Weird Western is a cagey growing category / subgenre within Speculative Fiction, but a natural one. Often set amidst the still burgeoning United States, the unknown elements of the Western United States in the 18th and 19th Century provide a great deal of mystery and potential for supernatural happenings in such an untamed, open land. Laura Anne Gilman is an accomplished, award worthy/nominated/winning/acclaimed writer who turns her quill to this subgenre with Silver on the Road, the first installment of her Devil’s West series.
A heroic fantasy by an award-winning author about a young woman who is trained in the art of the sinister hand of magic, but at what price?
Isobel, upon her sixteenth birthday, makes the choice to work for the devil in his territory west of the Mississippi. But this is not the devil you know. This is a being who deals fairly with immense—but not unlimited—power, who offers opportunities to people who want to make a deal, and they always get what they deserve. But his land is a wild west that needs a human touch, and that’s where Izzy comes in. Inadvertently trained by him to see the clues in and manipulations of human desire, Izzy is raised to be his left hand and travel circuit through the territory. As we all know, where there is magic there is chaos…and death.
As if the American West wasn’t open and strange enough, the Devil has set up shop as a card dealer and saloon owner. In this saloon in the town of Flood, young Isobel is coming of age. She has reached the time in her life where she can make her own decisions. When the Devil (or as most folks know him, the Boss) presents Isobel with the opportunity to freely choose what she wishes to do, she opts to work for him, giving herself into his employ. However, what her role as the Devil’s Left Hand entails is unknown to her when she signs the contract in full view of witnesses. Isobel learns, as she apprentices to the card sharp, mail/news carrier and all-around western “rider” Gabriel on a journey East, just who she is, who she can be, and what it means to be the Devil’s Left Hand. Gabriel is not exactly sure what she is either, just that he’s supposed to guide her because of a deal he made with the Boss.
From the first few pages of Silver on the Road, I was completely swept up in Isobel’s bildungsroman story. She is an engaging, fascinating character placed in a wonderfully crafted secondary world with many similarities to our own. The feel of the novel is raw and unrestrained, yet Gilman’s prose and storytelling came across as precise and wonderfully constructed. Throughout, the familiar imagery of the American West is expertly mixed with Gilman’s darkly fantastic vision in a way that seems well-designed. That “wild” west seems to have a great sense of forethought and logic at its foundation, but Gilman is skilled enough and restrained enough in this worldbuilding that the minutia of that logic doesn’t overburden the wonderful flow of the story or brilliant development of her characters.
Where the details are sparse is where the strength lies. Only the most minimal and necessary bits of information are given about the Boss: he’s old, powerful, and holds a great deal of sway. However, his reach is finite, which is why he recruits Isobel to be his Left Hand. Gabriel’s past is not exactly all on the table either, but that aura of mystique adds to his appeal as a character and allows us as the reader to learn more about him along with Isobel.
Isobel is a terrific character and what is equally enjoyable is her interaction with Gabriel. There’s the requisite tension between mentor and mentee, but it is a natural tension. Despite their relationship being forced by the Devil on the one hand, on the other, the dialogue and interaction felt natural. Once Isobel’s growth into the Left Hand culminates as the novel draws to close, the swelling anticipation grew and managed to finish with a substantial conclusion. Though satisfying, this is clearly the first of a series (he types, eying the second installment The Cold Eye on Mount Toberead) for it portends much to come in Isobel’s life. With much of Isobel’s development as a character and in to the role the Devil’s Left Hand charted here in Silver on the Road, I welcome the opportunity to see where she goes next in this wonderful weird west world.
A quick note about the cover – a lovely image from John Jude Palencar that really captures the feel of the book. His art is always wonderful and this cover is no exception.
Laura Anne Gilman is a writer I’ve been intending to read for quite some time and I was more than happy to finally jump into one of her novels. Silver on the Road is a fantastic novel that shows a writer with exemplary skill playing with conventional story tropes/themes, fully realized characters, and telling quite simply, a marvelous story.
Recommended
© 2017 Rob H. Bedford
October 2015 | Saga Press
Hardcover | 400 Pages
http://www.lauraannegilman.net/whats-in-print/devils-west/silver-road/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Saga Press
