08/31/2015
"Laura Anne Gilman has reimagined an American West that is alluring and gritty, strange and utterly convincing. Her prose is stunning, and her story and characters grabbed my heart and would not let go. Silver on the Road is pure gold.
David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson
"Silver on the Road will absolutely be on my Top 10 of 2015 list at the end of this year. This book is everything I wanted it to be plus more."
"Silver on the Road takes an underused setting for fantasy—the American West—and uses it to explore coming of age, the limits of power and responsibility, and the importance of mingling compassion and justice. It’s fresh and original and the language is both stark and lovely. The descriptions of the natural landscape of the West fit beautifully with descriptions of talking animals, travelling magicians and terrifying supernatural forces." - 4 ½ stars
There's magic in the West, and weirdness not easily explained. The deserts are a place of ghostly silences and inexplicable sounds in the night. The mountains have a pull that is magnetic — the kind of thing you can feel in your sleep. The wind will mess with your dreams.Silver on the Road . I lived in the west — spent a decade or more in what Gilman calls simply "the Territory" — and that's just the way things are. So she's chosen a fertile place to begin her new series (the broad plains, red rock and looming mountains of the American West), and amped up the oddity of it all by planting the Devil there as a card dealer, fancy-pants and owner of a saloon in a town called Flood.manu sinistra ? It moves in shadows, unseen, unheard ... It is the strength of the Territory, the quick knife in the darkness, the cold eye and the final word."Silver on the Road is the first book).Silver on the Road readable and more than just an exercise in making mythology soup is that it all feels so ... pure.Silver take on the sheen and weight of forgotten history. Lost in the middle of the story, you'll feel somehow that you've always known the Devil wore a suit and ran a gambling house back in six-gun times, that he once sent a sixteen year old girl out into the world to fight monsters for him — and it's that echo in the brain that makes the thing hard to put down, because reading Silver on the Road is not like falling into some new and unfamiliar world.
October 10, 2015 - NPR Books
"Silver on the Road feels like a story you've always known, but never read; the kind of haunting, perfect myth that draws together magic, the Old West, saints and sinners and innocents into a brilliant blend that's simultaneously startling and familiar."
"I loved the worldbuilding in this story. I love that the Devil both is and isn’t the figure you’re used to. In some respects, particularly the Bargains he makes, he’s very familiar ... and then you realize “Devil” is just a name, and you never truly learn what he really is. There’s power and mystery there. I look forward to the next book in the series!"
Hugo award winning author, Libriomancer - Jim C. Hines
"[SILVER ON THE ROAD is] captivating, vivid, and impossible to stop reading... I could taste the dust, hear the rattle of the snakes, feel the wind, and sense the road. Filled with wonderful mythology and strong, compelling characters, this book is a fantastic start to what promises to be a fantastic new series."
Sarah Beth Durst - author of VESSEL and CONJURED
A Locus Hardcover Bestseller, January 2016!
January 7th, 2016 - Locus Magazine Bestsellers
Silver on the Road marks a major landmark in the burgeoning subgenre of Weird West Fantasy, and in my opinion the best novel, on all fronts, that Laura Anne Gilman has written to date. Anyone vaguely interested in her work, or in Weird Westerns, should take the coin of the Devil and ride the road with Isobel and Gabriel to find out what’s in the Devil’s West. Isobel’s journey begins here and while the novel ends on a strong note, it is clear that she has miles to ride on the Road yet. I can’t wait for the sequel.
October 9, 2015 - SF Signal
"[SILVER ON THE ROAD is] captivating, vivid, and impossible to stop reading... I could taste the dust, hear the rattle of the snakes, feel the wind, and sense the road. Filled with wonderful mythology and strong, compelling characters, this book is a fantastic start to what promises to be a fantastic new series."
- Sarah Beth Durst - author of VESSEL and CONJURED
"Laura Anne Gilman has reimagined an American West that is alluring and gritty, strange and utterly convincing. Her prose is stunning, and her story and characters grabbed my heart and would not let go. Silver on the Road is pure gold.
— David B. Coe/D.B. Jackson
"Silver on the Road feels like a story you've always known, but never read; the kind of haunting, perfect myth that draws together magic, the Old West, saints and sinners and innocents into a brilliant blend that's simultaneously startling and familiar."
"I loved the worldbuilding in this story. I love that the Devil both is and isn’t the figure you’re used to. In some respects, particularly the Bargains he makes, he’s very familiar … and then you realize “Devil” is just a name, and you never truly learn what he really is. There’s power and mystery there. I look forward to the next book in the series!"
Hugo award winning author, Libriomancer - - Jim C. Hines
"Reading Silver on the Road is not like falling into some new and unfamiliar world. It's more like a true American myth being found."
★ 10/15/2015
