katymvt's review against another edition
3.0
I had never heard of the weird west before. I didn't even know this was a genre. Some of the stories I really liked. Some not so much.
The ones I really liked were: The Old Slow Man and His Gold Gun from Space, Second Hand, Strong Medicine, Red Dreams, Sundown, La Madre del Oro, and Dead Man's Hand.
The rest were largely forgettable or I just didn't like them.
The ones I really liked were: The Old Slow Man and His Gold Gun from Space, Second Hand, Strong Medicine, Red Dreams, Sundown, La Madre del Oro, and Dead Man's Hand.
The rest were largely forgettable or I just didn't like them.
poisonenvy's review against another edition
3.0
Average rating: 3.4
The Read-Headed Dead I will say off the hop that I did not enjoy this writing style. There were sentences that had way too any "ands" and if he referred to the vampire one more time as "the thing" I might have screamed. But the Reverend and his take on God were super interesting, and I'm tempted to pick up "Dead in the West" because of it. (3*)
The Old Slow Man and His Gold Gun from Space Repetitive, sometimes to great effect, more often to its detriment. The twist at the end was well done though. (3*)
Hellfire on the High Frontier Nothing like reading a story written by a white dude in 2014 that refers to a woman exclusively by a sexist racial slur and talks all about evil scalpers and skin-walkers with absolutely zero plot relevance. The worst part was the story almost had promise outside of all that bullshit. (1*)
The Hell-Bound Stagecoach This was kind of fun. but it was fun. (2.5*)
Stingers and Strangers This was definitely the story that made me pick up this anthology. Over all, lots of action and character development. (5*)
Bookkeper, Narrator, Gunslinger This story started out laugh out loud funny, and ended almost poignantly. I definitely enjoyed it. (4.5*)
Holy JingleAhh, the power of a man's dick in expelling evil curses. I found the language a mite pretentious and overall, I didn't love it. His horse was cool though. (2.5*)
The Man With No Heart: This, I really liked. Fun twist at the end there. Smooth writing style, and a very satisfying ending. (4*)
Wrecking Party: This was a fairly enjoyable story, though there was a lot of unanswered questions. Short stories don't always have to answer all the questions, and this one, I guess, did a good explanation to why they weren't answered, but I would have liked more of a resolution (3.5*)
Hell from the East: I don't really know how I feel about this one.. (3*)
Second Hand: I liked this one so much that half way through, I stopped reading so that I could find the first story and read that, and once I was done I found the third story and read it as well. Great world-building, unique concept, and well written. (5*)
Alvin and the Apple Tree Really well written, but holy balls was it preachy. (3*)
Madame Damnable's Sewing Circle It took me a while to warm up to this one, but once I did, I was hooked. It's a story that definitely demands a second part though, and I really want to read it. (5*)
Strong Medicine I rather enjoyed this one, tough sometime's the timing felt off (4*)
Red Dreams (3*)
Bamboozled That was a fun read. Nice little twist at the end there. (4*)
Sundown: Aother really good story. It really was your typical 'zombies in the old west' story, but the characters were enjoyable. (3.5*)
La Madre Del Oro Not particularly well-written, and the ending was entirely unsatisfying. (2*)
What I Assume You Shall Assume "I shall not regret the things I did, but the those I did not do." This story was chalk full of metaphors, symbolism, and beautiful imagery, which was something I suspected from the very first sentence: "The ray of light came over the eastern horizon like a sunrise, like the door to a dank jail cell cracking open, like the sweeping, fiery swordd before an angel of judgement." That one sentence carries a world of meaning and foreshadowing. There was not a wasted word, which is fitting for a story all about hte power of words. Chinese labourers is also a topic that is woefully underrepresented in westerns, and it was refreshing to read about. This might have been my favourite story in the whole anthology. (5*)
The Devil's Jack I enjoyed this. Jack was a pretty good, nuanced character. (3.5*)
The Golden Age: I fully admit to having a soft spot for superhero stories, but this was positively delightful. Super fun characters, well-written and humourous, and a well crafted plot. I wasn't sold on it immediately, but once I was, I was completely hooked and loved every minute of it. (5*)
Neversleeps: Normally, I like a lot of world building, but there was far too much of it crammed into such a short story and it was way too busy. (2.5*)
Dead Man's Hand I think I must have been missing something How was this the story that made the title of the anthology?
Also, wow, does this anthology in general love the name McCall.
