Customer Reviews

Untitled Joyce 2 of 2 (Gollancz SF)

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Graham Joyce's "The Silent Land" poses quite a conundrum for me. Did I enjoy the novel? Yes, it was a rather quick and engaging read. But I'm not entirely sure that I'd go out of my way to recommend it. Billed as a "suspense novel," I don't really think "The Silent Land" will capture that marketplace with its rather gentle tone. As a mystery or puzzler, I think Joyce's work is competently constructed and well thought-out but (and here's a big but) it's not the least bit surprising. Anyone who's seen a film, watched TV, or read a book recently will undoubtedly uncover the central enigma almost from the get-go. I'm not saying that necessarily spoils "The Silent Land," but expectations set forth by the book's marketing campaign may confound "thrill readers" (the target audience listed in advance press).

Ultimately, what will sell (or not sell) "The Silent Land" is NOT the mystery that faces its central characters but their journey to reach that truth. Loving married couple Jake and Zoe are on a skiing holiday in the French Alps when the unthinkable happens--an early morning avalanche strikes as they are isolated on the slopes. Through perseverance and instinct, they manage to extricate themselves from the snow and are thoroughly invigorated just to be alive. However, when they make it back to the lodge and the village--there seems to have been an evacuation. Without a soul in sight and no telephone communications, Zoe and Jake attempt to jump ship as well before the next wall of snow hurtles down on them. But nature seems to be conspiring against their escape. Soon their fear gives way to absolute freedom which in turn slides to dread. Just what is really going on?

As I said, I think most people will have figured things out quite early--so any pleasure must be in the telling. I genuinely liked Jake and Zoe, and it wasn't a hardship to share in their joys and frustrations. As opposed to a thriller, "The Silent Land" is a contemplation of life, memories, regrets, and relationships. And it's a love story--in many ways, I think this should have been Joyce's focus. I think that "The Silent Land" had the potential to be an absolutely harrowing and heartbreaking dissection of love and marriage. The supernatural trickery should have supported this aspect as opposed to the other way around. As is, though, "The Silent Land" played out just as you know it will. A diverting read, perhaps, but this book should have rocked me to the core. About 3 1/2 stars. KGHarris, 1/11.

Starting with an incredibly revealing book jacket that shames Kindle and Nook, this lucky 13th book by Graham Joyce is a startling reality wake-up call --- and it prognosticates what is to come.

A daybreak "avalanche with its ferocious white teeth had snapped at their heels." Zoe is crushed by the onslaught: "Total silence, total darkness." She resigns herself to her situation: "You're in a snow tomb, be calm." Ankles over elbows, she realizes she's upside down in that tomb. Fortunately, husband Jake comes to her rescue. With no skis, they work their way to an abandoned lift operator's cabin. With heat --- and a hip flask --- to warm them, they take the operator's single set of skis, working their way back to Saint-Bernard-en-Haut. The village is deserted, but something else seems amiss.

They return to the tiny ski village where they had first met years before: "There was something they had to sort out. Something they were meant to discuss. But she knew that right now was the wrong moment." The next day they steal a police car, the only vehicle with ignition keys. They try to get out of the village, where another avalanche looms. Fogbound and snowbound, Jake teeters the car over a precipice. Returning to the hotel, there are no TV, radio or phone signals. And --- horrors! --- no Internet connection. Attempts to leave Saint-Bernard on foot fail.

The novel's text has the simplicity and beauty of a Georgia O'Keeffe painting. With deft brush strokes, Joyce paints a tapestry of intrigue and Hitchcock-like suspense, sort of a cross between Stephen King's THE LANGOLIERS and "The Twilight Zone." "It's like there's a conspiracy to keep us here," Jake ponders. Eventually they quit communicating. "When they had no banter, that meant the situation was serious," each blaming the other for their predicament. It's Jake's shocking revelation that turns eerie into just plain weird. He questions if "we're trapped here, or if we've been freed here."

