Anyone else read this? It may be my most regularly re-read fiction book. Every couple years I read it again knowing that I’m going to understand more of the references.
I own four copies - one for me and three to lend out. The man who later became my husband said he knew he had to marry me because I was the only woman he had ever met who had read it.
It’s a fabulous book, a trip down the road of Western literature with tremendously engaging characters, told from the point of view of a complete cad. I only wish Myers-Myers- had written more fiction. The only other book he wrote, to the best of my knowledge, is an odd, dense little novel called “The Moon’s Fire-Eating Daughter”. It took me a few tries to get through it, but it was worth it. “Silverlock” is certainly the more accessable.
One of the things that has brought me back again and again is that It is an entirely different book to me now than it was when I first read it some 20 years ago. You can completely enjoy it without catching any of the literary references. It’s also got some fabulous poetry, including a re-telling of the Battle of the Alamo in the style of a Norse poem. I highly recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading.
I saw this novel in paperback back when I was in high school. t looked like another Tolkien imitator, an I was Tolkiened out, so I never picked t up and read it. Maybe it’s time I did.
Acording to John Clute and John Grant’s exhaustive Encyclopedia of Fantasy JMM also wrote several historical novels, and they call The Harp and the Blade (1941) his “best known”. After writing Silverlock he wrote popular histories, with TMFED the only ther straihght-out fantasy. They recommend A Silverlock Companion (1988, ed. Fred. Lerner)for further information.
The first I heard of Silverlock was the quotes that Donaldson used in the Mordant’s Need series. I liked the series so much I decided to go find the book.
Turned out to be quite a quest. I ended up scouring used bookstores for it because neither our local library (surprise, surprise, given that our local branch thinks sci fi and fantasy are one and the same and should be shelved together) nor our local Barnes & Noble had it.
It wasn’t bad, but IMHO, it wasn’t a re-read and re-reader. (No offense intended, Lucie. ) I’ll try to read it again, though, and see if it strikes me differently the second time through.
I read Silverlock years and years ago…probably ought to re-read it and see if I get any more new references.
I bought a signed & numbered print called “Shelf of Dreams,” which is a trompe l’oeil bookshelf full of fantasy books. Silverlock is one of them. Also the Elfquest novel, Deryni books by Katherine Kurtz, Dragonrider books by Anne McCaffrey, LOTR (of course), the Belgariad books by David Eddings, the Narnia series by CS Lewis, and others. It was originally painted in 1985, so some recent fantasy classics (Harry Potter comes to mind) are absent. Best of all, the titles are often obscured in globs of paint, so the whole picture is a huge in-joke. You have to have a bookshelf that resembles it yourself to know what the books are by their spines alone.
I mostly bought it because I didn’t know that many people who had read Silverlock…I got it in a used bookstore myself.
Bought my copy new in a bookstore when the paperback version came out. (1970s?) I was big into fantasy at the time.
I only remember enjoying it, but I haven’t gone back and tried it again. Bought the sequel but never read that one.
I’ve still got both books, though, and I know I’ll tackle them again, but reading’s awfully hard with youngin’s running around the house.
I got a copy at some point when I was in college. I think I got it at a con because I was told that it was hands down the favorite book of many sf/f writers. I wasn’t all that impressed, in fact, I can’t remember any of the characters or the plot, a rarity for me. Maybe I should try to find it and reread it. I’ve found that a lot of books I didn’t like much way back when are a lot better now.
) I’ll try to read it again, though, and see if it strikes me differently the second time through.