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The Silent Empire #4
Offspring
When Bellerophon, a beautiful forest planet rife with psychics known as the Silent, comes under attack by its political enemies, Kendi Weaver, along with a small group of the Silent, must save the Dream from being destroyed. Original.
384 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published November 2, 2004
2 people are currently reading
177 people want to read
About the author
Steven Harper
53 books119 followersA pseudonym of Steven Piziks
Steven Harper Piziks was born with a name that no one can reliably spell or pronounce, so he often writes under the pen name Steven Harper. He lives in Michigan with his family. When not at the keyboard, he plays the folk harp, fiddles with video games, and pretends he doesn’t talk to the household cats. In the past, he’s held jobs as a reporter, theater producer, secretary, and substitute teacher. He maintains that the most interesting thing about him is that he writes books.
Steven is the creator of The Silent Empire series, the Clockwork Empire steampunk series, and the Books of Blood and Iron series for Roc Books. All four Silent Empire novels were finalists for the Spectrum Award, a first!
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
February 16, 2017
This book tried to be too many things at once: Political drama, religious drama, family drama and a kidnapping/murder mystery. It didn't do any of them badly, but also not as well and it could have.
(This review will be spoiler free for this book, but not for the first three)
Kendi and his team are back on Bellerophon and ready to get started on the "Let's have 11 children, because our life is not stressful enough apparently" project. To be fair, they're (reasonably) going to start with two children. Harenn and Lucia have volunteered to be the surrogate mothers and are basically already part of the family, going in and out of the Rymar/Weaver household as they please. It's all very cute and cozy. Somehow Kendi and Ben now refer to each other as "husbands" and not partners anymore, but I don't know it that's a recent development or if you just do that on Bellerophon when you found your partner for life.
The personal relationships in this book were heartwarming. Kendi and Ben at the center of it, are rock solid. Yes, there are some secrets and doubts and even a big fight near the end, but they never think about calling it quits and never did I as a reader ever think "Maybe they don't love each other as much as I thought." Their love is the only constant in their stressful life.
Harenn, her son and Lucia definitely added to their nice little family. Lucia teaching the men how to cook and Harenn carrying the first child were some nice funny bits.
Gretchen plays a bigger role in this book than the last one and finally has found a new purpose in life. She developed into a really enjoyable character.
It was also interesting to see the Rymar family dynamics again. Ben's grandmother was a force to be reckonned with and seeing how his uncle, aunt and cousins changed over the course of the story was parts satisfying and parts infuriating. But never boring. Of course Ara's death continues to hang over everyone.
Plus, Kendi's brother and sister are in the mix now. Martina is mostly fine, trying to catch up on all the fun she missed, but Keith seems to be majorly depressed and - as is tradition with this family apparently - totally against therapy.
It was also nice to see Tan, Sejal and some other familiar faces from earlier books again.
I don't even know where to start with the plot. Ben's grandmother is running for governor in the first election on the planet since forever and that story alone would have been enough to fill the book. There is the usual like speeches, lies, manipulation and plots. I think it would probably have been more interesting, if there hadn't just been that godforsaken election in the US.
Meanwhile Ben is struggling with the knowledge of who is parents are and stressing about the universe finding out. He hates being a celebrity already (and how I felt connected to him there as a fellow person who is actually not bad a speeches/presentations but wants to puke till the moment they starts!) and Kendi wouldn't be able to distract people from that one this time. I was glad that Kendi finding out was dealt with pretty quickly after some back and forth right at the start.
On top of all that, people are vanishing, which first doesn't even register in all the election hubbub, someone gets blackmailed AND someone is obviously trying to kill Kendi.
My head is swimming just thinking of everything. Luckily all this stuff didn't happen in the course of a week, because that would have been seriously overkill. I think it must have been at least 10 months, if not a year so that's a relief. I do hope these characters have the peacefull life they deserve now - not void of adventures, but maybe less life threatening situations.
Which brings me to the problems I had with this book. I wanted it to be the perfect end to the series, because I love it a lot, but it sadly wasn't. I still loved reading it a lot, but if I had to rank it, it would definitely lose to Nightmare and Trickster.
- Sejal remains a problem. He was such a big part of the first book, where his powers were described pretty much as out of this world. Sadly this means he didn't only have to be powered down (suddenly other people can easily possess Silent through the Dream, too? Just not more than one at a time I guess?), but that he also has to sit out most of the action in the storylines afterwards thanks to flimsy excuses.
- So was the Jeren in Dreamer the same character as the one who killed people in the Dream in Nightmare? Same (fake) name. Same eyecolor? It just got dropped, so I assume he wasn't? SOMEONE TELL ME!
- The resolution to the murder/kidnapping plot was quite boring and predictable. I was waiting for some sort of big twist that never came. At least there was a smaller one, which I half guessed after half of the book.
- So what about the Weaver siblings' parents? Depending on where they ended up, they could still be alive, right? Sejal didn't feel them, but Kendi certainly didn't act like his parents were dead. He has a family now, though so no super dangerous space adventures for (literal) Father Kendi anymore...
All in all there was a bit of an unfinished feeling (What happened to the Empress? Not everything needs to be resolved obviously and this one was pretty low on my list cause I didn't really care, but since they kept bringing it up for two books, I suspected something happen there at some point and it never did.). If I didn't know this one was the last book, I wouldn't have guessed. It was definitely satisfying enough, that I won't lose sleep over it, though. So I'm not going to complain. I've been left hanging by enough of other books there.
The characters remain my favorite part of the whole series. Everyone is just so charming and doesn't feel like a walking cliché. I can't think of one main character I could describe by simply naming just a trope or two.
I'm glad I found these books and I'm currently buying all the audiobooks, so I'll be able to spend some more time with these people.
