrifying from the first page, The Flight of the Silvers is the thrilling first book in a genre-bending new series.

©2014 Daniel Price (P)2014 Recorded Books

Reseñas de la Crítica

"An absorbing adventure with a fresh take on both the parallel-universe and the paranormal subgenres. You'll get pulled in." ( Kirkus Reviews)

"The cast is engaging...and the author has created an alternate-reality world that is both bewilderingly different and reassuringly familiar…. A highly imaginative exercise in world building that also features characters it’s very easy to care about." ( Booklist)

Loved this new 'genre-bending' take on alt-worlds

Loved this new "genre-bending" take on alt-worlds.

>What made the experience of listening to The Flight of the Silvers the most enjoyable?
-I loved the characters. I was intrigued by the premise, something not like anything else I've read. I laughed often, and worried often. When a book gets your heart pumping as you read/listen to the danger about to hit a beloved character? That's the signature of a great storyteller.

>Who was your favorite character and why?
-Zack. I was in love with him almost the moment his character was introduced. He was smart, insightful, incorregable (is that a real word?), and I thought he was hilarious. Probably because almost everything he said was something I would have said in a similar situation. Also, he had a high score in Nerdery.

>Have you listened to any of Daniel Price’s other books before? How does this one compare?
-I've just finished "The Song of the Orphan's", and in many ways it is the better book. Everything from the first book, pumped up on steroids. Except, I did not care for the Gothams or their Underworld. I guess I would have preferred it if they were on the run longer.

>Have you listened to any of Rich Orlow's other performances before? How does this one compare?
-Just the sequel. I was so grateful when book 2 started and I heard his familiar voice. He was a great 3rd person narrator, and the majority of men had very distinct voices. The women, not so much. Although, I have to say, I think he made Mia sound a little too young, a little too clueless, a little too lost. I think there's blame there for the way she was written, but I'm mostly disappointed with the way she sounded like her 10th birthday was still to come.

-Also, I found the Pelletiers' accents annoying, which I guess helps set up their personalities. I hated the voice of Esis, but then I realized that that was a good thing. Evil should sound just plain wrong when it speaks.

>Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?
-I should have written this review before reading book 2, because now I'm having trouble remembering where the 1st one ended and the 2nd one began. The way the group bonded, especially one-on-one, was powerful and probable. The character development was wonderfully done. I was slow to warm up to David and Theo, but by the end of Book 1 I loved them almost as if they were my siblings.

-Also, almost every time Zach had something to say, because not only was he funny as hell, but he wore his heart on his sleeve. David was not funny and definitely did not share his emotions, but that was one sexy accent!

>Any additional comments?
-The first time I listened to this book, there was a huge culture shock. How could America turn out to be so alarmingly different? The super powers and alt-physics would have been a stretch for other authors, but Daniel Price made me feel like one of the Silvers, who didn't have time to decide if what was in front of their eyes was probable or not.

-But now it's 2019. A certain orange a$$-hat has been screwing up our country for over three years. That isolationist stuff was much, much easier to swallow. So much so, it might have been prescience.

-Finally, would anyone care for a list of the characters? I re-read this book when I started Book 2 and recognized none of the names mentioned in the first scene. So I took notes. Only to discover a handy FAQ and Character Guide on Daniel Price's website. I definitely could have used that!

The Silvers:
Amanda and Hannah Given
Zack Trillinger
David Dormer
Mia Farisi
Theo Maranan

The Pelletiers
Azral
Esis
Semerjean

Gothams:
Peter Pendergen
Rebel Rosen
Ivy Sunder
Gemma Sunder
Mercy Lee

Also starring:
Evan Rander
Melissa Masaad
Ioni
Cedric Cain
Sterling Quint

First scifi hit for me in a while

SF stories have been pretty disappointing for me lately, so this was just surprisingly good in comparison. I didn't like the name, nor the first 10 minutes of the book. But then I got hooked. I am not sure what it was about this book, but I was in. Totally in. I would listen on my way to work and have to snap out of it to make sure I didn't miss my exit! The characters are compelling in their realish personalities, the story is unique despite alternate world/end of the world tropes, and even the superhero qualities are written with fresh ... freshness.

OMG- Did the author die and not finish the story?!

What made the experience of listening to The Flight of the Silvers the most enjoyable?

The performance was very good. The story was good but he just left it all hanging at the end. Not even a cliffhanger, just an end... 😳

What was most disappointing about Daniel Price’s story?

The end! Seriously, I'm listening to the book and thinking what could happen next when the audible voice comes on and says, "The End, thank you for listening to Audible"!.. I actually looked at my phone to see if I inadvertently hit the phone and skipped lots of chapters!

Any additional comments?

Besides the off the cliff ending, the characters were way too clueless at times and not believable.

I love this book!

I really love the story and characters. It’s unique. It also had great world building while also having great character development too.

Not quite up to the hype, but still a fun listen

This got off to a really slow start due to the long character introductions, and the action in the second half never really compensated for the very slow set up and periodic data dumps. I'll round it up to 4 stars for being inventive, developing characters over the length of the book, and consistent forward moving plot. The frequent mention of characters using their role tags, ie cartoonist, widow, etc., was annoying. It was enhanced by Orlow's fine performance

Loved It!

I took a chance on this surprise find and was blown away by the story. Not exactly time travel, not exactly mutant powers, Flight of the Silvers has created a unique genre all it's own. I've already moved on to book 2 and suspect this will be an awesome 3 part trilogy.

Where's the sequel?

The story and characters are good but the book left us hanging with no sequel.

Awesome

An addictive, brilliant, original, fast paced work of unusual sci-fi, balancing well between great characters and unusual abilities. 2nd time I've listened to the audible version and I enjoyed the narration as well.

Glad I took a gamble

I took a chance on this book as it had no reviews yet and author was unknown to me, but the idea of parallel worlds intrigued me. The story is thought provoking with time travel, multiple worlds, time lines and paradoxes. The characters are saved from our world and thrust unto a whole new earth that is similar but different. They have each developed a super power that they gradually learn about, so if you are into reluctant super hero stories this book is for you. The narrator was great. My only problem is it appears to be the first of a series of books and I hate waiting, I want more now lol

Creatively different "superhero" novel

There's science fiction that makes you think and there's "fun" science fiction. While this one falls firmly into the latter category, it succeeds with a creative, fresh premise and an appealing cast of characters.

The setup, as we discover in the first few chapters, is that a small group of ordinary people from different walks of life have been selected for their special gifts by several creepy but powerful benefactors, who seem to have the ability to manipulate time and to come and go at will. Though it's unclear why, the world soon comes to a terrible, unexpected end, from which the "Silvers" are saved and transported to another timeline of Earth.

In this alternate USA, which has a rather different relationship to the rest of the world than ours, science has made discoveries about time, including how to slow it down or reverse it (in a limited space). There's also levitation technology.

As they acclimate to this new reality, the Silvers, a group consisting of a religious nurse, her not-so-religious actress sister, a sarcastic comic book artist, a shy teenage girl, an Australian prodigy, and an alcoholic college drop-out, discover that they have various powers that are related to messing with time and space. These are thought out with a level of detail that reminded me of the magic system in a Brandon Sanderson novel (but with a much less prudish story), and I enjoyed seeing the characters come to terms with their abilities, as well as their personal differences.

Of course, they're soon set upon by various enemies, including another cell of superpowered people, the local equivalent of the FBI, and a renegade Silver who has blossomed, thanks to his impressive power, from a sexually-frustrated, beaten-down dweeb to a truly vindictive, Joker-like character (who still resents women quite a lot). When our heroes are forced to flee a place of safety and seek a dubious alliance with an underground community, what will happen?

This book leaves a lot of open questions, which will no doubt be addressed in a forthcoming sequel, but it seems to be a start to a promising series. If the followups ring true, I could easily see the series being done as a TV show -- it's got the same mix of mystery, creative twists, and interpersonal drama that one sees in current popular series, though without being as dark and heavy as a show like The Walking Dead. Will Price deliver?

Before closing, I should take a moment to call attention to audiobook narrator Rich Orlow’s fine performance. He does an excellent job with a variety of accents and character voices.