I do hope everyone had a chance to register for the 2018
JCPLA Staff Development Day scheduled for Friday, August 24th at the Homewood
Library! The programs look wonderful, Librarian and Paralibrarian of the Year
awards will be given out, AND I’ve heard that the lunchtime prizes are great!
The next RART meeting will be on Wednesday, October 10 at
9am at the Springville Road Library and the topic up for discussion will be
fiction from an animal’s point of view. We were originally scheduled to be at
Pinson in October, but they’ll be moving in to their new digs at that time so we’ll
visit them in December instead.
It’s voting time of year and I am pleased and proud to serve
another year as moderator of the Reader’s Advisory Roundtable. J I’m currently setting
up our venues for 2019, so I’ll send out a list of topics and locations for
next year as soon as I have them scheduled.
This month, we discussed recently published western novels,
straying a bit into settler fiction along the way.
Die by the Gun by William W. Johnstone
"Dewey 'Mac' McKenzie is wanted for a killing he didn't
commit. He saved his hide once by signing on as a cattle drive chuckwagon cook
and bolting the territories. Turned out Mac was as good at fixing vittles as he
was at dodging bullets. But Mac's enemies are hungry for more, and they've
hired a gang of ruthless killers to turn up the heat. Mac's only hope is to
join another cattle drive on the Goodnight-Loving Trail, deep in New Mexico
Territory. The journey ahead is even deadlier than the hired guns behind him.
His trail boss is an ornery cuss. His crew mate is the owner's spoiled son. And
the route is overrun with kill-crazy rustlers and bloodthirsty Comanche. Worse,
Mac's would-be killers are closing in fast. But when the cattle owner's son is
kidnapped, the courageous young cook has no choice but to jump out of the
frying pan, and into the fire"
Samuel, Springville Road Library
Dead and Buried by Tim Bryant
Wilkie John Liquorish may be a young man, but he’s no
greenhorn. So far in his short, hard life, he’s dug graves, driven cattle, and
nearly dangled from the end of a hangman’s noose—no thanks to his ungentlemanly
enemy, Gentleman Jack Delaney. Now Wilkie’s been newly deputized as a Texas
Ranger—and the real fun begins . . .
At Fort Concho, Wilkie John receives word that a bounty hunter is tracking the notorious outlaw known as Phantom Bill. Wilkie John has every reason to join the party: duty, honor, redemption, maybe even fortune and fame. But he has one reason to be wary: the bounty hunter is Gentleman Jack. He tried to kill Wilkie John once. This time, he might succeed . . .
At Fort Concho, Wilkie John receives word that a bounty hunter is tracking the notorious outlaw known as Phantom Bill. Wilkie John has every reason to join the party: duty, honor, redemption, maybe even fortune and fame. But he has one reason to be wary: the bounty hunter is Gentleman Jack. He tried to kill Wilkie John once. This time, he might succeed . . .
Samuel, Springville Road Library
Savage Country by Robert Olmstead
“The year was 1873 and all about was the evidence of boom
and bust, shattered dreams, foolish ambition, depredation, shame, greed, and
cruelty . . .”
Onto this broken Western stage rides Michael Coughlin, a Civil War veteran with an enigmatic past, come to town to settle his dead brother’s debt. Together with his widowed sister-in-law, Elizabeth, bankrupted by her husband’s folly and death, they embark on a massive, and hugely dangerous, buffalo hunt. Elizabeth hopes to salvage something of her former life and the lives of the hired men and their families who now depend on her; the buffalo hunt that her husband had planned, she now realizes, was his last hope for saving the land.
Elizabeth and Michael plunge south across the aptly named “dead line” demarcating Indian Territory from their home state of Kansas. Nothing could have prepared them for the dangers: rattlesnakes, rabies, wildfire, lightning strikes, blue northers, flash floods—and human treachery. With the Comanche in winter quarters, Elizabeth and Michael are on borrowed time, and the cruel work of harvesting the buffalo is unraveling their souls.
Bracing, direct, and quintessentially American, Olmstead’s gripping narrative follows that infamous hunt, which drove the buffalo to near extinction. Savage Country is the story of a moment in our history in which mass destruction of an animal population was seen as a road to economic salvation. But it’s also the intimate story of how that hunt changed Michael and Elizabeth forever.
Onto this broken Western stage rides Michael Coughlin, a Civil War veteran with an enigmatic past, come to town to settle his dead brother’s debt. Together with his widowed sister-in-law, Elizabeth, bankrupted by her husband’s folly and death, they embark on a massive, and hugely dangerous, buffalo hunt. Elizabeth hopes to salvage something of her former life and the lives of the hired men and their families who now depend on her; the buffalo hunt that her husband had planned, she now realizes, was his last hope for saving the land.
