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The Devil's West #3.75
Gabriel's Road
Most folk in the Territory never think about the magic around them. They’ve never encountered a magician, fought a spell-beast, or bargained with the devil. Gabriel Kasun is not most folk. A year spent mentoring Isobel Lacoyo Távora, the Devil’s Left Hand, brought him closer to the Territory’s magic than he'd ever wanted. But now Gabriel is on his own again, free of all obligation. Except the Territory - and his own destiny - isn’t quite done with him yet. A brand-new novella set in the award-winning world of The Devil’s West! "Wonderful and beautifully written...Fate creeps up on Gabriel with the inexorability of the rising tide in this insightful, character-driven addition to Gilman's Devil's West series. Old readers will be delighted with the revelation of hinted-at secrets, and new readers will be intrigued and want more." - C.E. Murphy, author of THE WALKER PAPERS and REDEEMER
158 pages, Kindle Edition
First published April 30, 2019
19 people are currently reading
114 people want to read
About the author
Laura Anne Gilman
122 books823 followersLaura Anne Gilman’s work has been hailed as “a true American myth” by NPR, and praised for her “deft plotting and first-class characters” by Publishers Weekly. She has won the Endeavor Award for THE COLD EYE, and been shortlisted for a Nebula, (another) Endeavor, and a Washington State Book Award. Her work includes the Devil’s West trilogy, the Cosa Nostradamus urban fantasy series, the Vineart trilogy, and the story collection WEST WINDS’ FOOL. Her upcoming move, UNCANNY TIMES, will be out from Saga Books in 2022.
She lives in Seattle with a cat, a dog, and many deadlines.
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Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews
March 13, 2020
Gabriel's Road is the perfect ending to The Devil's West trilogy; I honestly don't think Red Water Rising could truly stand alone without this novella. It helped me understand why Gabriel behaved the way he did; I was left very confused by his choice by the end of Red Water Rising but Gabriel's Road explains it all. I felt sympathy for Gabriel rather than annoyance with him - he was clearly very affected by how life had treated him. Gabriel's Road is his way to healing.
May 29, 2019
a welcome return to strength and clarity
I was disappointed in the third book of the Left Hand trilogy because I wasn’t clear what happened at the end and so it didn’t feel like a satisfying finish to what was a stellar series for me until then. I’m glad for this story both for itself and because it’s encouraging me to go back and reread that last book.
Knowing what Gabriel intended when he left Isobel helps make sense of his actions and cleans up my confusion about why he abandoned her, just walking off when she was in trouble. That hadn’t fit with the person he’d been up to then, and this story explains a lot of why he’d done such a thing.
Now talking about this book for its own sake:
It’s good to see the Territory is even wilder and stranger than Gabriel can handle. The place is so much the heart of these books and it needs all the power to frighten and enthrall, because baptisms in fire and wonder can allow people to see their own souls. Gabriel has certainly been wandering a very long time without being whole or fully present, so it’s good that he’s finally getting some grip on who he is and some ability to decide what the Water wants of him and what he’s willing to be as a its child.
Lovely, powerful writing, the deepest sense of place and real people to travel beside.
I was disappointed in the third book of the Left Hand trilogy because I wasn’t clear what happened at the end and so it didn’t feel like a satisfying finish to what was a stellar series for me until then. I’m glad for this story both for itself and because it’s encouraging me to go back and reread that last book.
Knowing what Gabriel intended when he left Isobel helps make sense of his actions and cleans up my confusion about why he abandoned her, just walking off when she was in trouble. That hadn’t fit with the person he’d been up to then, and this story explains a lot of why he’d done such a thing.
Now talking about this book for its own sake:
It’s good to see the Territory is even wilder and stranger than Gabriel can handle. The place is so much the heart of these books and it needs all the power to frighten and enthrall, because baptisms in fire and wonder can allow people to see their own souls. Gabriel has certainly been wandering a very long time without being whole or fully present, so it’s good that he’s finally getting some grip on who he is and some ability to decide what the Water wants of him and what he’s willing to be as a its child.
Lovely, powerful writing, the deepest sense of place and real people to travel beside.
August 13, 2019
This is finally Gabriel’s story. I would be interested to hear he full story of what happened before, but this fills in so many of the blanks it felt satisfying and True. Gilman picks up from the cliffhanger ending of the last book and takes us on a journey with Gabriel alone. It feels like the previous novels very much set the stage for Gabriel’s journey here as far as how his introspection increased over the course of the previous three books and at the same time his suspicion of the magic that imbues the land decreased. I loved the slow build of his solitary journey and the dream-like flow of his encounters with the strange individuals and creatures that inhabit the land. The timing of the climax feels perfect. I often feel frustrated with how short novellas are, but this felt just right. I hope Gilman keeps writing in this universe for many books to come.
