Synopsis: “I’m gonna take that gold right from under them and disappear with what I have always deserved – the fortune we have always deserved…” It’s the turn of the 20th century and times are getting harder for aging gunslinger John Arthur and his adopted daughter Bethany ‘The Blade’ Mason. After reuniting with an old friend they […]
Western
Review: The Peregrine Estate trilogy by C.S. Humble
Review: When I first discovered C.S. Humble’s The Massacre at Yellow Hill, I was giddy. That book mixes a gritty western mythos with vampires, secret societies, and cosmic horror, but more importantly, it does what I come to story for: it gave me new people to love. Gilbert Ptolemy and his adopted son, Carson; Tabitha […]
Review: The Unkillable Frank Lightning by Josh Rountree
Synopsis: Catherine Coldbridge is a complicated woman: a doctor, an occultist, and briefly, a widow. In 1879, her husband, Private Frank Humble, was killed in a Sioux attack. Consumed by grief, Catherine used her formidable skills to resurrect her husband. But after the reanimation, Frank lost his soul, becoming a vicious undead monster. Unable to […]
Review: They of the West by Dani Finn
Synopsis: Dralen never could leave well enough alone. He knows better than to go near the canyons. That’s where the Logans live, wild men of the hills said to devour lone travelers in frenzied midnight feasts. But the mysterious cloaked figure he saw down by the canyons had to be there for a reason. And […]
Review: The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones
Synopsis: A diary, written in 1912 by a Lutheran pastor is discovered within a wall. What it unveils is a slow massacre, a chain of events that go back to 217 Blackfeet dead in the snow. Told in transcribed interviews by a Blackfeet named Good Stab, who shares the narrative of his peculiar life over […]
Review: Vampires of El Norte by Isabel Cañas
In short, Isabel Cañas’ Vampire of El Norte is everything you could possibly wish for in a Mexican gothic, with rich folklore, beautiful and atmospheric prose, complex characters, and a forbidden romance rooted in cultural and historical authenticity, to die for. Not to mention how incredibly it shows the “other side” of the Mexican-American war of the late 1840s, in ways you rarely see in mainstream media.
Review: His Ragged Company by Rance D. Denton (The Testimonies of Elias Faust #1)
His Ragged Company gives us the chance to splatter and swear our way through a kooky western with all the obscene violence of a Tarantino flick. Seriously, what’s not to like about that?
Review: Death Aesthetic by Josh Rountree
Synopsis: “This whole collection is obsessed with death.” Josh Rountree makes no bones about the mood in Death Aesthetic, his third collection of short fiction. Rountree explores the boundaries set by grief and guilt. He cracks open all manner of skeletons to peer inside the chest cavity, wondering what remains after everything else has left. He […]
Review: The Legend of Charlie Fish by Josh Rountree
Synopisis: As always, Floyd Betts rides into town alone. He arrives for his father’s funeral, but he is returning to Galveston, Texas, with two orphaned siblings he has rescued. Nellie, who is descended from a long line of witches, has visions from other people’s minds. Hank, her impulsive younger brother, just wants to break out […]
Review: The Light of a Black Star by C.S. Humble
Synopsis It is 1872. Annie Miller and the valiant members of the Peregrine Estate did all they could in Chicago to try and stop the Society of Prometheus from unleashing their terrible gods—The Nine—into our world. While they managed to save Carson Ptolemy from the occult society’s ritualistic sacrifice, they failed to stop the ritual […]
Review: The Woodcutters by Josh Hanson
Rarely have the Cosmic and the Western been so well matched… Synopsis A dark, dramatic story of the supernatural inspired by the Wagon Box Fight of 1867 in the Wyoming Territory. Lewis Tanner has run from his home in Tennessee and, after a series of crimes and misadventures, finds himself on a woodcutting crew at […]
Review: When the Night Bells Ring by Jo Kaplan
Summary In a future ravaged by fire and drought, two climate refugees ride their motorcycles across the wasteland of the western US, and stumble upon an old silver mine. Descending into the cool darkness of the caved-in tunnels in desperate search of water, the two women find Lavinia Cain’s diary, a settler in search of […]