A review by topdragon
Dead Man's Hand: An Anthology of the Weird West by Ben H. Winters, John Joseph Adams, Christie Yant, David Farland, Tobias S. Buckell, Elizabeth Bear, Jonathan Maberry, Hugh Howey, Kelley Armstrong, Mike Resnick, Beth Revis, Seanan McGuire, Joe R. Lansdale, Alastair Reynolds, Tad Williams, Rajan Khanna, Laura Anne Gilman, Alan Dean Foster, Orson Scott Card, Charles Yu, Fred Van Lente, Jeffrey Ford, Walter Jon Williams

4.0

I’ve grown to enjoy subject-based genre anthologies, provided I like the underlying subject matter and John Joseph Adams has yet to produce an anthology that I have not admired. This collection is no exception as he has put together a nice assortment of “weird western” short stories, featuring some well-known authors such as [a:Joe R. Lansdale|58971|Joe R. Lansdale|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1200406474p2/58971.jpg], [a:Mike Resnick|54475|Mike Resnick|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1324507257p2/54475.jpg], [a:Orson Scott Card|589|Orson Scott Card|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1294099952p2/589.jpg], [a:Tad Williams|6587|Tad Williams|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1191183065p2/6587.jpg], and [a:Elizabeth Bear|108173|Elizabeth Bear|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1422586829p2/108173.jpg] as well as others that were new to me. As always, I liked some better than others but there is not a clunker in the bunch.

There are 23 short stories in this collection, ranging from cowboy vampires to robot marshals, to aliens and steampunk adventure. The unifying theme is the Old West, but certainly nothing like the westerns that Zane Gray or Louis L’Amour would write. All in all, a fine collection that has, alas, added yet more authors to my “must read more of their work” list.