Title: Westward Weird
Author: Martin H. Greenberg, Kerrie Hughes, Jay Lake, Larry D. Sweazy, Anton Strout, Seanan McGuire, Brenda Cooper, Christopher McKitterick, Steven Saus, Dean Wesley Smith, Kristine Kathryn Rusch, Jennifer Brozek, J. Steven York, Jeff Mariotte & Jody Lynn Nye
In: Westward Weird (Martin H. Greenberg & Kerrie Hughes)
Rating Out of 5: 4 (Really good read!)
My Bookshelves: Short story collections, Weird western
Dates read: 15th June – 14th November 2020
Pace: Slow
Format: Anthology
Publisher: Daw Books
Year: 2012
5th sentence, 74th page: She pulled the last of the pins free and shook out her hair.
When you were a kid did you long to put on your cowboy boots, belt on your guns, saddle up, and ride off to find adventures? Did you sit glued to the TV watching The Lone Ranger, Marverick, bonanza, The Wild Wild West, The Adventures of Brisco County Jr. and Firefly, to name just a few of the many series that have been popular over the last sixty years? And were you caught up in movies like Outlands, Time Bandits, Serenity, or Back to the Future Part III? If so, Westward Weird is the book for you.
The thirteen original stories included here ride a very broad range between science fiction, fantasy, and the paranormal – and all of htem are told from a Wild West perspective. So get ready for some good old-fashioned adventure as:
- The Old Gods cross paths in the Old West
- Two thieves are given a job they can’t refuse, but no one told them they’d encounter aliens along the way
- A mining family never expected their claim to be jumped from parallel universes
- A Mars colony may be about to find out exactly how the West was won
- Cowboys will be hard-pressed to ride herd on the living dead
This was a fantastic collection that introduced me to a genre that I never really knew existed – Weird westerns. I absolutely loved it. Whilst I haven’t really been getting into Westerns all that much, I most definitely love the science fiction and fantasy spin to the topic. Now I have a whole new genre to read and things to fill my shelves with… that wish list just keeps on growing.
Now that I’ve read this collection, I need to find a few weird western full-length novels. After all, it’s a genre that I’ve most definitely fallen in love with and want even more of. I can’t wait to read more and more weird westerns and fill my brain with all sorts of cyborg wild west stories. Tales of werewolves and vampires. And just…. Fun.
This is a fantastic collection that not only fits great into my shelf of books that I already own, but it also introduced me to a great new sub-genre, authors and just… fun. Now I need to save up some money to get some of the books that this has left on my wishlist…
Earth and Skye 