Silvana: The Greening - Belinda Mellor

Published by CP Books: Nelson, New Zealand, 2013.
 

A locally written book, Silvana: The Greening is perhaps not greatly thought through in terms of plot, but is still an engaging read. 

We meet Fabiom at the age of sixteen, dreaming of gaining a wife from among the Silvana - tree-spirits that inhabit various trees within the woods near his house. In order to do this, any young man can sleep in a particular grove for the seven nights following his seventeenth birthday, but the risk is great; three out of every four young men who attempt this are driven mad in the process.

Fabiom, of course, is unlikely to befall such a fate, being our hero. 

But the problem (in terms of plotting) is that Fabiom is a fairly flawless kind of individual. He is kind, faithful, patient, intelligent, and a brilliant archer on top of that. He is able to befriend the right people at the right time, and is willing to sacrifice his own desires if it will help the bigger picture. He is somewhat unrealistic in terms of his perfection.

This results in a strangely structured book. A problem arises, Fabiom does something noble, and the problem wraps up. Even as he meets his Silvanan wife, Casandrina, and certain other characters seek to undermine this relationship, Fabiom remains absolutely without blemish, and the majority of plot complications are sorted out within a chapter or two. There are exceptions of course - Fabiom's mother remains fairly antagonistic throughout the book, and a subplot involving the unwanted attention of a powerful woman still lingers towards the end of the book - but these are in the minority.

Yet, even acknowledging this strange structural choice, and even considering that perhaps such a choice could be seen as a flaw, the book still held my attention. Perhaps the plot isn't all that important to the story author Belinda Mellor wants to tell. 

Because the book seems primarily a love story between Fabiom and Casandrina, and in this it succeeds. Fabiom is devoted to Casi, and Casi in return is devoted to her husband (and although she too is fairly 'perfect', at least she has the 'excuse' of being an immortal tree-spirit).

And if the message is that true love can survive in the face of any problems that come your way, and can even cause those problems to be less of a problem... well, that isn't a bad sort of message to give.

Completed 10 March 2021.

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