A Demon in Silver by R. S. Ford starts off the War of Archon series. The novel chronicles the return of magic to a medieval world where, a century ago, both the Gods and their magic disappeared, suddenly, without warning.
Locking away the Gods, and Magic, for a century has not done the world that many favors. Things have progressed on, petty nobles squabble, raiders raid, violent sects in the desert fight against each other. The world has not truly changed in their absence, not at the fundamental level.
But when a young woman starts manifesting unusual powers, powers not seen in a century, the scramble is on to take that power, control that power and use that power, whether she will or not. The only problem is that the farmgirl, Livia, with uncontrollable power, is not the only old power walking abroad in the land, and they have their own ideas about the return of magic and what to do about it. And of course, those arcane powers in and of themselves have ideas about what they should be doing.
A grimdark fantasy world and a story about the return of lost magic, and people and polities striving to control them, and those powers fighting against each other is the story of R.S. Ford’s A Demon in Silver.
Grimdark is something I’ve been thinking about lately, since I was asked to participate on a panel at 4th Street Fantasy about Grimdark and Hopepunk. I didn’t get a chance to talk about books that transcend grimdark, actually naming books that have dark worlds but hope within them, books that provide a shining light in the darkness. Instead, we discussed grimdark and what it was and touched on what it does, and what it doesn’t and why it started and how.
A Demon in Silver fits firmly into the grimdark tradition, but it does not fall into what I consider to be the worst excesses for me of grimdark. In those excesses, to me, there is nothing for me to root for, no characters to like, all characters are irretrievably compromised, and everything turns to darkness, destruction and there is only nihilism and the glory of battle and destruction. That sort of Nihilistic Grimdark I bounce right off of. And while characters like Josten and Kaleb, our primary POV characters, are not good people, and there is an “everyone can die” feel to the book that the author pays off on, it is not all hopeless.
In A Demon in Silver we do have Livia, the farm girl who has been possessed by one of the returning powers now entering the world after this century without magic. She is very much the Macguffin of the novel, the person that the other characters, once they know of her, are desperate to find. That does include Silver, who has mysterious powers and an agenda of her own. In point of fact, I found Silver a far more engaging and interesting character than Livia, or Kaleb, or even Josten, whose path seems to be moving toward something like redemption after doing some less than savory things.
The novel reminded me of a number of epic fantasies that explore similar territory, such as, recently, David Mealing’s Soul of the World, and Christopher Husberg’s Duskfall (and sequels). The concept of a “Magic has returned” or an intrusion of magic and divine and supernatural powers into an landscape is a potent and intriguing one, a story with potential and plenty of possibilities and facets to explore. What Ford brings to this novel, the first of the War of the Archons, is a crunchy multisided set of antagonists both on the Archon level, and also their human counterparts. I am hoping these lines are developed and extended in a sequel.
My major issue with the book is my personal desire for an off-ramp for books that start series. Getting a complete story, even if it is clearly part of a greater whole, is important to me, and the novel comes to a stop much more than actually providing any sort of closure. From the point of view who wants to know what happens next, and are enjoying the setup and premise, this is not an issue, but it would have been nice to have some closure for those readers who prefer to read laterally rather than vertically.
A Demon in Silver is a promising novel that, while definitely grimdark, avoids the pitfalls of the subgenre and tells a solid story.
Readers who want to know more about Ford and how he writes might like to check out his My Superpower guest post here at Skiffy and Fanty.
https://skiffyandfanty.com/blogposts/guestposts/mysuperpowerrsford/