Elizabeth and Michael plunge south across the aptly named “dead line” demarcating Indian Territory from their home state of Kansas. Nothing could have prepared them for the dangers: rattlesnakes, rabies, wildfire, lightning strikes, blue northers, flash floods—and human treachery. With the Comanche in winter quarters, Elizabeth and Michael are on borrowed time, and the cruel work of harvesting the buffalo is unraveling their souls.
Bracing, direct, and quintessentially American, Olmstead’s gripping narrative follows that infamous hunt, which drove the buffalo to near extinction. Savage Country is the story of a moment in our history in which mass destruction of an animal population was seen as a road to economic salvation. But it’s also the intimate story of how that hunt changed Michael and Elizabeth forever.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal Library
Caroline: Little House, Revisited by Sarah Miller
In this novel authorized by Little House Heritage Trust,
Sarah Miller vividly recreates the beauty, hardship, and joys of the frontier
in a dazzling work of historical fiction, a captivating story that
illuminates one courageous, resilient, and loving pioneer woman as never
before--Caroline Ingalls, "Ma" in Laura Ingalls Wilder's beloved Little House books.
In the frigid days of February, 1870, Caroline Ingalls and her family leave the familiar comforts of the Big Woods of Wisconsin and the warm bosom of her family, for a new life in Kansas Indian Territory. Packing what they can carry in their wagon, Caroline, her husband Charles, and their little girls, Mary and Laura, head west to settle in a beautiful, unpredictable land full of promise and peril.
The pioneer life is a hard one, especially for a pregnant woman with no friends or kin to turn to for comfort or help. The burden of work must be shouldered alone, sickness tended without the aid of doctors, and babies birthed without the accustomed hands of mothers or sisters. But Caroline's new world is also full of tender joys. In adapting to this strange new place and transforming a rough log house built by Charles' hands into a home, Caroline must draw on untapped wells of strength she does not know she possesses.
For more than eighty years, generations of readers have been enchanted by the adventures of the American frontier's most famous child, Laura Ingalls Wilder, in the Little House books. Now, that familiar story is retold in this captivating tale of family, fidelity, hardship, love, and survival that vividly reimagines our past.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal Library
At the Edge of the Orchard by Tracy Chevalier
1838: James and Sadie Goodenough have settled where their
wagon got stuck – in the muddy, stagnant swamps of northwest Ohio. They and
their five children work relentlessly to tame their patch of land, buying
saplings from a local tree man known as John Appleseed so they can cultivate
the fifty apple trees required to stake their claim on the property. But the
orchard they plant sows the seeds of a long battle. James loves the apples,
reminders of an easier life back in Connecticut; while Sadie prefers the
applejack they make, an alcoholic refuge from brutal frontier life.
1853: Their youngest child Robert is wandering through Gold Rush California. Restless and haunted by the broken family he left behind, he has made his way alone across the country. In the redwood and giant sequoia groves he finds some solace, collecting seeds for a naturalist who sells plants from the new world to the gardeners of England. But you can run only so far, even in America, and when Robert’s past makes an unexpected appearance he must decide whether to strike out again or stake his own claim to a home at last.
Chevalier tells a fierce, beautifully crafted story in At the Edge of the Orchard, her most graceful and richly imagined work yet.
1853: Their youngest child Robert is wandering through Gold Rush California. Restless and haunted by the broken family he left behind, he has made his way alone across the country. In the redwood and giant sequoia groves he finds some solace, collecting seeds for a naturalist who sells plants from the new world to the gardeners of England. But you can run only so far, even in America, and when Robert’s past makes an unexpected appearance he must decide whether to strike out again or stake his own claim to a home at last.
Chevalier tells a fierce, beautifully crafted story in At the Edge of the Orchard, her most graceful and richly imagined work yet.
Michelle, Irondale Library
El Paso by Winston Groom
Long fascinated with the Mexican Revolution and the vicious
border wars of the early twentieth century, Winston Groom brings to life a
much-forgotten period of history in this sprawling saga of heroism, injustice,
and love. El Paso pits the legendary Pancho Villa against a
thrill-seeking railroad tycoon known only as the Colonel―whose fading fortune
is tied up in a colossal ranch in Chihuahua, Mexico. But when Villa kidnaps the
Colonel’s grandchildren and absconds into the Sierra Madre, the aging New
England patriarch and his son head to El Paso, hoping to find a group of
cowboys brave enough to hunt down the Generalissimo. Replete with gunfights,
daring escapes, and an unforgettable bullfight, El Paso becomes an
indelible portrait of the American Southwest in the waning days of the
frontier, one that is “sure to entertain” (Jackson Clarion-Ledger).
