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Since folks were reading Warlock for the July 2018 BotM, I figured why not ask this. Where can I find Weird Westerns? It's a genre that never gets much love, but I've always been a fan. What are collections, newsletters, websites, publications that feature and highlight novels, novellas, and short stories of the Weird Western genre? I want steampunk cowboys fighting dinosaurs and vampire cattle rustlers who must fend off werewolves with hunting knives. Where can I find a wagon train trying to outrun a host of buffalo-riding demons? Where can I find death, depravity, and the horror of long dead gunslingers locked in eternal duels under a blazing desert sun? Also, do you have any recommendations? I've been a fan of Robert E. Howard's various works for years, and even Louis L'Amour dabbled with the weird at one point. Are there any pinnacles of this bizarre and seemingly forgotten subtype of genre work?
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Jul 31, 2018 19:45
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| # ? May 1, 2024 23:43 |
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This is a weird western by an author I like. https://www.amazon.ca/Honeymoon-Gorillas-Rhys-Hughes/dp/1947654551
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Aug 1, 2018 03:24
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Hey Ccs, after reading the description, I'm definitely checking this out and have already ordered it. Thanks for the recommendation!
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Aug 1, 2018 18:14
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Haunted Mesa by Louis L'Amore may qualify here. It's modern (well, 1980s) but it acts like a western, talks like a western, and is plotted like a western. Except for the whole alternate dimension thing. I really love this book. It's not quite a western, not quite urban fantasy, not quite "new weird". It's pretty unique, all things considered.
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Aug 1, 2018 18:54
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Ackwastaken posted:Hey Ccs, after reading the description, I'm definitely checking this out and have already ordered it. Thanks for the recommendation! Great! If you like it his best book is called "The Smell of Telescopes". If you don't like it then that's fine, some people find all the puns tiresome.
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Aug 1, 2018 22:20
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Silver On The Road might count. The Devil* takes over everything between the Mississippi and the Rockies hundreds or thousands of years before the US becomes a thing, and the Devil's West continues to have magical bullshit the rest of North America does not particularly. Main protagonist is a young lady who has just signed up as the Devil's troubleshooter. It takes place in the early 19th century. The title of the (first) book refers to what you do when you run across a crossroads. You toss a silver coin (or other silver paraphernalia) into it and if it immediately tarnishes, there's some bad juju going on. * - may only be called the Devil because he is impeding Christian-oriented imperialism with supernatural powers
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Aug 2, 2018 04:38
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Aug 5, 2018 00:12
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The Incorruptibles (and sequels though they go more afield) by John Hornor Jacobs is kind of a weird western. Where guns are powered by imps and steam engines work by trapping a demon and using the heat it emits to generate steam.
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Aug 5, 2018 02:36
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China Mieville's Iron Council is a weird western which is also part steampunk. It also involves his socialist politics more overtly than his other novels. Joe Abercrombie's Red Country is a gritty fantasy take on the Western genre. It benefits from reading his other First Law works which are not westerns, but can be read as a stand alone.
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Aug 5, 2018 02:53
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The Curse of Jacob Tracy by Holly Messinger is about a cowboy who can talk to ghosts and there's a train job with vampires, seances and spiritualists. It's really good, especially if you enjoy bromances.
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Aug 8, 2018 03:39
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Joe R Lansdale. Deadman's Road The Magic Wagon Dead in the West Hell's Bounty Then his various comic books, including the Jonah Hex Trilogy for DC/Vertigo, and The Lone Ranger and Tonto mini-series for Topps Comic (LR & T have to battle an Aztec Mummy. Who's from outer space.) Davros1 fucked around with this message at 15:59 on Aug 8, 2018 |
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Aug 8, 2018 15:53
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The Six Gun Tarot by R.S. Belcher and I Travel By Night by Robert S. McCammon. Both of which coincidentally have been picked up by trucker full-cast audio book company Graphic Audio 
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Aug 8, 2018 17:17
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The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman... Sorta.
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Aug 8, 2018 17:35
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anilEhilated posted:The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman... Sorta. poo poo, why did I not mention this 
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Aug 11, 2018 03:28
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anilEhilated posted:The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman... Sorta. I like this book a lot. The last act is kinda slow, though. The sequel isn't nearly as good.
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Aug 13, 2018 02:00
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Stephen King's Dark Tower series? The first couple were fairly decent and also King at his druggiest.
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Aug 13, 2018 21:30
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I think a book about an immortal embodiment of evil corrupting a band of already grizzled outlaws should be classified as a weird western. Blood Meridian may be my favorite book.
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Aug 13, 2018 23:13
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I haven't read many weird westerns, but I love stories about people traveling in strange, desolate places and encountering odd people/ruins/technology. It's hardly a western, but Gene Wolfe's Book of the New Sun features a lot of this, as do most of the Dark Tower books. The Little Sisters of Eluria is probably my favorite mix of a familiar old west setting and the supernatural. ConfusedUs posted:Haunted Mesa by Louis L'Amore may qualify here. It's modern (well, 1980s) but it acts like a western, talks like a western, and is plotted like a western. Picked this up at the library, and the story was pretty good, but my god is it repetitive. Every chapter has to spend a paragraph or two reiterating what the last few chapters established. I've never read any L'Amour before, but I know most of his books are like 150 pages long, and this one could have easily been cut in half.
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Aug 24, 2018 18:47
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ConfusedUs posted:I like this book a lot. The last act is kinda slow, though. The Half-Made World sequel The Rise of Ransom City is quite different and less approachable, but it nails the style of a bunch of period stuff rather than translating it into a modern novel. I love 'em both.
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Aug 25, 2018 01:36
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Dead Man's Hand is a decent short story anthology of Weird West stories put together by John Joseph Adams.
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Sep 8, 2018 18:19
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