@AuthorRSBelcher #Review of #ARC THE SHOTGUN ARCANA by R.S. Belcher

The Shotgun Arcana by R.S. Belcher

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Book Info: Genre: Weird Western
Reading Level: Adult
Diversity: GLBTQ characters, various religions, interracial relationships
Tense, Person, POV: Past tense, third person, limited POV
Recommended for: Fans of Weird Westerns, Lovecraftian books, steampunk
Book Available: October 7, 2014 in Hardcover and Kindle formats
Trigger Warnings: murder, mutilation, torture, mention of necrophilia, cannibalism
Animals: at least one horse killed

My Thoughts: These are listed as steampunk, but thus far there is limited steampunkery. To me, this is mostly a Weird Western with strong Lovecraftian influences. There are also very many stretches of interesting philosophical discussion between the various characters that I quite enjoyed. For instance:

“God simply is,” Bick said. “Humanity embraced It. They gave It color and gender, shape and form. They put words in Its mouth. They always have, and they still do, perhaps they always will. I always experience God as a 'He,' but God is too vast to be held prisoner by language or biology.”

“...What things do you think the Almighty was whispering in my ear all those countless eons? Words of endearment? Of joy and peace and love? No. He dipped his tongue in the blackest blood and he whispered to me of slaughter, of death of torture and atrocity. That is your creator, Biqa. He built this entire lovely, lovely playground so that he could tear it apart, abuse and neglect his toys and listen to the terrified screams of the monkeys as they tried to understand.”

Where did payback end exactly? Charlie Upton had murdered Jim's Pa. Jim killed Charlie. One day Jim might get shot or hanged for what he did to Charlie and sometone like Mutt or Jon Highfather might seek revenge in his name. How far back did the blood flow? When was it enough? Could anything ever get square?

I'm enjoying the character development in these books. Mutt, for example, has really loosened up, and he's quite funny in this book. Jon is off a lot, leaving Mutt and Jim to take care of business in the town. Doc Tumblety is such a creeper, and of course incompetent to boot. As Jon Highfather states: “And that's our first-rate medical care here in sunny Golgotha. He may seem pretty horrible at first, but after awhile you come to realize that deep down inside, he's much worse than that.” He's very misogynistic, saying at one point to Kate, “Hush now... Men are talking.” As for Kate, she makes a great addition to the cast and to the town; I hope we'll see her again! I enjoyed the bits and pieces of Chinese history and legends that Ch'eng Huang provides to Jim as he is instructing him on how to use the jade eye. I was more than a bit troubled by the inclusion of the Thuggee, as their worship of Kali Ma is a perversion. It is true Kali Ma is the Mother-Destroyer, the one who must destroy the world so it can be remade anew, but that doesn't mean that people should be going around randomly murdering in her name.

Also, it is mentioned off-hand that Baba Yaga came to Golgotha, albeit briefly. She is not mentioned by name, but a house on chicken legs is a dead giveaway. I do hope that this story will be told in full; maybe the author has a number of these little anecdotes that he could use to put together an anthology of short stories set in Golgotha?

Toward the end, Clay and a Professor Zenith have a “science showdown” that is wonderfully fun as they shout at one another, using very civilized language and high-toned insults. It struck my funny bone and hopefully I won't be the only one amused by it. At the end, Clay says, “I swear... anyone with a little copper tubing and a dynamo thinks they're a scientist these days.”

This is an excellent follow-up and I'm grateful to the author for sending me this ARC so I didn't have to wait until October to read it! I haven't commented on editing because this is an uncorrected proof, so any errors I spotted will likely be cleaned up by the final draft. Definitely check this out if it sounds like the sort of book you'd like!

Series Information: The Golgotha series
Book 1: The Six-Gun Tarot, review linked here where formatting allowed
Book 2: The Shotgun Arcana

Disclosure: I received an ARC from the author in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: 1870. A haven for the blessed and the damned, including a fallen angel, a mad scientist, a pirate queen, and a deputy who is kin to coyotes, Golgotha has come through many nightmarish trials, but now an army of thirty-two outlaws, lunatics, serial killers, and cannibals are converging on the town, drawn by a grisly relic that dates back to the Donner Party… and the dawn of humanity.

Sheriff Jon Highfather and his deputies already have their hands full dealing with train robbers, a mysterious series of brutal murders, and the usual outbreaks of weirdness.  But with thirty-two of the most vicious killers on Earth riding into Golgotha in just a few day’s time, the town and its people will be tested as never before—and some of them will never be the same.



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@AuthorRSBelcher #Review THE SIX-GUN TAROT by R.S. Belcher

The Six-Gun Tarot review
Author: R.S. Belcher
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Weird Western
Reading Level: Adult (although one of the main characters, Jim, is 15 and his coming-of-age is part of the story, I still think it's more of an adult story)
Recommended for: Fans of Lovecraftian literature, Weird Westerns, urban Fantasy
Trigger Warnings: murder, domestic violence against wife and daughter, slavery (during the part set prior to the civil war)
Animals Injured: Horse injures leg badly, had to push on through desert with no water for days (she's okay); two coyotes killed after they attack

My Thoughts: While at DragonCon 2013, I spent a good bit of time in the dealers' rooms looking at books and talking to authors. One of the books I noticed was The Six-Gun Tarot, a steampunk-influenced Weird Western with strong Lovecraftian ties. As it turned out, the author—R.S. Belcher—was there at the time and took a few moments to talk to me about the book. While I didn't buy a copy right then (as I've been spending profligately enough and my bag was full to bursting), I did note it and put it onto my wishlist as soon as I came home that night. Finally I picked it up this winter with some of the many gift certificates various friends sent me to help cheer me up after my cancer diagnosis.

Some of the imagery in this is pretty amazing (especially the Lovecraftian bits), like this rant from a madman:

“You don't know what they do up there on that mountain, do you, Sheriff? It's tossing and turning. It eats the heart of the world, like a worm burrowing an apple! Maybe the preacher's right and my faith is just shivering, weak—is it wrong for me to try to keep them from hollowing me out from inside? I should just blow all of you stupid bastards back to Kingdom Come, while it's still there! Before they burn down Heaven and feast on the corpse. Maybe we should all die now, better that way!”

Then we have Gran Bonny, whose ideas are blasphemous and often extremely funny, like this one:

“Guns are like men—only useful for a little while. They can go off at a moment's notice when you don't want them to and they make a lot of damn fool noise doing it.”

The blasphemous part comes here:

“The tyrant-father of Heaven, the one who created, hated and drove out the first woman, yoked men with a horrible curse, far worse than any imagined to have been handed down to Eve. Men were told they were masters of this world, of their mates, of the beasts and fish, of the land and sea and sky. How ridiculous! That's like telling a little boy he's in charge of the house when his da is gone. It's silly!

"And like that little boy, men have tried to live up to the unreasonable demands of their mute, wayward, celestial father. They have enslaved and dominated, conquered and killed, all in the name of shepherding, of protecting, of ruling the world. They spend their lives trying to do what they think is right, what their father on high would want of them. The bastard.”

I really like the use of Lilith in the history of this world, and the idea of the Load. I wish we had spent more time with Gran Bonny, heard more of her stories. That would actually be a pretty cool spin-off series—give us Gran Bonny's life story! But I digress...

As I said, I really liked how Lilith is presented in this book, and the handing down of Her secret purpose (the Load) over the generations as protectors of the Earth and the Mother. “I am the Mother's blade, the Mother's wrath... You have poisoned her, raped her and her children. Left her to die. Now you will suffer, you will die.” Really hardcore stuff, you know?

This is set in Nevada shortly after the Civil War. There is (of course) a lot of strife with the Native American peoples, and the Mormon/Latter Day Saints were a fairly new religion. Most of the more wealthy people who live in Golgotha in the book are Mormons, and I was startled by how much and how often most of the ones we spend any time with in the story drank. The only character who paid any respect to the rules was Sarah, who offered Harry coffee, even though it was a sin. My understanding is that Mormons are not supposed to drink alcohol or caffeine, or smoke, or otherwise pollute their bodies with drugs of any kind. That doesn't necessarily mean that is what happens, of course, but a lot of the drinking was being done by fairly high-ranking and prominent individuals and it surprised me that they didn't at least try to hide it. While this is the first book in the series, events from the past are frequently referred to (and I hope someday the author will write some of these prequels). It is also obvious that people who live in Golgotha are aware of the weirdness and danger in the area, especially the sheriff. Check out his armory:

“He [Jon] cleaned and oiled the collection of rifles, scatterguns and pistols that were caged in iron bars behind his desk. He also made sure the other objects locked in the gun cage—wooden stakes, silver bullets, various Indian and Chinese charms and amulets, a crucifix and several vials of holy water, blessed by the Holy Father himself all the way from Rome—were all in equally good condition.

As you can see, Jon is ready for just about anything the town can throw at him, and I for one would love to know some of the stories of how and why.

For those readers who are familiar with the tarot, each chapter heading is a card's name, and either refers to a person or event in that chapter. I think it would be cool if a tarot deck was created to match this universe. As it is, those familiar with the cards and their meanings can have some fun by working out how the specific card applies to any given chapter.

Fans of Lovecraftian stories, Weird Westerns, and urban fantasies should enjoy this book. I really enjoyed reading it; it held me engrossed right to the end, and I highly recommend it to anyone who might be interested.

Series Information: Golgotha Series
Book 1: The Six-Gun Tarot
Book 2: The Shotgun Arcana, expected publication October 7, 2014 by Tor

Disclosure: I bought this book for myself after seeing it and talking to the author about it at DragonCon last fall. All opinions are my own.

Synopsis: Buffy meets Deadwood in a dark, wildly imaginative historical fantasy

Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.

A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn… and so will all of Creation.

@GemmaFiles @ChiZinePub #Review THE HEXSLINGER OMNIBUS by Gemma Files.

The Hexslinger Omnibus review
Author: Gemma Files
5 out of 5 stars

Book Info: Genre: Weird Western/Supernatural Horror/Steampunk
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of Weird West, horror, those interested in Meso-American religious practices
Trigger Warnings for series: murder (including mass murder), killing, execution, non PC language, fighting, violence, suicide, explicit M/M sex (first book only), human sacrifice, self injury, giant spiders
Animal Injuries: several horses are killed during a melee

My Thoughts on Omnnibus: The omnibus includes the Hexslinger trilogy as well as three bonus short stories, “Hexmas”., “Like a Bowl of Fire”, and “In Scarlet Town (Today)”. I have written individual reviews for each of the books in the trilogy, so for more detail on any given book, check that out. I will use this review to talk about the series as a whole, and also to review the three short stories.

One of the things I really liked about this series is the characters, and character development. Some of these people are really quite horrible human beings at the beginning, like Songbird and Chess Pargeter, yet they grow and change through the course of the series in such as way as to begin on a path to redemption. Others start out good people, like Ash Rook and Mesach Love, only to fall out of grace through one reason or another. I liked that the author was willing to make that sort of gamble. While I imagine there will be plenty of people for whom this series is definitely not their cup of tea, but for those who might like a Weird Western with some gay romance, well, this should fulfill that nicely.

As far as the short stories:
“Hexmas” is set 6 or 7 years after the events of the main trilogy. Ed Morrow and Yancey Colder Kloves are homesteading in the desert on a plot that Chess helped set up, but a new neighbor—a hex woman from Iceland—is causing trouble for them due to her fear that Yancey is a hex and will try to destroy her. To make things even more tricky, Yancey is close to delivering her first child, and afraid the neighbor woman will kill the babe upon its birth. Chess, recently elected Sheriff of Hexicas, comes to visit just in time. This short is more lighthearted, at least at the beginning, than a lot of the trilogy, and that was nice to see. It was also neat to see how Ed and Yancey have been keeping themselves during the time in question. There is mention that Yancey has been using her dead-speaker skills to try to learn more about her heritage, both from her father's Jewish tradition, and her mother's Romani.

“Like a Bowl of Fire” is set shortly after the events of the trilogy. Chess is traveling with Charlie, the young man he meets in the epilogue of book 3. They have traveled back east, where a local man has pointed them toward a section of land on which nothing will grow. Anything that goes there burns, be it a person or a plant. Chess and Charlie have to figure out why this is happening and try to stop it. During this short, we find out that Charlie has a special way with the arachnorses, the large spiders born from the giant spider in the third book, which are being trained as mounts. We also see how Chess has grown in his wisdom over the years.

“In Scarlet Town (Today)” takes place about a year before “Hexmas”. The leaders of Hexicas summon Chess to help them solve a murder, which should be impossible due to the Oath that all hexes must take to live in Hex City. Chess uncovers a cauldron of bad feelings between the hexes and the so-called “naturals”, upon whom many of the hexes look down and consider inferior, while the “naturals” are resentful of their treatment but feel they are stuck there and unable to leave. Charlie does as much to solve this as Chess.

I really did enjoy all the short stories, which gave a more in-depth look at some of the people from the series, as well as catching the reader up on them since the end of the series. Fans of the trilogy might want to purchase the omnibus mainly so they can read these stories, if for no other reason. I really have enjoyed reading these stories and look forward to whatever this author might come up with next. Watch for a guest post from the author, and a giveaway, coming on Friday on my blog!

Series Information: The Hexslinger Series
Book 1: A Book of Tongues, review linked here
Book 2: A Rope of Thorns, review linked here
Book 3: A Tree of Bones, review linked here

Disclosure: I received a copy of the omnibus from ChiZine in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.

Omnibus Synopsis: It’s 1867, and the Civil War is over. But the blood has just begun to flow.

For Asher Rook, Chess Pargeter, and Ed Morrow, the war has left its mark in tangled lines of association and cataclysmic love, woken hexslinger magic, and the terrible attentions of a dead god. “Reverend” Asher Rook is the unwilling gateway for the Mayan goddess Ixchel to birth her pantheon back into the world of the living, and to do it she’ll force Rook to sacrifice his lover and fellow outlaw Chess Pargeter. But being dead won’t bar Chess from taking vengeance, and Pargeter will claw his way back out of Hell, teaming with undercover-Pinkerton-agent-turned-outlaw Ed Morrow to wreak it. What comes back into the world in the form of Chess Pargeter is a walking wound, Chess’s very presence tearing a crack in the world and reshaping everything around him while Ixchel establishes Hex City, a city state defying the very laws of nature—an act that will draw battle lines between a passel of dead gods and monsters, hexes galore, spiritualists, practitioners of black science, a coalition set against Ixchel led by Allan Pinkerton himself, and everyone unfortunate enough to be caught between the colliding forces. None of which will stop Chess from hunting down Rook, now consort to Ixchel, even if he has to rip the world apart to do it.

With the barriers between worlds crumbling, a new war being waged across the American West, and Ixchel preparing to kick off an Apocalypse fed by shed human blood while Rook plots one, final, redemptive treachery of his own, everything will come down to Chess Pargeter, once again trapped in a nightmarish underworld. But Chess has fought his way out of hell before. . . .

@GemmaFiles @ChiZinePub #Review A BOOK OF TONGUES by Gemma Files

A Book of Tongues by Gemma Files

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Please note: I read this book in November, 2011 from an e-galley I received from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. I will be posting a blog tour review of the omnibus December 18, 2013, but first will be posting the individual reviews of the books. Enjoy!

Book Info: Genre: Weird Western/Supernatural Horror/Steampunk
Reading Level: Adult
Recommended for: Fans of Weird West, horror, those interested in Meso-American religious practices
Trigger Warnings for Book 1: Murder, violence, fairly graphic M/M sex, drug abuse, suicide, rape (m/m; f/m with woman as instigator), human sacrifice

My Synopsis: “Reverend” Ash Rook and Chess Pargeter run one of the most notorious gangs in the weird west, using Rev’s hexes in order to rob and murder their way across the country. They are also lovers, as in love as two apparently soulless outlaws can be. However, hexes don’t mix, and that is a serious disadvantage to the Rev’s future plans – so he sets out to make it possible for hexes to work together. In doing so, he will raise a pantheon of lost gods back from their own hell and set them loose upon the world. Agent Ed Morrow of the Pinkerton Agency has infiltrated their gang in order to try to establish parameters that it is hoped will help the US find hexes before they come into their power and nurture them, in order to have them work for the government. However, Ed is found out by Rook and ends up a part of Rook’s plans, all unwitting. Will Rook end up sacrificing everything he ever loved in his quest for power? Will Ed survive the whole experience? And will the world survive the cataclysms that may arise along with the ancient Meso-american gods?

My Thoughts and Recommendations: This was a … very strange book. I liked it – a lot! It was unique and I definitely enjoyed all the Aztec/Mayan legends and lore that were worked into the story. Rook and Chess’ love affair was so beautifully dysfunctional, and the supporting cast of characters were all developed in such a way to give them depth and interest. I particularly liked Hosteen. If you enjoy steampunk, “weird West,” and adventure, and are not bothered by m/m interactions, you should find something to enjoy in this delightfully strange and different story.

Synopsis: Two years after the Civil War, Pinkerton agent Ed Morrow has gone undercover with one of the weird West's most dangerous outlaw gangs—the troop led by "Reverend" Asher Rook, ex-Confederate chaplain turned "hexslinger," and his notorious lieutenant (and lover) Chess Pargeter. Morrow's task: get close enough to map the extent of Rook's power, then bring that knowledge back to help Professor Joachim Asbury unlock the secrets of magic itself.

Magicians, cursed by their gift to a solitary and painful existence, have never been more than a footnote in history. But Rook, driven by desperation, has a plan to shatter the natural law that prevents hexes from cooperation, and change the face of the world—a plan sealed by an unholy marriage-oath with the goddess Ixchel, mother of all hanged men. To accomplish this, he must raise her bloodthirsty pantheon from its collective grave through sacrifice, destruction, and apotheosis.

Caught between a passel of dead gods and monsters, hexes galore, Rook's witchery, and the ruthless calculations of his own masters, Morrow's only real hope of survival lies with the man without whom Rook cannot succeed: Chess Pargeter himself. But Morrow and Chess will have to literally ride through Hell before the truth of Chess's fate comes clear—the doom written for him, and the entire world.



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