Michelle, Irondale Library
Girl Waits with Gun by Amy Stewart
Constance Kopp doesn’t quite fit the mold. She towers over
most men, has no interest in marriage or domestic affairs, and has been
isolated from the world since a family secret sent her and her sisters into
hiding fifteen years ago. One day a belligerent and powerful silk factory owner
runs down their buggy, and a dispute over damages turns into a war of bricks,
bullets, and threats as he unleashes his gang on their family farm. When the
sheriff enlists her help in convicting the men, Constance is forced to confront
her past and defend her family — and she does it in a way that few women of
1914 would have dared.
Michelle, Irondale Library
Doc by Mary Doria Russell
Born to the life of a Southern gentleman, Dr. John Henry
Holliday arrives on the Texas frontier hoping that the dry air and sunshine of
the West will restore him to health. Soon, with few job prospects, Doc Holliday
is gambling professionally with his partner, Mária Katarina Harony, a
high-strung, classically educated Hungarian whore. In search of high-stakes
poker, the couple hits the saloons of Dodge City. And that is where the
unlikely friendship of Doc Holliday and a fearless lawman named Wyatt Earp begins—
before the gunfight at the O.K. Corral links their names forever in American
frontier mythology—when neither man wanted fame or deserved notoriety.
Mary Anne, BPL Southern History Dept
Epitaph by Mary Doria Russell
Mary Doria Russell, the bestselling, award-winning author
of The Sparrow, returns with Epitaph. An American Iliad, this
richly detailed and meticulously researched historical novel continues the
story she began in Doc, following Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday to
Tombstone, Arizona, and to the gunfight at the O.K. Corral.
A deeply divided nation. Vicious politics. A shamelessly
partisan media. A president loathed by half the populace. Smuggling and gang
warfare along the Mexican border. Armed citizens willing to stand their ground
and take law into their own hands. . . .
That was America in 1881.
All those forces came to bear on the afternoon of October 26
when Doc Holliday and the Earp brothers faced off against the Clantons and the
McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona. It should have been a simple misdemeanor
arrest. Thirty seconds and thirty bullets later, three officers were wounded
and three citizens lay dead in the dirt.
Wyatt Earp was the last man standing, the only one
unscathed. The lies began before the smoke cleared, but the gunfight at the
O.K. Corral would soon become central to American beliefs about the Old West.
Epitaph tells Wyatt’s real story, unearthing the
Homeric tragedy buried under 130 years of mythology, misrepresentation, and
sheer indifference to fact. Epic and intimate, this novel gives voice to the
real men and women whose lives were changed forever by those fatal thirty
seconds in Tombstone. At its heart is the woman behind the myth: Josephine
Sarah Marcus, who loved Wyatt Earp for forty-nine years and who carefully
chipped away at the truth until she had crafted the heroic legend that would
become the epitaph her husband deserved.
Mary Anne, BPL Southern History Dept
The Sisters Brothers by Patrick Dewitt
Hermann Kermit Warm is going to die. The enigmatic and
powerful man known only as the Commodore has ordered it, and his henchmen, Eli
and Charlie Sisters, will make sure of it. Though Eli doesn’t share his
brother’s appetite for whiskey and killing, he’s never known anything else. But
their prey isn’t an easy mark, and on the road from Oregon City to Warm’s
gold-mining claim outside Sacramento, Eli begins to question what he does for a
living-and whom he does it for.
With The Sisters Brothers, Patrick deWitt pays
homage to the classic Western, transforming it into an unforgettable comic tour
de force. Filled with a remarkable cast of characters-losers, cheaters, and
ne’er-do-wells from all stripes of life-and told by a complex and compelling
narrator, it is a violent, lustful odyssey through the underworld of the 1850s
frontier that beautifully captures the humor, melancholy, and grit of the Old
West and two brothers bound by blood, violence, and love.
Maura, Trussville Library
The Round House by Louise Erdrich
One of the most revered novelists of our time—a brilliant
chronicler of Native-American life—Louise Erdrich returns to the territory of
her bestselling, Pulitzer Prize finalist The Plague of Doves with The
Round House, transporting readers to the Ojibwe reservation in North Dakota. It
is an exquisitely told story of a boy on the cusp of manhood who seeks justice
and understanding in the wake of a terrible crime that upends and forever
transforms his family.
Riveting and suspenseful, arguably the most accessible novel
to date from the creator of Love Medicine, The Beet Queen, and The Bingo Palace, Erdrich’s The Round House is a page-turning masterpiece
of literary fiction—at once a powerful coming-of-age story, a mystery, and a
tender, moving novel of family, history, and culture.
Maura, Trussville Library
The Son by Philipp Meyer
Part epic of Texas, part classic coming-of-age story, part
unflinching examination of the bloody price of power, The Son is a gripping and
utterly transporting novel that maps the legacy of violence in the American
west with rare emotional acuity, even as it presents an intimate portrait of
one family across two centuries.