June 26, 2019
More --I want more!
I get the feeling there might be more to come in this engrossing series. I hope so. Alternative American history mixed with mythology and magic are a potent combination in the right hands.
I get the feeling there might be more to come in this engrossing series. I hope so. Alternative American history mixed with mythology and magic are a potent combination in the right hands.
December 9, 2021
Gabriel Kasun was born in the Territory, gifted with the Touch in the form of water-sense. Not fully understanding what this meant, he went East and became a lawyer for a time, only to increasingly grow ill as the Territory called him back. Not content to settle, Gabriel became a Rider, following the Dust Roads and tried to put his past behind him. But of late, he was mentor to Isobel, who is now the Devil’s Right Hand. During one of their adventures, Gabriel rode off, vanishing into the night. This is the story of what happened next.
This is a side story to the Devil’s West trilogy, set in a fantasy alternate Wild West where demons and magicians coexist uneasily with natives and settlers. In that trilogy, Isobel was the main character, a young woman growing into her powers and responsibilities. The author’s notes say that she realized that Gabriel had a lot of unresolved trauma that he needed to work through, so spun him off here where he doesn’t take focus off Isobel and can be his own protagonist.
After going off to ask for release from his obligation from the river called Mudwater, Gabriel finds himself in the middle of nowhere some time (days? weeks?} later, with no memory of what passed in between. Rather than retrace his steps to Red Stick and Isobel, he and his horse Steady travel into the high desert country.
As he wanders, Gabriel encounters signs and wonders, most of which he understandably views with suspicion. Even friendlier spirits have a dangerous air to them in the Territory.
Eventually, Gabriel is brought to the village of Rabbit Mound, a peaceful community blessed with water in the desert. The local bandits sure would like to own that water, and are trying to find a way to steal the town. (It’s not quite as simple as just shooting enough people and cowing the rest, due to a vague magical contract known as the Devil’s Agreement.) The villagers may be peaceful, but they are willing to resort to foul means to keep Gabriel in town to help them.
Can Gabriel save the village with minimal bloodshed? Does he even want to?
This is the sort of book that’s really meant more for fans of the original series than for newbies. A lot of the vocabulary is never adequately explained, and some important history is missing that presumably was told in the trilogy. But if you are the sort of reader that enjoys piecing together your own guesses about what’s going on there’s plenty of raw material to work with.
Gabriel’s a fairly interesting character, if stock in some ways; I’d probably be more attached if I’d read the other books. His journey is about healing, in both the physical and mental senses. He’s doing much better at the end than the beginning.
The other characters are so-so, another person from the main books turns up and has decent characterization, but this is very much Gabriel’s story.
Recommended to fans of the trilogy, and in a more general sense to fans of Weird West stories.
This is a side story to the Devil’s West trilogy, set in a fantasy alternate Wild West where demons and magicians coexist uneasily with natives and settlers. In that trilogy, Isobel was the main character, a young woman growing into her powers and responsibilities. The author’s notes say that she realized that Gabriel had a lot of unresolved trauma that he needed to work through, so spun him off here where he doesn’t take focus off Isobel and can be his own protagonist.
After going off to ask for release from his obligation from the river called Mudwater, Gabriel finds himself in the middle of nowhere some time (days? weeks?} later, with no memory of what passed in between. Rather than retrace his steps to Red Stick and Isobel, he and his horse Steady travel into the high desert country.
As he wanders, Gabriel encounters signs and wonders, most of which he understandably views with suspicion. Even friendlier spirits have a dangerous air to them in the Territory.
Eventually, Gabriel is brought to the village of Rabbit Mound, a peaceful community blessed with water in the desert. The local bandits sure would like to own that water, and are trying to find a way to steal the town. (It’s not quite as simple as just shooting enough people and cowing the rest, due to a vague magical contract known as the Devil’s Agreement.) The villagers may be peaceful, but they are willing to resort to foul means to keep Gabriel in town to help them.
Can Gabriel save the village with minimal bloodshed? Does he even want to?
This is the sort of book that’s really meant more for fans of the original series than for newbies. A lot of the vocabulary is never adequately explained, and some important history is missing that presumably was told in the trilogy. But if you are the sort of reader that enjoys piecing together your own guesses about what’s going on there’s plenty of raw material to work with.
Gabriel’s a fairly interesting character, if stock in some ways; I’d probably be more attached if I’d read the other books. His journey is about healing, in both the physical and mental senses. He’s doing much better at the end than the beginning.
The other characters are so-so, another person from the main books turns up and has decent characterization, but this is very much Gabriel’s story.
Recommended to fans of the trilogy, and in a more general sense to fans of Weird West stories.
