Book Review: The Silver Crown by Robert C. O'Brien

 

The Silver Crown
by
Robert C. O'Brien

This is a multiple re-read. As of September 2026 I've just finished it for probably the fourth or fifth time. I only entered the first and last dates tho as my memory is vague on the others. The first time was likely fall of 1969 but it could have been late spring of that year as it was a school library book and I spent part of the time reading it outside. So either end of fifth grade or beginning of sixth. Anyway it is one of a handful of books I read as a child that I keep getting drawn back to. I remember being so enthralled the first time that I was reading between my turns at a monopoly game and a chess or checkers game with my brother who was indignant with me. I'm in my late sixties now and I remain as enthralled as ever even though I know how it turns out I've put enough distance between reads that many twists still surprise me but even when they don't I still vibe to the story.

So the story: Ellen wakes on her tenth birthday to find a silver crown beside her. So as not to wake her still sleeping family she walks to a nearby park and sits on a log and puts it on and presides as queen over all the small critters. She hears sirens that stop nearby instead of fading away she walks toward the scene and overhears the firemen saying nobody could have survived that and then realizes it is her house and thus her parents and her brother and sister are dead. The fireman won't believe her when she says she lived there and tells her to run along. A policeman believes her and starts walking her toward the nearby police station but they witness a holdup on the way and the policeman must chase the criminal and she is alone again. She resolves to hitchhike to her aunt's home in Kentucky, a nearby state. Of course even at 11 I knew that was not going to go as planned. That was just the first morning.

Read on if spoilers do not concern you. To explain why this book still haunts me after more than fifty years I can't avoid them.

By the next morning she was lost in the woods still many miles from Aunt Sarah's. There was a mountain pass still between them and it wasn't safe to go back to the highway. She is found by a young boy, Otto, with a talking crow named Richard. Otto takes her home to the log cabin where he's being raised by an elderly woman. When Richard, alerts them in the night that there are strangers about the woman scares them off with a shotgun blast over the tree tops. The next morning she sends Otto to escort Ellen across the pass on an old logging trail that will intersect with the road to Aunt Sarah's. It should be a three or four day walk. But over a week later they are still only half way because of setbacks and detours: they discover they are being followed by a evil looking man who was dressed all in black with green stripes like the holdup guy that first morning; a section of road along a cliff that broke away; a deep crevasse that cuts across their path; Ellen's sprained ankle; running out of food so Otto needs to hunt and trap.

Otto returns one day to the cave where Ellen is nursing her ankle with news of a mysteries black tower surrounded with a high chain fence with children dressed in black marching on black paths looking neither left or right. Otto wants to climb the fence to look for food but Ellen discourages him. The next day he doesn't return at all. Soon as she is able Ellen sets out to find that tower and when she does manages to sneak in with a transport of children being delivered. Inside she discovers that it's a school teaching mean-spirited, criminal and destructive behaviors with the aid of twisted 'Aesop's Fables' and every child and adult acts like they are in some kind of trance.

Ellen discovers she is unaffected by whatever has the rest in thrall. She tries to pretend but that doesn't work for long and she is locked in a room and tests are run to find out why she is not 'in tune'. Then she is sent to meet the King who is wearing a crown identical to hers but pure black. The King introduces her to the Hieronymus machine and it's four phase plan for world domination. She sees a phrase on it that says 'He who wears the black crown I rule. He who wears the Silver crown rules me.' The King then shows her a room where 24 men are busily building 24 new machines. He is attempting to get her on board in spite of her being out of tune by appealing to greed and desire for power or control. But during that interview she gives her self away by recognizing one of the men in black she'd encountered in her home town. The King stops being 'kind' and enthusiastic about the 'mission'. He demands she hand over the Silver crown. She declines. She is roughly returned to her cell.

There is still many twists and turns as there is still over 20% of the story left but I've shared enough now to make clear why this novel gripped me so for over five decades. It was my first encounter with two ideas that have become central to my research obsessions over the years and to the themes of many of my own stories: fascism or authoritarianism (the embodiment of the bully spirit) and story used as propaganda and mind control. Also the us vs. them dynamic that actively discourages empath. When I did my deep dive into the Holocaust and WWII when I was 16 I remembered The Silver Crown and realized it was a fable warning against such hunger for power and control. I'm pretty sure it was around then (between 1974-75) that I reread it. Another time was in the early 80s when I was thinking about reading it aloud to my niece but decided it was too mature for her.

I realized as I encountered the Hieronymus machine again that this was also the first time I'd been introduced to the concept of AI. But only be weeks or a few months since I was still 11 when I saw my first Star Trek episode.  That makes three themes that are as relevant today as they were in 1968 when it was published: lust for power; abuse of power; us vs them to short circuit empathy; story use as propaganda to shape reality and control minds; the risk of unleashing an unconstrained AI. Librarians and middle school teachers take note.

As a side note I find it interesting that this story resonated with me thirty years before I broke free of my own "Hieronymus machine' the funde cult I was raised in. How did I miss then what seems obvious parallels to me now? Mind control with dogma and use of story to define 'reality'.  Hierarchy that must not be questioned or disobeyed. Enforced conformity. Encouragement to do and say unkind things to those who stray from the 'right' path. This too is all in The Silver Crown.

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