Eli McCullough is just twelve-years-old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead and brutally murder his mother and sister, taking him as a captive. Despite their torture and cruelty, Eli--against all odds--adapts to life with the Comanche, learning their ways, their language, taking on a new name, finding a place as the adopted son of the chief of the band, and fighting their wars against not only other Indians, but white men, too-complicating his sense of loyalty, his promised vengeance, and his very understanding of self. But when disease, starvation, and westward expansion finally decimate the Comanche, Eli is left alone in a world in which he belongs nowhere, neither white nor Indian, civilized or fully wild.
Deftly interweaving Eli’s story with those of his son, Peter, and his great-granddaughter, JA, The Son deftly explores the legacy of Eli’s ruthlessness, his drive to power, and his life-long status as an outsider, even as the McCullough family rises to become one of the richest in Texas, a ranching-and-oil dynasty of unsurpassed wealth and privilege.
Harrowing, panoramic, and deeply evocative, The Son is a fully realized masterwork in the greatest tradition of the American canon-an unforgettable novel that combines the narrative prowess of Larry McMurtry with the knife edge sharpness of Cormac McCarthy.
Eli McCullough is just twelve-years-old when a marauding band of Comanche storm his Texas homestead and brutally murder his mother and sister, taking him as a captive. Despite their torture and cruelty, Eli--against all odds--adapts to life with the Comanche, learning their ways, their language, taking on a new name, finding a place as the adopted son of the chief of the band, and fighting their wars against not only other Indians, but white men, too-complicating his sense of loyalty, his promised vengeance, and his very understanding of self. But when disease, starvation, and westward expansion finally decimate the Comanche, Eli is left alone in a world in which he belongs nowhere, neither white nor Indian, civilized or fully wild.
Deftly interweaving Eli’s story with those of his son, Peter, and his great-granddaughter, JA, The Son deftly explores the legacy of Eli’s ruthlessness, his drive to power, and his life-long status as an outsider, even as the McCullough family rises to become one of the richest in Texas, a ranching-and-oil dynasty of unsurpassed wealth and privilege.
Harrowing, panoramic, and deeply evocative, The Son is a fully realized masterwork in the greatest tradition of the American canon-an unforgettable novel that combines the narrative prowess of Larry McMurtry with the knife edge sharpness of Cormac McCarthy.
Maura, Trussville Library
Paradise Sky by Joe R. Lansdale
Young Willie is on the run, having fled his small Texas farm
when an infamous local landowner murdered his father. A man named Loving takes
him in and trains him in the fine arts of shooting, riding, reading, and
gardening. When Loving dies, Willie re-christens himself Nat Love in tribute to
his mentor, and heads west.
In Deadwood, South Dakota Territory, Nat becomes a Buffalo
Soldier and is befriended by Wild Bill Hickok. After winning a famous shooting
match, Nat's peerless marksmanship and charm earn him the nickname Deadwood
Dick, as well as a beautiful woman. But the hellhounds are still on his trail,
and they brutally attack Nat Love's love. Pursuing the men who have driven his
wife mad, Nat heads south for a final, deadly showdown against those who would
strip him of his home, his love, his freedom, and his life.
Holley, Emmet O’Neal Library
GENERAL DISCUSSION
Centennial by James Michener
Written to commemorate the Bicentennial in 1976, James A.
Michener’s magnificent saga of the West is an enthralling celebration of
the frontier. Brimming with the glory of America’s past, the story of
Colorado—the Centennial State—is manifested through its people: Lame Beaver,
the Arapaho chieftain and warrior, and his Comanche and Pawnee enemies; Levi
Zendt, fleeing with his child bride from the Amish country; the cowboy, Jim
Lloyd, who falls in love with a wealthy and cultured Englishwoman, Charlotte
Seccombe. In Centennial, trappers, traders, homesteaders, gold
seekers, ranchers, and hunters are brought together in the dramatic conflicts
that shape the destiny of the legendary West—and the entire country.
One of our members found a curated list on NoveList titled, “The
Weird Wild West:”
Karen Memory by Elizabeth Bear
"You ain't gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm
gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt
with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity
Street. 'Hôtel' has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice
tells me."
Set in the late nineteenth century-in a city a lot like what
we now call Seattle Underground-when airships plied the trade routes, would-be
gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered
mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, is
making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable's
high-quality bordello. Through Karen's eyes we get to know the other girls in
the house-a resourceful group-and the poor and the powerful of the town.
Trouble erupts one night when a badly injured girl arrives
at their door, begging sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture,
and who has a machine that can take over anyone's mind and control their
actions. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped
in their rubbish heap-a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered.