December 12, 2024
Gabriel finally gets a story about him. The space to deal with his own demons instead of assisting Isobel in help with hers. Pacing was great. I haven’t read many novellas, but I’m sure this will leave big shoes to fill. To be fair, I have now read every book for The Devil’s West except West Wind’s Fool (6 short stories).
Would highly recommend reading the 3 novels first. Although this wouldn’t be a bad way to dip your toes in (see if you like it), it also provides closure to a lot of Gabriel’s issues in the book, which, in turn, provided a lot of build up to this one’s climax. Furthermore, I think there’s something fascinating about the mystique of his issues that adds to Isobel’s story + their journeys together.
I can’t say enough about The Devil’s West except that I am constantly looking for its trade of magical realism when I pick up books.
Only real issue was at page 123, some weird hyphen typos started occurring periodically. It was very distracting.
Would highly recommend reading the 3 novels first. Although this wouldn’t be a bad way to dip your toes in (see if you like it), it also provides closure to a lot of Gabriel’s issues in the book, which, in turn, provided a lot of build up to this one’s climax. Furthermore, I think there’s something fascinating about the mystique of his issues that adds to Isobel’s story + their journeys together.
I can’t say enough about The Devil’s West except that I am constantly looking for its trade of magical realism when I pick up books.
Only real issue was at page 123, some weird hyphen typos started occurring periodically. It was very distracting.
May 8, 2019
Very nice to finally get Gabriel's POV in the Devil's West. As Gilman comments in her afterword, he's a lot more messed up than he usually manages to seem, and here he may finally have found some measure of peace. His journey isn't done, but he might be a bit easier about it from here on out (and I rather hope that Gilman writes a sequel to this).
It would have been 5 stars, but there are a surprising number of odd typos here. Very odd for a major publisher. There was an entire page with a bunch of extraneous dashes in front of words. In a few places, they might have been pointers for where italics should have been, but that didn't fit for all of them. Nothing bad enough to detract from the story, but, well, just a surprising amount for something not self-published. Hopefully there will be a corrected edition in the near future.
It would have been 5 stars, but there are a surprising number of odd typos here. Very odd for a major publisher. There was an entire page with a bunch of extraneous dashes in front of words. In a few places, they might have been pointers for where italics should have been, but that didn't fit for all of them. Nothing bad enough to detract from the story, but, well, just a surprising amount for something not self-published. Hopefully there will be a corrected edition in the near future.
November 3, 2019
At its core, this story is about Gabriel figuring out how to live with who he is. But that’s only the A plot for so long, and never succumbs to the self-indulgence that usually characterizes such stories. By the end, if this isn’t the last story in this series, it at least hints at how it’ll all work out at a high level.
May 4, 2019
Read this last night (thanks, BTW, for the lack of sleep). Wow! Loved it!! As I have said often before, you are one of the best at worldbuilding. What great characters, even the horses. And the snakes.
Read
September 23, 2019I really enjoyed reading this book. It was nice to learn about what happened to Gabriel after his mentoring of Isobell. The writing is seductive and entrancing. One never knew what would happen next.
March 31, 2023
A good continuation of the series, at least a short bit of Gabriel, and what happened to him. I did love the difference between one who had ridden with the Devil's Hand and who was sensitive to water compared to those settlers just trying to get by.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 13, 2019
Fills in a lot of blanks
This is a very good story. It explains necessary background for Gabriel and carries the series story forward a bit
This is a very good story. It explains necessary background for Gabriel and carries the series story forward a bit
June 16, 2019
Gabriel’s healing
I really love these books — I hope there are more! Last we saw Gabriel, the river called him away from Izzy. This follows what happens next...
I really love these books — I hope there are more! Last we saw Gabriel, the river called him away from Izzy. This follows what happens next...
October 14, 2019
Oh Gabriel.
March 9, 2020
The e-book has a lot of grammatical issues that take away from the experience. Gabriel’s story is compelling though.
May 25, 2020
I can’t get enough of this world, and I’m glad we got to see, at least in part, where Gabriel ended up. One of my favorite characters!
October 27, 2021
This novella explores more of Gabriel's story and is a welcome addition to the Devil's West series.
February 21, 2022
Answers some questions left hanging in the previous book.
June 6, 2022
A short story of how Gabriel can't deal with all the trauma being near the Mississippi and run away to save his mind.
January 30, 2023
What's next?
Interesting off shoot from the series. Hope there is more to come. What's gonna happen next? Love this world and it's magics.
Interesting off shoot from the series. Hope there is more to come. What's gonna happen next? Love this world and it's magics.
August 27, 2023
Desperately needed follow up to Red Waters Rising, and I still think we need more. Wish we could get a proper epilogue.
January 17, 2025
as other reviewers said, this was the needed conclusion for the devil’s west series. i’m not wholly satisfied but it is an ending.
Displaying 1 - 22 of 22 reviews