Realization becomes resignation, as Zoe and Jake no longer try to leave Saint-Bernard. Something "had delivered to them an idle abundance." Zoe opines, "I'm thinking of all the stupid time-wasting things. Shopping. Bowling. Killing time. Pissing it all away. We know death is coming. And yet we always see our loved ones as taken away from us, instead of given to us for whatever time they have."

"With Nature there was always an account, and [Jake] said that ultimately they still inhabited a corner of that same infinite box that was Nature." THE SILENT LAND made me ponder how much --- or how little --- I've contributed to life. Isn't that what makes for phenomenal writing?

--- Reviewed by L. Dean Murphy

After reading this book several months ago and thinking about it several times in the meantime, I'm still not 100% sure of how I feel about this book. It was good, but it wasn't great. Sometimes the writing felt a bit clunky, but the imagery was always very real and very present. The story is told from perspective of a young woman who along with her husband become trapped in an avalanche while on a skiing trip. Once they escape the snow, they travel down to their chalet to find that the entire hotel, town, and countryside is completely abandoned - it's as if everyone disappeared out of thin air. It's spooky stuff, but Mr. Joyce chooses to focus on the relationship between his protagonists more than on the creepy things happening around them. This is both good and bad. I'm glad this wasn't just another ghost story, but I also never felt that passionate about either character or worried for their safety. The 'twist' ending also left me somewhat unsatisfied. I figured where it was going long before it happened so I don't really know if it was supposed to be a shocker, but it was written in a way that suggested it was. So I'm of two minds. I enjoyed it and I would probably recommend it with some minor reservations, but I definitely wouldn't go back to visit it again. Nor would I jump on the chance to read more Joyce.

This isn't a book I would normally read but I was drawn in by Stephen King's recommendation in EW and thought the premise, after reading the book jacket, sounded interesting.

The book was okay. It could have been at least 50 pages tighter and been much better. There was a lot of repetition, too many flowery descriptions for my taste.

I liked the very beginning and I liked the very end but the middle - too many words with too little content to show for it.

The premise, while not new, is a good one. The message being delivered is valuable. The characters - sometimes appealing and sometimes I just want to kick them in the knee. It was worth reading once but I can't say I will ever read it again. I guess I was expecting "Twilight Zone" and got "Love Story."

There is little plot to The Silent Land; it consists largely of symbolic actions, thoughts, and memories. Genre-wise, it falls closer to magic realism than to either fantasy or mainstream literary fiction.

A young couple, Zoe and Jake, are on a ski vacation in the French Alps. They have begun early in the morning, before anyone else has arrived on the slopes. There is a small avalanche, and Zoe is trapped under it, but with a pocket of air. With the aid of a ski pole, she manages to dig herself out and to reunite with Jake. Zoe and Jake descend to their hotel, which they find deserted. They conclude it must have been evacuated due to some prediction of another, larger avalanche. Their looming fear of this second avalanche is intensified when they find no other people in the police station or anywhere else in the village. Even stranger, the television does not work, they cannot connect to the Internet, and no one they telephone answers.

Zoe and Jake undertake a series of efforts to leave, by driving a stolen police car, skiing, hiking . . . each time they are forced to return to the hotel. Then the electricity shuts down, and they realize the refrigerated and frozen food they have been subsisting on will go bad . . . what next? But their deep love, their faith in each other, and their well-honed ability to work together, shine through every fear and every setback.

Most of all, The Silent Land is a meditation on the question: Can a relationship with a loved one survive death? Aside from their fears for themselves and each other, Zoe and Jake remember the deaths of their parents, and of Jake's beloved childhood dog. These memories movingly demonstrate all the things we desire when a loved one dies: To have just a little more time with them, to say goodbye, to reconcile differences, to care for them, to be consoled by them for our grief, to remember them, to have them return. This book is beautiful, deeply moving, even inspiring. It could have been far more depressing, but it is still a somber book.

