A review by haramis
Dead Man's Hand: An Anthology of the Weird West, by Ben H. Winters, John Joseph Adams, Christie Yant, David Farland, Tobias S. Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Jonathan Maberry, Hugh Howey, Kelley Armstrong, Mike Resnick, Beth Revis, Seanan McGuire, Joe R. Lansdale, Alastair Reynolds, Tad Williams, Rajan Khanna, Laura Anne Gilman, Alan Dean Foster, Ken Liu, Orson Scott Card, Charles Yu, Fred Van Lente, Jeffrey Ford, Walter Jon Williams
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.