Silver on the Road

Today's post is on Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman. It is the first in her The Devil's West. It is 375 pages long and is published by Saga Press. The cover has the main character on it looking magical. There is some mild language, no sex, and violence in this book. The story is told from the third person close the two main characters. There Be Spoilers Ahead.

From the dust jacket- Back East, they claim the so-called Devil's West is overrun by magic, magicians, and monsters. But to Isobel, it's home. She grew up in a saloon, trained to serve drinks and fold laundry, to read those who come to the gambling tables and report back to her boss on what she sees.
But when she comes of age, she is given a choice...
Now the Territory's Left Hand, Isobel takes to the road, accompanied by the laconis rider Gabriel, who will teach her about the Territory, its people and its laws. But she needs to learn quickly- the bones of the earth are cracking, and the Hand has work to do.

Review- A wonderful weird west tale from a master of the craft. This is more than just a alternate history story or a fantasy story. This is a genre creator. Gilman does so much with this. She creates a interesting world, peopled with interesting characters and then takes them to places that I did not see coming. The Devil's West is being squeezed from all sides but Devil is not going to take that sitting down. Isobel wants to be more than what she is. She wants to be important and valuable to those around her. The side characters are very important and add so much color to the story. Gabriel does not know if he wants to be a main character or not. We do read some things from his perspective but I feel that he is torn about being in this story at all and that is true but it is odd when reading to really feel that a character is not sure weather he wants to be there or not. I cannot wait to see where Gilman is going with this story.

I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review and I borrowed this book from my local library.