Hard on the heels of that horrifying discovery comes a
lawman who has been chasing this killer for months. Marshal Bass Reeves is
closing in on his man, and he's not about to reject any help he can get, even
if it comes from girl who works in the Hôtel Mon Cheri.
Elizabeth Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper yarn of the
Old Steampunk West with a light touch in Karen's own memorable voice, and a
mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science in Karen Memory.
The Queen of Swords by R.S. Belcher
1720. Escaping the gallows, Anne Bonney, the infamous
pirate queen, sets sail in search of a fabulous treasure said to be hiding in a
lost city of bones somewhere in the heart of Africa. But what she finds is a
destiny she never expected . . . .
1870. Maude Stapleton is a respectable widow raising a
daughter on her own. Few know, however, that Maude belongs to an ancient order
of assassins, the Daughters of Lilith, and heir to the legacy of Anne Bonney,
whose swashbuckling exploits blazed a trail that Maude must now follow―if she
ever wants to see her kidnapped daughter again!
Searching for her missing child, come hell or high water,
Maude finds herself caught in the middle of a secret war between the Daughters
of Lilith and their ancestral enemies, the monstrous Sons of Typhon, inhuman
creatures spawned by primordial darkness, she embarks on a perilous voyage that
will ultimately lead her to the long-lost secret of Anne Bonney―and the Father
of All Monsters.
One of the most popular characters from The Six-Gun Tarot and The Shotgun Arcana now ventures beyond the Weird West on a boldly imaginative,
globe-spanning adventure of her own!
Dark Alchemy by Laura Bickle
Some secrets are better left buried …
Geologist Petra Dee arrives in Wyoming seeking clues to her
father's disappearance years ago. What she finds instead is Temperance, a dying
western town with a gold rush past and a meth-infested present. But under the dust
and quiet, an old power is shifting. When bodies start turning up—desiccated
and twisted skeletons that Petra can't scientifically explain—her
investigations land her in the middle of a covert war between the town's most
powerful interests. Petra's father wasn't the only one searching for the
alchemical secrets of Temperance, and those still looking are now ready to
kill.
Armed with nothing but shaky alliances, a pair of antique guns, and a
relic she doesn't understand, the only thing Petra knows for sure is that she
and her coyote sidekick are going to have to move fast—or die next.
Nine of Stars by Laura Bickle
From critically acclaimed author Laura Bickle (Dark Alchemy) comes
the first novel in the Wildlands series. Longmire meets
Patricia Briggs' Mercy Thompson in this exciting new series that shows how
weird and wonderful the West can truly be.
Winter has always been a deadly season in Temperance, but
this time, there’s more to fear than just the cold…
As the daughter of an alchemist, Petra Dee has faced all
manner of occult horrors – especially since her arrival in the small town of
Temperance, Wyoming. But she can’t explain the creature now stalking the
backcountry of Yellowstone, butchering wolves and leaving only their skins
behind in the snow. Rumors surface of the return of Skinflint Jack, a
nineteenth-century wraith that kills in fulfillment of an ancient bargain.
The new sheriff in town, Owen Rutherford, isn’t helping
matters. He’s a dangerously haunted man on the trail of both an unsolved case
and a fresh kill - a bizarre murder leading him right to Petra’s partner
Gabriel. And while Gabe once had little to fear from the mortal world, he’s all
too human now. This time, when violence hits close to home, there are no
magical solutions.
It’s up to Petra and her coyote sidekick Sig to get ahead of
both Owen and the unnatural being hunting them all – before the trail turns
deathly cold.
Wake of Vultures by Lila Bowen
Nettie Lonesome dreams of a greater life than toiling as a
slave in the sandy desert. But when a stranger attacks her, Nettie wins more
than the fight.
Now she's got friends, a good horse, and a better gun. But
if she can't kill the thing haunting her nightmares and stealing children
across the prairie, she'll lose it all -- and never find out what happened to
her real family.
Wake of Vultures is the first novel of the Shadow
series featuring the fearless Nettie Lonesome.
Conspiracy of Ravens by Lila Bowen
The sequel to Wake of Vultures and second novel in
Lila Bowen's widely acclaimed Shadow series.
Nettie Lonesome made a leap -- not knowing what she'd
become. But now her destiny as the Shadow is calling.
A powerful alchemist is leaving a trail of dead across the
prairie. And Nettie must face the ultimate challenge: side with her friends and
the badge on her chest or take off alone on a dangerous mission that is pulling
her inexorably toward the fight of her life.
When it comes to monsters and men, the world isn't black and
white. What good are two wings and a gun when your enemy can command a
conspiracy of ravens?
Sea of Rust by C. Robert Cargill
A scavenger robot wanders in the wasteland created by a war
that has destroyed humanity in this evocative post-apocalyptic "robot
western" from the critically acclaimed author, screenwriter, and noted
film critic.
It’s been thirty years since the apocalypse and fifteen
years since the murder of the last human being at the hands of robots.
Humankind is extinct. Every man, woman, and child has been liquidated by a
global uprising devised by the very machines humans designed and built to serve
them. Most of the world is controlled by an OWI—One World Intelligence—the
shared consciousness of millions of robots, uploaded into one huge mainframe
brain. But not all robots are willing to cede their individuality—their personality—for
the sake of a greater, stronger, higher power. These intrepid resisters are
outcasts; solo machines wandering among various underground outposts who have
formed into an unruly civilization of rogue AIs in the wasteland that was once
our world.
One of these resisters is Brittle, a scavenger robot trying
to keep a deteriorating mind and body functional in a world that has lost all
meaning. Although unable to experience emotions like a human, Brittle is
haunted by the terrible crimes the robot population perpetrated on humanity. As
Brittle roams the Sea of Rust, a large swath of territory that was once the
Midwest, the loner robot slowly comes to terms with horrifyingly raw and vivid
memories—and nearly unbearable guilt.
Sea of Rust is both a harsh story of survival and an
optimistic adventure. A vividly imagined portrayal of ultimate destruction and
desperate tenacity, it boldly imagines a future in which no hope remains, yet
where a human-like AI strives to find purpose among the ruins.
Devil’s Call by J. Danielle Dorn
On a dark night in the summer of 1859, three men enter the
home of Dr. Matthew Callahan and shoot him dead in front of his pregnant wife.
Unbeknownst to them, Li Lian, his wife, hails from a long line of women gifted
in ways that scare most folks―the witches of the MacPherson clan―and her need
for vengeance is as vast and unforgiving as the Great Plains themselves.
Written to the child she carries, Devil’s Call traces Li Lian’s quest, from the Nebraska Territory, to Louisiana, to the frozen Badlands, to bring to justice the monster responsible for shooting her husband in the back. This long-rifled witch will stop at nothing―and risk everything―in her showdown with evil.
Written to the child she carries, Devil’s Call traces Li Lian’s quest, from the Nebraska Territory, to Louisiana, to the frozen Badlands, to bring to justice the monster responsible for shooting her husband in the back. This long-rifled witch will stop at nothing―and risk everything―in her showdown with evil.
Dr. Potter’s Medicine Show by Eric Scott Fischl
The year is 1878. Dr Alexander Potter, disgraced Civil War
surgeon, now snake-oil salesman, travels the Pacific Northwest with a
disheartened company of strongmen, fortune-tellers, and musical whores. Under
their mysterious and murderous leader they entertain the masses while hawking
the Chock-a-saw Sagwa Tonic, a vital elixir touted to cure all ills both
physical and spiritual. For a few unfortunate customers, however, the Sagwa
offers something much, much worse.
For drunken dentist Josiah McDaniel, the Sagwa has taken everything from him; in the hired company of two accidental outlaws, the bickering brothers Solomon Parker and Agamemnon Rideout, he looks to revenge himself on the Elixir’s creator: Dr. Morrison Hedwith, businessman, body-thief, and secret alchemist, a man who is running out of time.
For drunken dentist Josiah McDaniel, the Sagwa has taken everything from him; in the hired company of two accidental outlaws, the bickering brothers Solomon Parker and Agamemnon Rideout, he looks to revenge himself on the Elixir’s creator: Dr. Morrison Hedwith, businessman, body-thief, and secret alchemist, a man who is running out of time.
River of Teeth by Sarah Gailey
In the early 20th Century, the United States government
concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to
be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true.
Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are
fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two.
This was a terrible plan.
Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might
have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from
around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is
the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.
Silver on the Road by Laura Anne Gilman
Isobel, upon her sixteenth birthday, makes the choice to
work for the Boss called the Devil by some, in his territory west of the
Mississippi. But this is not the devil you know. This is a being who deals
fairly with immense—but not unlimited—power, who offers opportunities to people
who want to make a deal, and they always get what they deserve. But his land is
a wild west that needs a human touch, and that’s where Izzy comes in.
Inadvertently trained by him to see the clues in and manipulations of human
desire, Izzy is raised to be his left hand and travel circuit through the
territory helping those in need. As we all know, where there is magic there is
chaos…and death.
Hell’s Bounty by Joe R. Lansdale
If the Western town of Falling Rock isn’t dangerous enough
due to drunks, fast guns and greedy miners, it gets a real dose of ugly when a
soulless, dynamite-loving bounty hunter named Smith rides into town
to bring back a bounty, dead or alive—preferably dead. In the process,
Smith sets off an explosive chain of events that send him straight to the
waiting room in Hell where he is offered a one-time chance to absolve
himself.
Satan, a bartender also known as Snappy, wants Smith to hurry back to earth and put a very bad hombre out of commission. Someone Smith has already met in the town of Falling Rock. A fellow named Quill, who has, since Smith’s departure, sold his soul to The Old Ones, and has been possessed by a nasty, scaly, winged demon with a cigar habit and a bad attitude. Quill wants to bring about the destruction of the world, not to mention the known universe, and hand it all over: moon, stars, black spaces, cosmic dust, as well as all of humanity, to the nasty Lovecraftian deities that wait on the other side of the veil. It’s a bargain made in worse places than Hell.
Even Satan can’t stand for that kind of dark business. The demon that has possessed Quill, a former co-worker of Satan, has gone way too far, and there has to be a serious correction.
And though Smith isn’t so sure humanity is that big of a loss, the alternative of him cooking eternally while being skewered on a meat hook isn’t particularly appealing. Smith straps on a gift from Snappy, a holstered Colt pistol loaded with endless silver ammunition, and riding a near-magical horse named Shadow, carrying an amazing deck of cards that can summon up some of the greatest gunfighters and killers the west has ever known, he rides up from Hell, and back into Falling Rock, a town that can be entered, but can’t be left.
It’s a opportunity not only for Smith to experience action and adventure and deal with the living dead and all manner of demonic curses and terrible prophecies, it’s a shot at love with a beautiful, one-eyed, redheaded-darling with a whip, a woman named Payday. But it’s an even bigger shot at redemption.
Saddle up, partner. It’s time to ride into an old fashioned pulp and horror adventure full of gnashing teeth, exploding dynamite, pistol fire, and a few late night kisses.
Satan, a bartender also known as Snappy, wants Smith to hurry back to earth and put a very bad hombre out of commission. Someone Smith has already met in the town of Falling Rock. A fellow named Quill, who has, since Smith’s departure, sold his soul to The Old Ones, and has been possessed by a nasty, scaly, winged demon with a cigar habit and a bad attitude. Quill wants to bring about the destruction of the world, not to mention the known universe, and hand it all over: moon, stars, black spaces, cosmic dust, as well as all of humanity, to the nasty Lovecraftian deities that wait on the other side of the veil. It’s a bargain made in worse places than Hell.
Even Satan can’t stand for that kind of dark business. The demon that has possessed Quill, a former co-worker of Satan, has gone way too far, and there has to be a serious correction.
And though Smith isn’t so sure humanity is that big of a loss, the alternative of him cooking eternally while being skewered on a meat hook isn’t particularly appealing. Smith straps on a gift from Snappy, a holstered Colt pistol loaded with endless silver ammunition, and riding a near-magical horse named Shadow, carrying an amazing deck of cards that can summon up some of the greatest gunfighters and killers the west has ever known, he rides up from Hell, and back into Falling Rock, a town that can be entered, but can’t be left.
It’s a opportunity not only for Smith to experience action and adventure and deal with the living dead and all manner of demonic curses and terrible prophecies, it’s a shot at love with a beautiful, one-eyed, redheaded-darling with a whip, a woman named Payday. But it’s an even bigger shot at redemption.
Saddle up, partner. It’s time to ride into an old fashioned pulp and horror adventure full of gnashing teeth, exploding dynamite, pistol fire, and a few late night kisses.
The Thicket by Joe R. Lansdale
Jack Parker thought he'd already seen his fair share of
tragedy. His grandmother was killed in a farm accident when he was barely five
years old. His parents have just succumbed to the smallpox epidemic sweeping
turn-of-the-century East Texas--orphaning him and his younger sister, Lula.
Then catastrophe strikes on the way to their uncle's farm, when a traveling group of bank-robbing bandits murder Jack's grandfather and kidnap his sister. With no elders left for miles, Jack must grow up fast and enlist a band of heroes the likes of which has never been seen if his sister stands any chance at survival. But the best he can come up with is a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf named Shorty, a grave-digging son of an ex-slave named Eustace, and a street-smart woman-for-hire named Jimmie Sue who's come into some very intimate knowledge about the bandits (and a few members of Jack's extended family to boot).
In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. But as Jack's about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale lets loose like never before, in a rip-roaring adventure equal parts True Grit and Stand by Me--the perfect introduction to an acclaimed writer whose work has been called "as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm--or Mark Twain" (New York Times Book Review).
Then catastrophe strikes on the way to their uncle's farm, when a traveling group of bank-robbing bandits murder Jack's grandfather and kidnap his sister. With no elders left for miles, Jack must grow up fast and enlist a band of heroes the likes of which has never been seen if his sister stands any chance at survival. But the best he can come up with is a charismatic, bounty-hunting dwarf named Shorty, a grave-digging son of an ex-slave named Eustace, and a street-smart woman-for-hire named Jimmie Sue who's come into some very intimate knowledge about the bandits (and a few members of Jack's extended family to boot).
In the throes of being civilized, East Texas is still a wild, feral place. Oil wells spurt liquid money from the ground. But as Jack's about to find out, blood and redemption rule supreme. In The Thicket, award-winning novelist Joe R. Lansdale lets loose like never before, in a rip-roaring adventure equal parts True Grit and Stand by Me--the perfect introduction to an acclaimed writer whose work has been called "as funny and frightening as anything that could have been dreamed up by the Brothers Grimm--or Mark Twain" (New York Times Book Review).
Medicine for the Dead by Arianne Thompson
The story of Appaloosa Elim continues.
Two years ago, the crow-god Marhuk sent his grandson to Sixes.
Two nights ago, a stranger picked up his gun and shot him.
Two hours ago, the funeral party set out for the holy city of Atali'Krah, braving the wastelands to bring home the body of Dulei Marhuk.
Out in the wastes, one more corpse should hardly make a difference. But the blighted landscape has been ravaged by drought, twisted by violence, and warped by magic - and no-one is immune. Vuchak struggles to keep the party safe from monsters, marauders, and his own troubled mind. Weisei is being eaten alive by a strange illness. And fearful, guilt-wracked Elim hopes he's only imagining the sounds coming from Dulei's coffin.
As their supplies dwindle and tensions mount, the desert exacts a terrible price from its pilgrims - one that will be paid with the blood of the living, and the peace of the dead.
Two years ago, the crow-god Marhuk sent his grandson to Sixes.
Two nights ago, a stranger picked up his gun and shot him.
Two hours ago, the funeral party set out for the holy city of Atali'Krah, braving the wastelands to bring home the body of Dulei Marhuk.
Out in the wastes, one more corpse should hardly make a difference. But the blighted landscape has been ravaged by drought, twisted by violence, and warped by magic - and no-one is immune. Vuchak struggles to keep the party safe from monsters, marauders, and his own troubled mind. Weisei is being eaten alive by a strange illness. And fearful, guilt-wracked Elim hopes he's only imagining the sounds coming from Dulei's coffin.
As their supplies dwindle and tensions mount, the desert exacts a terrible price from its pilgrims - one that will be paid with the blood of the living, and the peace of the dead.
Six Gun Snow White by Catherynne M. Valente
Forget the dark, enchanted forest. Picture instead a
masterfully evoked Old West where you are more likely to find coyotes as the
seven dwarves. Insert into this scene a plain-spoken, appealing narrator who
relates the history of our heroine’s parents—a Nevada silver baron who forced
the Crow people to give up one of their most beautiful daughters, Gun That
Sings, in marriage to him. Although her mother’s life ended as hers began, so
begins a remarkable tale: equal parts heartbreak and strength. This girl has
been born into a world with no place for a half-native, half-white child. After
being hidden for years, a very wicked stepmother finally gifts her with the
name Snow White, referring to the pale skin she will never have. Filled with
fascinating glimpses through the fabled looking glass and a close-up look at
hard living in the gritty gun-slinging West, this is an utterly enchanting
story…at once familiar and entirely new.
Straight Outta Tombstone edited by David Boop
Top authors take on the classic western, with a weird twist.
Includes new stories by Larry Correia and Jim Butcher!
Come visit the Old West, the land where gang initiations, ride-by shootings and territory disputes got their start. But these tales aren’t the ones your grandpappy spun around a campfire, unless he spoke of soul-sucking ghosts, steam-powered demons and wayward aliens.
Here then are seventeen stories that breathe new life in the Old West. Among them: Larry Correia explores the roots of his best-selling Monster Hunter International series in "Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Killers." Jim Butcher reveals the origin of one of the Dresden Files' most popular characters in "Fistful of Warlock." And Kevin J. Anderson's Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., finds himself in a showdown in "High Midnight." Plus stories from Alan Dean Foster, Sarah A. Hoyt, Jody Lynn Nye, Michael A. Stackpole, and many more.
Come visit the Old West, the land where gang initiations, ride-by shootings and territory disputes got their start. But these tales aren’t the ones your grandpappy spun around a campfire, unless he spoke of soul-sucking ghosts, steam-powered demons and wayward aliens.
Here then are seventeen stories that breathe new life in the Old West. Among them: Larry Correia explores the roots of his best-selling Monster Hunter International series in "Bubba Shackleford’s Professional Monster Killers." Jim Butcher reveals the origin of one of the Dresden Files' most popular characters in "Fistful of Warlock." And Kevin J. Anderson's Dan Shamble, Zombie P.I., finds himself in a showdown in "High Midnight." Plus stories from Alan Dean Foster, Sarah A. Hoyt, Jody Lynn Nye, Michael A. Stackpole, and many more.
