BLOOD MOON

THE TEXIANS
Book 4 of 5
BLOOD MOON
By Zach Wyatt
Cover art by Bruce Minney
Pinnacle Books, April 1985

While Josh Sands has been eating dust on a wild horse round-up, Comanche raiders have cut a bloody trail as far south as San Antonio. With the Texas Rangers depleted, the Indians are growing in boldness and power. Now it’s up to Sands and his rag-tag bunch to come to the aid of the republic. Along with the undermanned Rangers, they’re going to make a daring foray into the heart of Comanche territory – to stem the tide of terror and destruction – and give the Texians back their future.

Whilst the previous three Texians books have revolved around documented missions that really happened, this story is much more loosely based on historical events. With no funding to support them, the Texas Rangers have virtually disbanded, with many of the men let go. Josh Sands is one of those men. The Comanche take advantage of this situation and pretty much raid and pillage unchecked. Blood Moon tells of the struggle of the small band of Texas Rangers and volunteers to stop the raids whilst facing much larger odds. 

A lot of the early part of the book follows Sands and his friends during their attempt to set up a horse ranch and round up wild horses, including a stallion, to start this project. Whilst doing this Sands has to deal with a couple of Comanche raids and his frustration at being let go from the Rangers. His heart isn’t in the ranch, or horses, but belongs to the Rangers. During this part of the story, we meet some characters that first appeared in the previous book, War Devils. 

As you’d imagine, stories that are based on real events include real people too. Sands is fictional, but he’s friends with Captain John Coffee Hays and will eventually team up with Hays and his remaining rangers to track down and stop a much larger band of Comanches. They are joined by another real person in the Lipan Apache chief Flacco and a small number of his braves. The final battle features a charge into the enemy lines by Hays and Flacco that becomes legendary and the author explains why this happened in a humorous way. This final battle makes for an exciting conclusion to this fast-moving tale.

Blood Moon isn’t quite as good as the previous three books but it is still a very entertaining read and left me looking forward to reading the next book very soon. 

Zach Wyatt is a pseudonym used by George W. Proctor. 

THE HORSE MARINES

THE TEXIANS

Book 2 of 5

By Zach Wyatt

Cover art by Bruce Minney

Pinnacle Books, August 1984

Josh Sands was far from his San Antonio station, but the fierce young Texas Ranger had sworn to protect the entire Territory from her enemies – including the Mexican warships unloading arms in the deadly swamplands along the Gulf of Mexico.

The last thing the hard-riding Ranger expected was to be corralled into Captain Isaac Burton’s mad scheme for capturing the warships himself – with a handful of men who had never so much as seen a rowboat.

But Josh had to pursue a private vengeance as well: to hunt down a death-dealing devil known as Cotton Blue; a vicious gunrunner who had killed Josh’s partner in cold blood; killed for the same pleasure other men found in a woman’s arms… 

Like the first book in this series, Zach Wyatt uses a real event for the main part of the plot, the attempt to capture warships that took place in June 1836. Of course, Josh Sands involvement is entirely fictional as is his pursuit of Cotton Blue. Zach Wyatt blends truth and fiction seamlessly, resulting in an exciting read that contains many cliff-hanging moments.

We also learn more about our fictional hero as we witness Sands freeze when looking into the eyes of death. He experiences guilt and struggles to deal with it as he recovers from a life-threatening bullet wound. His fevered belief of being rescued by an angel floating through the swamp made for some very visual and surreal reading which was beautifully told by the author.

Sand’s loss of his fellow Texas Ranger and his final showdown with Cotton Blue sandwich the main part of the story; Captain Burton’s spur-of-the-moment attempt to capture three warships. I don’t want to say anymore about this for fear of ruining this part of the tale for anyone planning to read this book, but I will add that it makes for some gripping reading.

If you like fiction based around real historical events or books about the Texas Rangers then this has to be a must read and I’d also recommend it to all western fans. Zach Wyatt is a pseudonym used by George W. Proctor and this book reinforces my belief that he is an author worth reading. 

I always found The Texians books hard to track down, but it’s much easier now, if you don’t mind reading ebooks, as Piccadilly Publishing has made the whole series available in this form.

Comanche Massacre

PONY SOLDIERS

Number 2 of 10

By Chet Cunningham
Cover art by Bruce Minney

Leisure, 1987

The Comanches had been pushed too far by the corrupt government in Washington, driven to anger by the whiskey traders and formed into a deadly fighting force by cold-blooded gunrunners. They were killing mean and vowed to sweep across the territory like a cyclone – murdering, scalping, and raping….

The Pony Soldiers were a dirty, undisciplined rabble, but they were the only chance a thousand settlers had to see another sunrise. They were an unyielding rock in a sea of bloodshed, determined to fight to the last – each man swearing to kill ten Comanche before he died.

This story starts shortly after the events of the first book. Captain Colt Harding using his newly formed Lightning Troop to attack the Comanche whenever he can whilst also searching for his kidnapped daughter. Harding’s hate comes across strongly and he and his troopers’ willingness to kill their enemy sees them committing many similar atrocities to their foe. The opening massacre carried out by the Lightning Troop seeing them slaughter men, women and children without remorse. Seeing how Harding tries to justify this to himself makes for some interesting reading even though readers may not agree with his rationalizing. 

After the opening destruction of the Comanche camp the author mixes a number of different storylines. There’s further training for the Lightning Troop. A man-hungry young lady who doesn’t care if her conquests are married or not, nor for the consequences of her dalliances. Then there’s White Eagle’s band of Comanche and his quest to pregnant a wife with a son. They are also the Comanche who killed Harding’s family and stole his infant daughter, Sadie, now known as Laughing Golden Hair. A fair amount of the book deals with the Comanche way of life. Each of these plotlines slowly entwine and deadly confrontations are inevitable and much blood will be spilled, the death toll high as the soldiers face superior odds.

Chet Cunningham has written a decent, almost episodic, follow up to the first book. It’s very readable, contains some brutal action scenes and a little graphic sex. Harding and White Eagle’s characters are developed further as are other recurring individuals. Not all the storylines come to an end thus ensuring readers will want to pick up the next book, something I hope to do very soon.

I’ve stated this is the second book of ten, which is true of the original paperback series. Many years later Chet Cunningham continued the series, publishing three more stories as ebooks.