The Read-Headed Dead I will say off the hop that I did not enjoy this writing style. There were sentences that had way too any "ands" and if he referred to the vampire one more time as "the thing" I might have screamed. But the Reverend and his take on God were super interesting, and I'm tempted to pick up "Dead in the West" because of it. (3*)
The Old Slow Man and His Gold Gun from Space Repetitive, sometimes to great effect, more often to its detriment. The twist at the end was well done though. (3*)
Hellfire on the High Frontier Nothing like reading a story written by a white dude in 2014 that refers to a woman exclusively by a sexist racial slur and talks all about evil scalpers and skin-walkers with absolutely zero plot relevance. The worst part was the story almost had promise outside of all that bullshit. (1*)
The Hell-Bound Stagecoach This was kind of fun.
Spoiler
I expected it to go somewhere else, like maybe Abigail was a poisoner, and by the time it ended the whole story seemed pointless,Stingers and Strangers This was definitely the story that made me pick up this anthology.
Spoiler
It's fun to see the Aeslin mice put to use, even if this apparently didn't learn any information worth being mentioned in the narrative. Of course it took Johnny and Franny three eyars to finally confess their love. Loved the parallel of the Aprix wasps and the cuckoo, which is related somehow to wasps (as we learn in the main InCryptid series). Wasps and memories, huh?Bookkeper, Narrator, Gunslinger This story started out laugh out loud funny, and ended almost poignantly. I definitely enjoyed it. (4.5*)
Holy Jingle
The Man With No Heart: This, I really liked. Fun twist at the end there. Smooth writing style, and a very satisfying ending. (4*)
Wrecking Party: This was a fairly enjoyable story, though there was a lot of unanswered questions. Short stories don't always have to answer all the questions, and this one, I guess, did a good explanation to why they weren't answered, but I would have liked more of a resolution (3.5*)
Hell from the East: I don't really know how I feel about this one.
Spoiler
The entire scene where he was staring at the sun made me squirm, so good use of the English language thereSecond Hand: I liked this one so much that half way through, I stopped reading so that I could find the first story and read that, and once I was done I found the third story and read it as well. Great world-building, unique concept, and well written. (5*)
Alvin and the Apple Tree Really well written, but holy balls was it preachy. (3*)
Madame Damnable's Sewing Circle It took me a while to warm up to this one, but once I did, I was hooked. It's a story that definitely demands a second part though, and I really want to read it. (5*)
Strong Medicine
Spoiler
Dinosaurs in the midwest!Spoiler
(Like how Edwards parents were apparently courting during the last trip through time, when he can't have been much older than 20? I guess it could work though, if they had him really late in life)Red Dreams
Spoiler
I started off really enjoying this story as a morality tale about the aboriginal genocide, and I was even okay with it turning more into a morality tale about the general violence of man, but by the time it got to the 'violence of dinosaurs' or whatever, I felt like it had lost nearly all of his impact and wound up just being ... well, kind of pointless. I'm also confused about how he saw Bob's exit wounds if the horse had already galloped off.Bamboozled That was a fun read. Nice little twist at the end there. (4*)
Sundown: Aother really good story.
Spoiler
I have tow onder, though, how Willie knew the airship was filled with something flammable when hot air balloons - how it was described to him - are not.La Madre Del Oro Not particularly well-written, and the ending was entirely unsatisfying. (2*)
What I Assume You Shall Assume "I shall not regret the things I did, but the those I did not do." This story was chalk full of metaphors, symbolism, and beautiful imagery, which was something I suspected from the very first sentence: "The ray of light came over the eastern horizon like a sunrise, like the door to a dank jail cell cracking open, like the sweeping, fiery swordd before an angel of judgement." That one sentence carries a world of meaning and foreshadowing. There was not a wasted word, which is fitting for a story all about hte power of words. Chinese labourers is also a topic that is woefully underrepresented in westerns, and it was refreshing to read about. This might have been my favourite story in the whole anthology. (5*)
The Devil's Jack I enjoyed this. Jack was a pretty good, nuanced character. (3.5*)
The Golden Age: I fully admit to having a soft spot for superhero stories, but this was positively delightful. Super fun characters, well-written and humourous, and a well crafted plot. I wasn't sold on it immediately, but once I was, I was completely hooked and loved every minute of it. (5*)
Neversleeps:
Spoiler
So, I guess that was a romance, but it wasn't a very well-developed one?Dead Man's Hand I think I must have been missing something
Spoiler
since I'm pretty sure I just read different version of the same event over and over with nothing explaining anything? How did this same confrontation keep happening?Also, wow, does this anthology in general love the name McCall.
bookfessional's review against another edition
4.0
Reviewed by: Rabid Reads
Stingers and Strangers, InCryptid 0.04
4 stars
I tried to refrain from purchasing any anthologies I didn't already own when I decided to get current with InCryptid, but after half a dozen various references to Fran and Jonathan's trip to Colorado, I caved.
