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A review by twilliamson
Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger by K.C. Grifant, K.C. Grifant
4.0
A review copy of Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger was provided to me by Brigid's Gate Press. The thoughts and opinions in this review are entirely my own and have not been influenced in any way by the publisher.
K.C. Grifant's debut novel takes a page out of old pulp adventure novels: adventure and action take precedent, and what matters is that you have fun with the story along the way. Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger has plenty of action and fun to go around, brimming with enthusiastic ideas for excitement and future stories.
Melinda West, the western-inspired heroine of the novel, fits in well with other pulp heroes and heroines like her--a woman of action, not long and extended philosophizing, and Grifant puts all of the emphasis in this novel on action and adventure. West has a job to do, and she's going to do it or die trying. That spirit of momentum carries through the whole novel, a whirlwind of new set-pieces, minor characters, and major stakes every couple of chapters. Hats off to Grifant: this is pulp heroics through and through.
Nevertheless, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed this book (no, seriously, this book is good fun), as a debut novel is does have its flaws. Like most pulp adventure novels, the story can be pretty light on characterization or character motivation. We barely have time, for example, to get to know Melinda and Lance before they're thrust into adventure, and the stakes of that adventure continue to escalate repeatedly through the whole book without any detailed explanation of why. New characters are introduced every couple of chapters, but we don't really stay with them long enough to get a great read on them, either. But that's not entirely the point of the exercise; does it really matter that we don't know much about the bad guys or their motivations as the story trudges forward? In pulp adventure, too much exposition can be tedious, can suck the momentum away, and these are characters of action, not of extended scenes of dialogue and background. That's not to say that Grifant doesn't know when to take a moment to show us her characters interacting with one another; we learn by doing in pulp adventure, not by being told.
And to a certain extent, the story doesn't really suffer from the elements it might lack. The point of a character like Gene or Topaz isn't to delve into extensive backstory that would take focus away from the adventure; they're there to complicate the circumstances of the story, to act as complement to Melinda's skills or as obstacles to her goals. Their implied backstories are enough, and as long as the action is moving forward, the story is working. The same goes for the story's villains. Although we eventually do get some explanation for the big bad's actions in the story, much of the book is spent exploring a fairly black-and-white relationships between Melinda and the book's villains: the bad guys do bad things, and the good guys oppose them. Mileage may vary on how these elements are received, but I can't find fault in the style this book wants to emulate. This book is pulp, and these story elements are features of what pulp is and does.
Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger is a perfectly bingeable read, the kind of story best devoured on a Saturday morning, chapter-by-chapter, episode-by-episode. It's the perfect vehicle for a series, with characters worthy of their own spin-offs and adventures, an implied lore and world worth exploring and learning more about, a treat to look forward to with every new installment. There's so much to enjoy about a book like Melinda West, and I hope not to see the sun set on this character for a long time.
K.C. Grifant's debut novel takes a page out of old pulp adventure novels: adventure and action take precedent, and what matters is that you have fun with the story along the way. Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger has plenty of action and fun to go around, brimming with enthusiastic ideas for excitement and future stories.
Melinda West, the western-inspired heroine of the novel, fits in well with other pulp heroes and heroines like her--a woman of action, not long and extended philosophizing, and Grifant puts all of the emphasis in this novel on action and adventure. West has a job to do, and she's going to do it or die trying. That spirit of momentum carries through the whole novel, a whirlwind of new set-pieces, minor characters, and major stakes every couple of chapters. Hats off to Grifant: this is pulp heroics through and through.
Nevertheless, as much as I thoroughly enjoyed this book (no, seriously, this book is good fun), as a debut novel is does have its flaws. Like most pulp adventure novels, the story can be pretty light on characterization or character motivation. We barely have time, for example, to get to know Melinda and Lance before they're thrust into adventure, and the stakes of that adventure continue to escalate repeatedly through the whole book without any detailed explanation of why. New characters are introduced every couple of chapters, but we don't really stay with them long enough to get a great read on them, either. But that's not entirely the point of the exercise; does it really matter that we don't know much about the bad guys or their motivations as the story trudges forward? In pulp adventure, too much exposition can be tedious, can suck the momentum away, and these are characters of action, not of extended scenes of dialogue and background. That's not to say that Grifant doesn't know when to take a moment to show us her characters interacting with one another; we learn by doing in pulp adventure, not by being told.
And to a certain extent, the story doesn't really suffer from the elements it might lack. The point of a character like Gene or Topaz isn't to delve into extensive backstory that would take focus away from the adventure; they're there to complicate the circumstances of the story, to act as complement to Melinda's skills or as obstacles to her goals. Their implied backstories are enough, and as long as the action is moving forward, the story is working. The same goes for the story's villains. Although we eventually do get some explanation for the big bad's actions in the story, much of the book is spent exploring a fairly black-and-white relationships between Melinda and the book's villains: the bad guys do bad things, and the good guys oppose them. Mileage may vary on how these elements are received, but I can't find fault in the style this book wants to emulate. This book is pulp, and these story elements are features of what pulp is and does.
Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger is a perfectly bingeable read, the kind of story best devoured on a Saturday morning, chapter-by-chapter, episode-by-episode. It's the perfect vehicle for a series, with characters worthy of their own spin-offs and adventures, an implied lore and world worth exploring and learning more about, a treat to look forward to with every new installment. There's so much to enjoy about a book like Melinda West, and I hope not to see the sun set on this character for a long time.