With a barely perceptible plot, no character development, gratuitous, but poorly written sex scenes, and silly discussions about poop, this book is a snoozer.

I would classify the book more as a love story than suspense, thriller or fantasy. It centers on the interactions of Jake and Zoe, their love, their fears, and their protection of one another.

The Silent Land is way too long; major chunks of the story line drag on and on. The book's premise is interesting - a young couple emerges after an avalanche into a world that is empty of living beings - but the book would have been more effective if it had been written as a short story. As the book is written, by the time we get to the end, we just are happy that it is over.

This reminds me of an average episode of Twilight Zone, if that episode had been 3 hours long. Heavy Richard Matheson influence, but not as original as Matheson's work. The scenes are crisp, but the plot was way too repetitive, even at a mere 66,000 words. This would work much better as a short story.

The primary problem with the plot, besides the repetition, is the contrived way in which the two main characters are "brought together". When the story begins, it's clear there is already trouble in paradise. Zoe and Jake, the husband and wife we follow throughout the novel, are already making catty comments at one another. As we move forward, we're supposed to believe that the couple are coming together. But it didn't feel genuine, even though you knew that was the goal the author had in mind, not to mention the way this kind of plot is supposed to advance (yes, the plot was so hackneyed the ending of the novel is telegraphed before the end of the first chapter). There are several instances where "pet names" are used between Zoe and Jake. This, I assume, as meant to show that, Hey, they're beginning to warm to each other. Thing is, my first instinct upon reading one of these pet names was to literally laugh out loud. Again, it didn't seem genuine that either of these characters would use those terms of endearment.

Following the above, the characterization, aside from two nice flashbacks showing Zoe and Jake with their respective fathers, was very thin. I didn't feel like I knew anything nice or good about either characters, only their bickering nature.

The scenery was more interesting. It was rendered with a deft hand. But without plausible characters you could root for, the scenery became dull and repetitive as well.

If this was trimmed down heavily it would fit nicely into a Twilight Zone-themed anthology. But as it is, I couldn't recommend it in its current state.

The one word that describes this book is `eerie'. The atmosphere, the situation the two people find themselves in, the deserted town and the visions that seemingly only Zoe can see are haunting and mysterious.

They try to drive out of town but the car breaks down, they try to walk away but end up on the same road that brings them back to the town, they ski over the mountain but, again, they find themselves back to the same familiar buildings.

"It's almost like something is keeping us here in this village." Zoe said, looking around her. "Like something doesn't want to let us go."

Zoe and Jake are a happily married couple who have been together for 10 years and their love for each other is apparent in the tender way they watch out for each other, constantly reassuring each other that everything will be okay, while keeping their thoughts to themselves that it may not be.

They can walk into any of the shops and take whatever they want, including designer shoes and clothes but there seems little point when there's no-one to show off to.

Candles don't burn down, food stays fresh, Zoe has the same recurring vision of the hotel lobby full of people but when she looks again they're gone, they felt as though they'd been living there for weeks but it was only a couple of days ...... what and where is this place?

I was totally immersed in the story of this young couple who are desperate to know what's happening but are powerless to do anything, and I felt such sympathy and desperation for them I really wanted there to be a happy ending.

There are just a handful of books I've read that have stayed with me long after I've moved on and I think that this will be one of them.

I was disappointed. I was only about a third of the way in when I figured out what was happening. Too predictable.

I think most of us can see where the novel is going far before it gets there, so it's not much of a suspense novel, although at times it is creepy. Contrary to the impression given by the blurbs on the back of the book, this isn't a horror novel--it's a book about a relationship between two people. I might have enjoyed it more if I'd liked those two people better. Other reviewers felt that there were possible logical explanations for mysterious things that happen in the story, but I didn't get that feeling at all, and I didn't like it. It felt supernatural and ugly, to me. But I guess sometimes the mark of a good book is that it brings out different strong emotions in different people. This might be such a book, but I still didn't enjoy it that much!