Was it worth it?
Eh. I'm finally rid of the WHAT-AM-I-MISSING?! angst, and the story itself is in the top two of the extras I've read so far, but then there's the shame of my weakness to contend with, so six of one, half dozen of another.
Fran and Johnny go to Colorado after receiving word that the apraxas wasps are behaving strangely . . . And that's all you get. Suffice it to say, there's a darn good reason the wasps are out of sorts, and anything that freaks out giant, intelligent, brain-eating insects is worthy of concern.
Stingers and Strangers, InCryptid 0.04
4 stars
I tried to refrain from purchasing any anthologies I didn't already own when I decided to get current with InCryptid, but after half a dozen various references to Fran and Jonathan's trip to Colorado, I caved.
Was it worth it?
Eh. I'm finally rid of the WHAT-AM-I-MISSING?! angst, and the story itself is in the top two of the extras I've read so far, but then there's the shame of my weakness to contend with, so six of one, half dozen of another.
Fran and Johnny go to Colorado after receiving word that the apraxas wasps are behaving strangely . . . And that's all you get. Suffice it to say, there's a darn good reason the wasps are out of sorts, and anything that freaks out giant, intelligent, brain-eating insects is worthy of concern.
booksinbangkok's review against another edition
4.0
23 amazing stories set in a Wild West populated by gunslingers, Indians, card players, robots and other machines, monsters and magic. I enjoyed most of the stories but these were my favorites.
The Red-Headed Dead by Joe R. Lansdale
Reverend Mercer finds shelter from a storm in the worst place, a ruined cabin near a cemetery where an iron spike sticks out from a grave. The Reverend knows it is not by accident that he has come to this place. God has a plan, and His plans usually involve a monster. And the monster is coming.
This was such a delicious story, like a bite out of the perfect chocolate cake. The problem is, one bite is not enough, but it definitely put Landsdale on my tbr list.
The Hell-Bound Stagecoach by Mike Resnick
At first glance, this seems like an innocent story – two travelers stuck in a stagecoach for a long drive. But it’s not until the third joins them, that things really start to get interesting. I loved the clues sprinkled throughout the story. You can feel something’s wrong but you don’t know what until the end. And it’s such a satisfying end!
Wrecking Party by Alastair Reynolds
Why would a man wreck a horseless carriage in the middle of the night? What could make him hate a lifeless thing so bad he would lash out at anyone who tried to stop him?
I’ve always wondered about steampunk and there are several stories in this anthology that include robots and mechanical spiders, among other things, but not all of them worked for me. It’s a lot more fun to watch steampunk on the screen (think Wild Wild West with Will Smith) than it is to read about it. This is one of the stories I quite enjoyed because it doesn’t go into lengthy descriptions about how machines work.
Red Dreams by Jonathan Maberry
Jonah McCall and his horse are the only survivors of a massacre in which red men and white men fought each other and died. But not all of them. Walking Bear, the war chief of the Cheyenne, appears out of nowhere and McCall kills him, again. Can you kill a man twice?
I loved this story because it’s the truth wrapped in a cocoon of fiction, and it’s the kind of truth that hurts to read about. It’s my second favorite story in this book.
The Red-Headed Dead by Joe R. Lansdale
Reverend Mercer finds shelter from a storm in the worst place, a ruined cabin near a cemetery where an iron spike sticks out from a grave. The Reverend knows it is not by accident that he has come to this place. God has a plan, and His plans usually involve a monster. And the monster is coming.
This was such a delicious story, like a bite out of the perfect chocolate cake. The problem is, one bite is not enough, but it definitely put Landsdale on my tbr list.
The Hell-Bound Stagecoach by Mike Resnick
At first glance, this seems like an innocent story – two travelers stuck in a stagecoach for a long drive. But it’s not until the third joins them, that things really start to get interesting. I loved the clues sprinkled throughout the story. You can feel something’s wrong but you don’t know what until the end. And it’s such a satisfying end!
Wrecking Party by Alastair Reynolds
Why would a man wreck a horseless carriage in the middle of the night? What could make him hate a lifeless thing so bad he would lash out at anyone who tried to stop him?