(This review will be spoiler free for this book, but not for the first three)
Kendi and his team are back on Bellerophon and ready to get started on the "Let's have 11 children, because our life is not stressful enough apparently" project. To be fair, they're (reasonably) going to start with two children. Harenn and Lucia have volunteered to be the surrogate mothers and are basically already part of the family, going in and out of the Rymar/Weaver household as they please. It's all very cute and cozy. Somehow Kendi and Ben now refer to each other as "husbands" and not partners anymore, but I don't know it that's a recent development or if you just do that on Bellerophon when you found your partner for life.
The personal relationships in this book were heartwarming. Kendi and Ben at the center of it, are rock solid. Yes, there are some secrets and doubts and even a big fight near the end, but they never think about calling it quits and never did I as a reader ever think "Maybe they don't love each other as much as I thought." Their love is the only constant in their stressful life.
Harenn, her son and Lucia definitely added to their nice little family. Lucia teaching the men how to cook and Harenn carrying the first child were some nice funny bits.
Gretchen plays a bigger role in this book than the last one and finally has found a new purpose in life. She developed into a really enjoyable character.
It was also interesting to see the Rymar family dynamics again. Ben's grandmother was a force to be reckonned with and seeing how his uncle, aunt and cousins changed over the course of the story was parts satisfying and parts infuriating. But never boring. Of course Ara's death continues to hang over everyone.
Plus, Kendi's brother and sister are in the mix now. Martina is mostly fine, trying to catch up on all the fun she missed, but Keith seems to be majorly depressed and - as is tradition with this family apparently - totally against therapy.
It was also nice to see Tan, Sejal and some other familiar faces from earlier books again.
I don't even know where to start with the plot. Ben's grandmother is running for governor in the first election on the planet since forever and that story alone would have been enough to fill the book. There is the usual like speeches, lies, manipulation and plots. I think it would probably have been more interesting, if there hadn't just been that godforsaken election in the US.
Meanwhile Ben is struggling with the knowledge of who is parents are and stressing about the universe finding out. He hates being a celebrity already (and how I felt connected to him there as a fellow person who is actually not bad a speeches/presentations but wants to puke till the moment they starts!) and Kendi wouldn't be able to distract people from that one this time. I was glad that Kendi finding out was dealt with pretty quickly after some back and forth right at the start.
On top of all that, people are vanishing, which first doesn't even register in all the election hubbub, someone gets blackmailed AND someone is obviously trying to kill Kendi.
My head is swimming just thinking of everything. Luckily all this stuff didn't happen in the course of a week, because that would have been seriously overkill. I think it must have been at least 10 months, if not a year so that's a relief. I do hope these characters have the peacefull life they deserve now - not void of adventures, but maybe less life threatening situations.
Which brings me to the problems I had with this book. I wanted it to be the perfect end to the series, because I love it a lot, but it sadly wasn't. I still loved reading it a lot, but if I had to rank it, it would definitely lose to Nightmare and Trickster.
- Sejal remains a problem. He was such a big part of the first book, where his powers were described pretty much as out of this world. Sadly this means he didn't only have to be powered down (suddenly other people can easily possess Silent through the Dream, too? Just not more than one at a time I guess?), but that he also has to sit out most of the action in the storylines afterwards thanks to flimsy excuses.
- So was the Jeren in Dreamer the same character as the one who killed people in the Dream in Nightmare? Same (fake) name. Same eyecolor? It just got dropped, so I assume he wasn't? SOMEONE TELL ME!
- The resolution to the murder/kidnapping plot was quite boring and predictable. I was waiting for some sort of big twist that never came. At least there was a smaller one, which I half guessed after half of the book.
- So what about the Weaver siblings' parents? Depending on where they ended up, they could still be alive, right? Sejal didn't feel them, but Kendi certainly didn't act like his parents were dead. He has a family now, though so no super dangerous space adventures for (literal) Father Kendi anymore...
All in all there was a bit of an unfinished feeling (What happened to the Empress? Not everything needs to be resolved obviously and this one was pretty low on my list cause I didn't really care, but since they kept bringing it up for two books, I suspected something happen there at some point and it never did.). If I didn't know this one was the last book, I wouldn't have guessed. It was definitely satisfying enough, that I won't lose sleep over it, though. So I'm not going to complain. I've been left hanging by enough of other books there.
The characters remain my favorite part of the whole series. Everyone is just so charming and doesn't feel like a walking cliché. I can't think of one main character I could describe by simply naming just a trope or two.
I'm glad I found these books and I'm currently buying all the audiobooks, so I'll be able to spend some more time with these people.
July 9, 2008
Unfortunately, this is the last book in the series, but it's a satisfying ending in most respects. Several different plot lines converge: a secret from Ben's past, Ben and Kendi trying to start a family, politics on their homeworld...all add together for an interesting and fun read. My major complaint is that, should there never be another book in the series, Kendi's family situation isn't entirely resolved. However, there's enough of an "ending" feeling to this book that I don't think anyone would feel cliff-hung after reading it.
August 18, 2025
3.5 Stars
There are several plot threads that weave this story. I liked seeing Kendi and Ben again along with the start of their new family. It was equal parts sad and heartwarming. A few things happened that I didn't see coming and surprised me. A few things kind of petered out and didn't feel fully realized. I enjoyed the journey through this series and this ended things well.
There are several plot threads that weave this story. I liked seeing Kendi and Ben again along with the start of their new family. It was equal parts sad and heartwarming. A few things happened that I didn't see coming and surprised me. A few things kind of petered out and didn't feel fully realized. I enjoyed the journey through this series and this ended things well.
November 19, 2019
It took me awhile to get around to reading this 4th Silent Empire book. Mostly because I was mad it didn't have a Royo cover - and this one from "Tristan Schane" is godawful!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews