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A review by squidbag
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, Ken Liu, Orson Scott Card, Charles Yu, Fred Van Lente, Jeffrey Ford, Walter Jon Williams
3.0
As with any short story collection, there are bright spots and less-than-bright spots, but overall, this was very much worth the time it took to read.
Good stuff: the Fred Van Lente story toward the end was great, and so was "What I Assume You Shall Assume," with elements of not only the gold rush, but also racism against the Chinese thrown in. The Ben H. Winters (Last Policeman) and Alan Dean Foster stories were both entertaining, no surprise there, and the volume starts off with a Joe R. Lansdale story, as well it should. The Elizabeth Bear story was good - even if it kind of stopped rather than properly ending, and the Charles Yu story was also quite good.
Not so: I was bored with the pace and tone of the Orson Scott Card story, but that could be because I'm unfamiliar with his Alvin Maker stories. "Hell-Bound Stagecoach" was predictable, and could have been an old Twilight Zone. Good story, just predictable. "Sundown" steals a currently overused pop culture riff and does it only okay, and "La Madre del Oro" devolves into nonsense at the end.
There's a bunch I didn't mention here, and most of them are solid - like I said, worth the read.
Good stuff: the Fred Van Lente story toward the end was great, and so was "What I Assume You Shall Assume," with elements of not only the gold rush, but also racism against the Chinese thrown in. The Ben H. Winters (Last Policeman) and Alan Dean Foster stories were both entertaining, no surprise there, and the volume starts off with a Joe R. Lansdale story, as well it should. The Elizabeth Bear story was good - even if it kind of stopped rather than properly ending, and the Charles Yu story was also quite good.
Not so: I was bored with the pace and tone of the Orson Scott Card story, but that could be because I'm unfamiliar with his Alvin Maker stories. "Hell-Bound Stagecoach" was predictable, and could have been an old Twilight Zone. Good story, just predictable. "Sundown" steals a currently overused pop culture riff and does it only okay, and "La Madre del Oro" devolves into nonsense at the end.
There's a bunch I didn't mention here, and most of them are solid - like I said, worth the read.