Fantasy Novella Review: Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Silver in the Wood by Emily Tesh

Silver in the Wood is the debut novella by author Emily Tesh - who recently found herself nominated for the Astounding (formerly Campbell) Award for Best New SciFi/Fantasy Writer as a result.  I'd skipped this novella originally, and was due to skip this novella's sequel originally scheduled to be published later this year (I think it's been pushed back), but I like to read and review every Hugo nominated work, so I put this one back on my list upon the nominations coming out.

And I'm glad I did - Silver on the Wood takes a familiar formula, switches the perspective and puts a fresh spin on it.  It's a story of the mysterious wild man in the woods, who may be more than a normal man, and an explorer who meets him and befriends him....from the perspective of the wild man.  Throw in a little M-M romance - the explorer is a notorious flirt - a surprise end of first act twist and twist of a second act character, and a really enjoyable ending.  I'll look forward to this one's sequel.


Plot Summary:  Tobias Finch had lived in his cabin in Greenhallow Wood for many a year.  A giant of a man, legends have arisen around him in the village - that he's a wild man, a worshiper of old gods, that he's mad, that he's a criminal, etc.  Tobias doesn't mind - they keep people from connecting him to his real legends - and simply wants to live in peace in his cabin, taking care of the local dryads and other natural magical beings.....and simply wants to ensure no one else loses their lives to the demons of his past.  But when the new owner, a young man named Henry Silver, of the local manor comes to his cabin one day in search of the local legends, Tobias finds that life more difficult than ever.  Especially given how attractive that flirtatious and curious but naive Mr. Silver is....

Thoughts:  This is a short novella, so to say anything more than the above will be a bit of a spoiler.  Butt it's a lovely novella that takes the classic - misunderstood good intentioned mythical man of the wood is discovered and helps and forms a relationship with a young naive explorer - and flips it around several times on its head: the story is now M-M instead of M-F (think Beauty and the Beast), and the story is written from the wild man's - Tobias here - point of view.  The story also subverts expectations of a third character often seen in these stories in its second half, but to say anything more would be a spoiler so I won't say more.

The result is really sweet and lovely, with a great character exploration of all involved as they deal with the myths and realities in the forest and otherwise magical world.  Tobias and Silver's relationship is lovely and it's really easy to see Tobias' heart melting for Silver and why he's reluctant to let it happen.  The only weak character is Silver, who is so naive at times that you kind of want to yell at him, but the story is so short that it never gets too annoying and you can sort of see why he got that way in the novella's second half.  It's not one of the best novellas I read from last year - which I guess is why it didn't pick up a best novella nomination - but the craft is excellent and it is all charming enough that I can see why Tesh got the nomination for Best New Writer.  I'll definitely be checking back for this novella's sequel whenever it comes out.