23 Short Stories from the Wild West: Dead Man’s Hand

All we get now in the multiplexes and the TV screens are superheroes, zombies and vampires!  Hey, Hollywood, about some good old-fashion cowboy flicks?  That Johnny Depp “Lone Ranger” fail of a film did not count!  How about dropping some John Woo/Tarantino-style old west cowboy stories?  I can envision a pair of Colt .45’s blasting in slo-mo during a stage coach robbery scene.  Enough with the World War II movies, but I digress.  If you want your fill of the old wild west with a mix of weird and the wonderful, try “Dead Man’s Hand” an anthology of short stories collected and edited by John Joseph Adams.

“Dead Man’s Hand” has 23 original short stories about the American Old West from a talented bunch of writers, like Orson Scott Card (Ender’s Game), David Farland, Laura Anne Gilman, Alan Dean Foster, Fred Van Lente, Charles Yu, among others.  Think of this anthology as a re-imagining of the American Old West with a mix of steampunk, vampires, aliens, science-fiction, super heroes and magic.  Author Joe R. Lansdale’s critically-acclaimed novel “Dead in the West” (1986) featured the gun-toting Reverend Jebediah Mercer help blaze the trail for weird western stories.  Now “Dead Man’s Hand” anthology kicks-off with the return of The Reverend in “The Red-Headed Dead”, as he deals with an evil blood-sucking monster.

If you don’t have time to invest in a long novel this summer, why not take a look at some short stories?  I think editor John Joseph Adams has tightly wrapped a great collection of short stories from a wide range of authors.  The common theme is the American Old West, but each writer infuses a different element like aliens, vampires, magic and steampunk to give us fresh cowboy period stories.  You don’t need no fancy Mojito or Cosmo-type of cocktail drink, you probably need to gulp down a glass of Kentucky bourbon and garnish it with cherries and orange peels as you read “Dead Man’s Hand” anthology of the Wild West.

++++++++++++++++++++

Paperback Title:  Dead Man’s Hand

Edited: John Joseph Adams

Publisher:  Titan Books

MSRP:  $16.95USD

Available:  Now