Tuesday 25 October 2011

The Traditional West


- An anthology of original stories -
By The Western Fictioneers, 2011

With twenty-four brand new stories from some of the top western writers working today, this anthology most definitely offers value for money.

Most of the included authors aren’t new names to me, and of the handful that were I think it’s safe to say I’ll be looking to try some of their full length novels soon. Of course there are stories that stood out to me but I can honestly say that there isn’t one that I didn’t enjoy reading.

Many of the authors have chosen to write new stories for characters they’ve written about before. The themes of the tales cover a wide variety of situations such as murder, robbery, land grabbing, revenge, and serial killers. A couple of the stories delve into the supernatural, and another has an unusual choice for a hero: a samurai. All of this means you are never certain what kind of tale you are going to get as you start each new story.

Each story is headed by a paragraph that gives some background to the author that wrote it, one of which says the hero of his tale is to soon appear in a brand new western series – something I’ll be looking forward to.

This anthology should be essential reading for every western fan and I can only hope that The Western Fictioneers follow this excellent collection up with another not to far down the trail.

Contents
The Silver Noose by Jackson Lowry
A Close Shave on Commerce Street by Steven Clark
Lost Mountain Pass by Larry D. Sweazy
The Poker Payout (a Calvin Carter adventure) by Scott D. Parker
Blood Trail to Dodge (a Talbot Roper story) by Robert J. Randisi
The Sin of Eli by Troy D. Smith
The Way of the West by Larry Jay Martin
The Great Texas Kapusta Incident by James J. Griffin
The Death of Delgado by Rod Miller
Whiskey for Breakfast by Jerry Guin
Rattler by James Reasoner
Silence by Ross Morton
Never Trust a Widder by Phil Dunlap
Storm Damage (a Rome Warfield Frontier Mystery) by Pete Peterson
Catch as Catch Can (a Maple Jack tale) by Matthew P. Mayo
Kataki by Chuck Tyrell
When Was It Going to Rain? by Dusty Richards
New Dog, Old Tricks (a Gideon Miles story) by Edward A. Grainger
The Redemption of Cade Beauchard by Kit Prate
Boot Hill Neighbors by Clay More
The Kindness of Strangers by Cheryl Pierson
Wire by C. Courtney Joyner
Panhandle Freight (a Lucas Hallam tale) by L.J. Washburn
Penance by Kerry Newcomb


Also available as an ebook.

6 comments:

Jo Walpole said...

Nice to see a woman's name on the list of contributors

Steve M said...

There's more than one Jo.

Edward A. Grainger said...

Thanks for the review, sir. I'm very honored to have a story in the mix.

larry gebert said...

This is a great book,got it in e-book form.

Cheryl Pierson said...

Steve,
Thanks so much for your great review on THE TRADITIONAL WEST. I'm thrilled that my story is included with this wonderful mix of authors!
Cheryl

Matthew P. Mayo said...

Thanks for the fine review, Steve. I'm glad to hear you like the anthology. And you're right, it's a great way to find out about new authors.