Lowstone by Anton Strout
Title: Lowstone
Author: Anton Strout
In: Westward Weird (Martin H. Greenberg & Kerrie Hughes)
Rating Out of 5: 4.5 (Amazing, but not quite perfect)
My Bookshelves: Cyborgs, Weird westerns, Zombies
Dates read: 28th July 2020
Pace: Fast
Format: Short story
Publisher: Daw Books
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: The gunslinger looked at Alice.
This small mining town is about to have a gunslinging visitor. She’s not what they’d normally expect or want in their little town. But she might just be their saviour.
I love that this story is a final stand… Wild West Style. The fact that it involves zombies and cyborgs just makes it so, so, so much better. And more enjoyable. And just all-round amusing.
This short story had both a great, happy ending. And a kind of tragic one. In one part, there were survivors and hope for a future. But, in the other. It was seriously a story of a last stand. One which almost had that comfort and bitter sweetness of death featured. In a way that makes you wonder if death wasn’t actually the worst thing.
One of my favourite things about this short story though, aside from the great writing and the fun storyline… it was the fact that somehow Strout was able to mix cyborgs and zombies in with a story of the wild west. And gunslingers. And just, in general, a great and slightly unexpected journey.
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