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Silk and Silver
A heist goes wrong, somebody important gets stabbed, and crime in Silkshore loses its balance. As a gang war looms, two criminal crews maneuver through the haunted and corrupt city of Doskvol, using crime and diplomacy to survive and get paid. Based in the setting of John Harper's tabletop role playing game Blades in the Dark.
264 pages, Paperback
Published November 25, 2018
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 23, 2019
Not only does the story take you to Duskvol and entertain with a variety of Scoundres and Rogues, it also helps to understand how a heist can work in the game.
February 11, 2023
It’s a decent setting book for Doskvol, but the story is too hard to follow. The author cuts from scene to scene and features a sprawling cast who never seem to get more than a superficial treatment.
If you want to explore the city of Doskvol and pick up some immersive details for running the Blades in the Dark RPG, check it out. Otherwise, not much here as a heist book.
If you want to explore the city of Doskvol and pick up some immersive details for running the Blades in the Dark RPG, check it out. Otherwise, not much here as a heist book.
June 6, 2021
I picked this up because I wanted to learn about what living in Doskvol was like. To this end, the story fell short for me. The characters felt pulled along by the plot and lacked compelling motivations for their actions so I never felt like they were real people – like I could walk in their shoes to see what Doskvol was like from their eyes. I think the shallow characters might be linked to the writing style: it's light and no-frills, skipping quickly from scene-to-scene, and driving the plot forward but at the cost of not spending much time on the characters themselves. It reminded my of a cross between an RPG session and a TV show which I found to be a bit jarring.
Since I didn't care for the characters, I didn't care for the predicaments they were in. The drama seemed to center around "will this heist succeed?" which I didn't find very compelling. I would have appreciated more nuanced internal or interpersonal conflicts – it didn't feel like there were many hard decisions to be made. To be fair, maybe I missed them as I only finished about 60% of the book.
What I did appreciate from the book was the world building – I liked seeing the author's envisioning of the ghost field elements of world, the challenges of the Skovlanders, and tidbits like radiant gardening.
While reading, I also realized I'm not that excited by crime plots. If you are and you like plot-driven stories with a no-frills writing style, maybe you'll enjoy it more than me. I'm also curious how the later books are – perhaps they've achieved the better balance of characters I was looking for. If the books aren't intended to be read in order, I might suggest trying one of them first. If you're just looking to learn what living in Doskvol is like similar to me, the first episode of Peaky Blinders was very inspiring.
Since I didn't care for the characters, I didn't care for the predicaments they were in. The drama seemed to center around "will this heist succeed?" which I didn't find very compelling. I would have appreciated more nuanced internal or interpersonal conflicts – it didn't feel like there were many hard decisions to be made. To be fair, maybe I missed them as I only finished about 60% of the book.
What I did appreciate from the book was the world building – I liked seeing the author's envisioning of the ghost field elements of world, the challenges of the Skovlanders, and tidbits like radiant gardening.
While reading, I also realized I'm not that excited by crime plots. If you are and you like plot-driven stories with a no-frills writing style, maybe you'll enjoy it more than me. I'm also curious how the later books are – perhaps they've achieved the better balance of characters I was looking for. If the books aren't intended to be read in order, I might suggest trying one of them first. If you're just looking to learn what living in Doskvol is like similar to me, the first episode of Peaky Blinders was very inspiring.
March 18, 2026
Doskvol comes to life
The vivid immersion is a positive. The use of flashbacks was adeptly done, despite some of the word-smithing causing challenges here and there.
While the sweeping events are quite good, too many characters may have been heavily lifting for the author. If anything it gets 3-stars from execution, but much higher from ideas and plot.
If you love the fog, it is worth reading!
The vivid immersion is a positive. The use of flashbacks was adeptly done, despite some of the word-smithing causing challenges here and there.
While the sweeping events are quite good, too many characters may have been heavily lifting for the author. If anything it gets 3-stars from execution, but much higher from ideas and plot.
If you love the fog, it is worth reading!
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews