Book review and giveaway: The Buntline Special

The Buntline Special: A Weird West Tale by Mike Resnick (Advance Reader Copy)

Imagine an America where the native inhabitants have fought back with magic. In Mike Resnick's The Buntline Special, the United States ends at the Mississippi River; the medicine men of various tribes have stopped the advance of the white men. The government is determined to reach the ocean, however, by any means necessary, and have sent Thomas Edison to Tombstone, Arizona in hopes of fighting magic with science. Who best to guard Edison's work than the Earp brothers? And so the story begins...

Resnick creates a wonderful world of the “weird west,” where Doc Holliday walks the streets with Bat Masterson and discusses philosophy with Johnny Ringo – or rather, the resurrected corpse of Johnny Ringo. (Did I mention the tribes use magic? Bat Masterson discovers the perils of underestimating these wizards early on in the story.)

The Buntline Special is fantastically steampunk, as one might expect in an 1881 Tombstone where Edison and Ned Buntline are free to experiment with electricity and weaponry. There are even mechanical prostitutes in town, to the interest of several of the menfolk in town. Readers familiar with the story of the Earp brothers, the Clanton gang, and Doc Holliday will find a fresh new angle with Resnick's storytelling, while those new to the Wild (and/or Weird) West can jump in with no worries. The Buntline Special is a real treat.

We have an advance reader copy of The Buntline Special to give away! To enter the drawing, post a comment below and tell us your favorite character (real or imagined) from the Wild West era. The deadline for entries is Friday, December 17. Good luck!

(More information on Mike Resnick and The Buntline Special is available at Pyr's website.)

Comments

[John Leavitt]

Al Swearengen from Deadwood. One of the best tv characters of all time.

[Russell Jones]

gotta say Doc Holliday - the complexity and confusion surrounding him has always intrigued me.

[bluewoad]

Definitely Jesse James.

[mordicai]

I played a Deadlands game where I mashed up a Fox Mulder clone in the Weird West. That was a nice time. As for my favorite-- I like to imagine out of place characters in the West-- Adam Frankenstein (the monster) may be a bit early, but I like to imagine him emerging from the frozen north, across the Canadian tundra, & down into the Badlands, six-shooters in hand...

[Heather Dunbar]

So hard to chose... I'd probably say Wyatt Earp.

[James Lanaghan]

James West, from the TV series Wild Wild West

[Lynn Faitsch]

Wild Bill Hicock.

[Tyler Childers]

As Mordicai speaks of in a past comment, my favorite Western character is from a series of Deadlands games I ran with friend. Doubleback Jack McGuinnuess (and of course his cousing Twitch) Jack was a man best exemplified by the song, Big Strong Man. Had an arm like a leg and punch that could sink a battleship. A massive man mountain. And as dumb as a sack of hammers, warped broken hammers. He could take horrible amounts of punishment, and call to his cousin, "Twitch, I think I might be hurt a mite."
Twitch, of course, loved dynamite. Not just appreciated it. Loved it. And in the Weird West, two fellas like that could never sit still for long.
They met up with a pack of jackelopes and insisted that they only had a bad case of "antler ear". And there was more good eatin' on the head than you would think.

[Soundofthunder]

Tough one. I'd have to say Zorro... does he count as Wild West?

[Sara]

I was a fan on Emily Edwards from The Native Star

[Page Turner]

Josephine (Josie) Marcus Earp, frontier actress, invented herself and then re-invented Wyatt Earp as a Wild West icon. Judging from an alleged picture of Josie that surfaced in recent years, if she doesn't appear in "The Buntline Special," Mike Resnick missed a genuine opportunity to put some "steam" in steampunk! Edison and Buntline wouldn't have stood a chance Josie Marcus Earp!

[gconoy]

Real: Jesse James. Imagined: Jonah Hex

[Nike Jordan]

A man doesn't automatically get my respect. He has to get down in the dirt and beg for it.