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I serendipitously discovered Silverlock in a Walden’s Books over forty years ago. Both book and author were unknown to me at the time, but I was randomly drawn to it by its striking cover art. What I had stumbled upon was one of the great, hidden, cult classics of the fantasy genre, a book that inspired other writers in the know. Totally unlike the Tolkien clones that dominated the market then, it was a sort of secular Pilgrim’s Progress where, instead of a spiritual journey, the hero embarks on an epic literary quest.

Clarence Shandon, aka Silverlock, is that hero. He is the prototypical Banal Man of mid twentieth century � a degree in Business Administration, only reads newspapers, with neither knowledge nor interest in literature. When his ship wrecks leaving him the sole survivor, he embarks on a quest through an unfamiliar land � The Commonwealth Of Letters. Thus begins a series of adventures that transforms him (in fits and starts) from a soulless cynic into an enthusiastic aspirant maker of tales.

In the Commonwealth, every person, place, and thing encounter (starting with Silverlock’s sunken ship, The Naglfar) is drawn from story, myth, and legend. These literary borrowings are often encountered in surprising combinations. A hostile Don Quixote is diverted with a quest to capture Babe, Paul Bunyan’s blue ox. Grendel’s death is celebrated at Heorot Hall by a skald singing of Bowie Gizzardbane and his heroic final stand at the Alamo. While Silverlock encounters these forms for the first time, we readers are delighted and challenged to identify allusions that range from the ancient Gilgamesh Epic to the writings of Swift, Hawthorne and Twain.

My first copy of Silverlock that I picked up in that Walden’s Books back in 1982 was a paperback. The copy I now have in my library is a NESFA Press hardback that also includes The Silverlock Companion. The companion is a kind of cheat sheet for the game of ‘Identify that reference.� After each read of Silverlock I had been able to identify more of Myers� references, but it wasn’t until I read the companion that I realized to what extent Myers had taken the game. Nearly everyone and everything that Silverlock encounters in the Commonwealth has a literary or mythical origin, all of which are detailed in The Silverlock Companion. Reading it adds value to your experience of the book.

Silverlock is among my all time favorite books. I’ve read it four times, and likely will return to it again. Each time I return to it I discover new, obscure literary references that I missed on previous readings. Its brilliance doesn’t grow old � it is a book for a lifetime.