I’ve always wondered about steampunk and there are several stories in this anthology that include robots and mechanical spiders, among other things, but not all of them worked for me. It’s a lot more fun to watch steampunk on the screen (think Wild Wild West with Will Smith) than it is to read about it. This is one of the stories I quite enjoyed because it doesn’t go into lengthy descriptions about how machines work.
Red Dreams by Jonathan Maberry
Jonah McCall and his horse are the only survivors of a massacre in which red men and white men fought each other and died. But not all of them. Walking Bear, the war chief of the Cheyenne, appears out of nowhere and McCall kills him, again. Can you kill a man twice?
I loved this story because it’s the truth wrapped in a cocoon of fiction, and it’s the kind of truth that hurts to read about. It’s my second favorite story in this book.
haramis's review against another edition
4.0
I have read many, but not all, of [a:John Joseph Adams|1161372|John Joseph Adams|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1291911306p2/1161372.jpg]' anthologies, and I usually rate them pretty well. He has a talent for getting together some of Sci-Fi and Fantasy's best and getting them to turn out fresh stories. I will admit to favoring the books that feature [a:Seanan McGuire|2860219|Seanan McGuire|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1245623198p2/2860219.jpg], and that was certainly the case here.
I think what was weird to me is that this is easily the tightest concept I've read to date. That is to say that the stories had more in common with each other than any of the other JJA anthologies I've read. In some ways it made this feel more consistent, but in other ways a tad drab. That's not to say that there weren't stories that stood out or authors that I plan to follow up on, but just that this couldn't be as easily consumed over a few days because some of the stories melted into each other. My favorites were Wrecking Party by Alastair Reynolds, Second Hand by Rajan Khanna (which I'd read a novel of), Strong Medicine by Tad Williams, The Devil’s Jack by Laura Anne Gilman, and The Golden Age by Walter Jon Williams, which I felt ran a little too long, but which was pretty damn entertaining. The Seanan McGuire story was fine, but I had to wonder how it would play to someone unfamiliar with InCryptid; I recognized both of the main Cryptids in the story on introduction. I generally like Elizabeth Bear's stories, but this one felt more like a piece than the whole story.
I'm going to call this one 3.5/5, rounded up.
I think what was weird to me is that this is easily the tightest concept I've read to date. That is to say that the stories had more in common with each other than any of the other JJA anthologies I've read. In some ways it made this feel more consistent, but in other ways a tad drab. That's not to say that there weren't stories that stood out or authors that I plan to follow up on, but just that this couldn't be as easily consumed over a few days because some of the stories melted into each other. My favorites were Wrecking Party by Alastair Reynolds, Second Hand by Rajan Khanna (which I'd read a novel of), Strong Medicine by Tad Williams, The Devil’s Jack by Laura Anne Gilman, and The Golden Age by Walter Jon Williams, which I felt ran a little too long, but which was pretty damn entertaining. The Seanan McGuire story was fine, but I had to wonder how it would play to someone unfamiliar with InCryptid; I recognized both of the main Cryptids in the story on introduction. I generally like Elizabeth Bear's stories, but this one felt more like a piece than the whole story.
I'm going to call this one 3.5/5, rounded up.
tagryn101's review against another edition
4.0
We read this for a local scifi book club. It has a nice variety of alternate variations on the "Wild West" theme from either the fantasy or science fiction genre. According to my notes from our club meeting, the general consensus was:
Liked: Winters, Resnick, McGuire, Yu, Howey, Khanna, T. Williams, Liu
Disliked: Lansdale, Foster, Revis, Card, Maberry, Buckell, Van Lente
Either-loved-it-or-hated-it: W.J. Williams' "Golden Age"
Liked: Winters, Resnick, McGuire, Yu, Howey, Khanna, T. Williams, Liu
Disliked: Lansdale, Foster, Revis, Card, Maberry, Buckell, Van Lente
Either-loved-it-or-hated-it: W.J. Williams' "Golden Age"
wingedpotato's review against another edition
4.0
Maybe 3.5 stars. I love anthologies, but you always have to take the good with the blah. My favorites were the ones that just tweaked the west without adding tons of steampunk/magic/etc.
cathepsut's review against another edition
4.0
Part of [b:Led Astray: The Best of Kelley Armstrong|24402500|Led Astray The Best of Kelley Armstrong|Kelley Armstrong|https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1440778239s/24402500.jpg|44123648]. An Otherworld Universe Story: Werewolves in the Wild West. Good story, plot and characters.
honeymonster's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Some of these stories are really good. However, I tired of the theme before the book tired of throwing stories at me.