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dantastic's review against another edition
4.0
When Nina Weaver and her pa ride into Fort Coburn, they have no idea of the carnage they are about to endure, for the Deaduns walk the earth...
Those Poor, Poor Bastards is the first in the Dead West series, a weird western from the fine fellows at Ragnarok Publications. If Night of the Living Dead happened in the Old West, it would be Those Poor, Poor Bastards.
While it's the first book in a series, it in no way falls victim to the syndrome common to those sorts of books. TPPB is polished and as smooth as fine Scotch. It's violent, gorey, and delightful.
The cast of characters is pretty large so you know some people aren't going to live through this book or the next. Nina is a halfbreed Indian that feels conflicted about her heritage. Her pa, Lincoln, is just trying to keep things together. You've got tough guy Manning, those asshole Daggett brothers, and a myriad of others, most notably Thomas Mathias, the Black Robe, and his archnemesis, Liao, the Yellow Hood.
Of course, I have to talk about the Deaduns. They are zombies of the angry fast sort, and have a hidden purpose. Things get a little Lovecraftian near the end, soemthing I always regard as a good thing.
The bodycount and gore level is pretty high. There's one particular scene near the end involving a ruptured eyeball that almost made me gag. Also regarding the end, it leads into the sequel but is pretty satifying on its own, unless we have to wait a decade or more like the gap between the third and fourth Dark Tower books.
Those Poor, Poor Bastards is a nugget of Weird Western gold. Four out of Five stars.
Those Poor, Poor Bastards is the first in the Dead West series, a weird western from the fine fellows at Ragnarok Publications. If Night of the Living Dead happened in the Old West, it would be Those Poor, Poor Bastards.
While it's the first book in a series, it in no way falls victim to the syndrome common to those sorts of books. TPPB is polished and as smooth as fine Scotch. It's violent, gorey, and delightful.
The cast of characters is pretty large so you know some people aren't going to live through this book or the next. Nina is a halfbreed Indian that feels conflicted about her heritage. Her pa, Lincoln, is just trying to keep things together. You've got tough guy Manning, those asshole Daggett brothers, and a myriad of others, most notably Thomas Mathias, the Black Robe, and his archnemesis, Liao, the Yellow Hood.
Of course, I have to talk about the Deaduns. They are zombies of the angry fast sort, and have a hidden purpose. Things get a little Lovecraftian near the end, soemthing I always regard as a good thing.
The bodycount and gore level is pretty high. There's one particular scene near the end involving a ruptured eyeball that almost made me gag. Also regarding the end, it leads into the sequel but is pretty satifying on its own, unless we have to wait a decade or more like the gap between the third and fourth Dark Tower books.
Those Poor, Poor Bastards is a nugget of Weird Western gold. Four out of Five stars.
tomunro's review
4.0
This is an easily digested book, a bit like many of the unfortunate characters in it when the flesh eating zombies get at them. It is not too long and rattles along at a furious pace as, with little preamble, a western town is overrun by the risen dead - well overwalked is probably a better description than overran which is why the heroine can escape at a pace little faster than a well oiled wheelbarrow could roll.
It has three authors and I am not sure that I could tell and I would not like to try and claim any particular narrative element for any one of the authors.
For me, the exquisite pleasure of the book was in the powerfully rendered narrative voice. I can't say if it was accurate, but idioms of phrase and behaviour as well as the many many different ways of saying "gun" gave the book a sense of authenticity that was like the remake of "True Grit"
The story struggled a little because when you have established a group of ill matched and querulous survivors and a hoard of untiring zombies it can become a case of waiting to see who will die next and how. The writers have tried to develop the zombie menace into something a little more specific and personal and made good use of the writer's fall back, if in doubt inject some conflict. There was plenty of that as the heroine and her embattled pa found almost as many living enemies within their refuge as there were dead ones outside it. That certainly kept the pace up, though at times maybe I saw the influence of a change of authorial hand as villains from one scene were gifted an unlikely sympathetic treatment later on.
This is a jolly romp, but I am not at sure where it is going and I would hope the authors avoid the fate of a pair of roman consuls once given joint command of an army. They took command on alternate days and spent ages marching the army in opposite directions one day after the other until an enemy found and overwhelmed them. Perhaps the rigidity of a pair of train tracks will ensure a consistent and coherent direction as the story unfolds.
It has three authors and I am not sure that I could tell and I would not like to try and claim any particular narrative element for any one of the authors.
For me, the exquisite pleasure of the book was in the powerfully rendered narrative voice. I can't say if it was accurate, but idioms of phrase and behaviour as well as the many many different ways of saying "gun" gave the book a sense of authenticity that was like the remake of "True Grit"
The story struggled a little because when you have established a group of ill matched and querulous survivors and a hoard of untiring zombies it can become a case of waiting to see who will die next and how. The writers have tried to develop the zombie menace into something a little more specific and personal and made good use of the writer's fall back, if in doubt inject some conflict. There was plenty of that as the heroine and her embattled pa found almost as many living enemies within their refuge as there were dead ones outside it. That certainly kept the pace up, though at times maybe I saw the influence of a change of authorial hand as villains from one scene were gifted an unlikely sympathetic treatment later on.
This is a jolly romp, but I am not at sure where it is going and I would hope the authors avoid the fate of a pair of roman consuls once given joint command of an army. They took command on alternate days and spent ages marching the army in opposite directions one day after the other until an enemy found and overwhelmed them. Perhaps the rigidity of a pair of train tracks will ensure a consistent and coherent direction as the story unfolds.
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