The Silent Land has a lot in common with a hangout comedy or a "trapped in a bottle" episode of a sitcom. There are only two characters who riff off of each other in one setting for the entirety of the novel. The relatively short novel consists of hanging out with Graham Joyce's descriptions of an idyllic ski resort and his seemingly doomed characters. For me, this was awesome. I enjoy Joyce's straightforward style and prose; just listening to his characters chatter about their situation was riveting to me.

The Silent Land is the type of book that sets up one big mystery and doesn't resolve it until the very end. This can be an unsatisfying type of novel especially if the ending doesn't deliver. But like so many of those types of stories, the journey ends up mattering more than the resolution.

Sidebar: Joyce seems to be largely unknown in the United States (I was delighted to find many of his UK editions in Powell's Books in Portland) which is a shame. He writes light, supernatural fantasy much in the same vein as Neil Gaiman and Charles De Lint.