The Buntline Special

October 11, 2010
In this lusterless steampunk western, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are outfitted with superhard brass body armor and Gatling-style handguns; Thomas Edison is a cyborg working with Ned Buntline on motorized stagecoaches and other wonders; lawman Bat Masterson has vampiric tendencies; gunslinger Johnny Ringo is a zombie bent on besting Holliday in a gunfight; and Geronimo is a successful shaman and general making sure the United States stops at the Mississippi. Five-time Hugo winner Resnick brings a sparse, dialogue-centric writing style to the classic story of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, twisting it ever so slightly to blend magic and mechanism into its narrative weave. The larger story of the feud is untouched, making Resnick's rendition feel like a copycat of Tombstone with gears glued on.

October 15, 2010

Alternate history cum steampunk Western, with Resnick (Starship: Flagship, 2009, etc.) developing the most famous of all the legends of the Old Wild West.

In 1881, the westward expansion of the United States was halted at the Mississippi River by the magic of powerful Indian wizards. Claiming Manifest Destiny, the government pays inventor Thomas Edison to go to Tombstone, Ariz., and find a way to counteract the magic. Unable to defeat the wizards, Tom teams up with Ned Buntline to invent electric-powered horseless carriages, impenetrable brass, electric lighting, even metal ladies to staff the local whorehouse. Wyatt Earp and his brothers, Bat Masterson, and consumptive dentist-gunfighter Doc Holliday, have been hired as bodyguards, since Tom already lost an arm to an assassination attempt and now sports a handsome brass cyborg replacement. Indian wizard Hook Nose has hired the Clanton gang to dispose of Edison, so the scene is set. Unfortunately, another wizard turns Bat Masterson into a giant vampire bat. Worse yet, Hook Nose reanimates murdered gunslinger Johnny Ringo to kill Edison, but the well-educated Ringo wants to stay undead, so he avoids Edison, preferring to discuss philosophy and literature with Holliday, drink and visit the metal ladies. Clearly, the real showdown will be between Holliday and the revoltingly undead Ringo. Holliday's dry wit and fast reflexes provide the substrate as with great relish Resnick subversively refurbishes this notorious collection of fact and embroidery.

At times overly talky, but a clever and refreshing do-over that leaves the door ajar for sequels.

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November 15, 2010

The Apache wizard Geronimo has halted American expansion west of the Mississippi River, so the U.S. government sends science genius Thomas Edison, along with writer and manufacturer Ned Buntline to Tombstone, AZ, with the mandate to use science to defeat magic. Hired as bodyguards are Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Bat Masterson. As the confrontation between mysticism and technology builds to a climax, an undead Johnny Ringo joins the fray--and the "wild West" becomes even wilder. Crafting his own steampunk version of the American West, the five-time Hugo Award winner and author of the Lucifer Jones series brings a new twist to a familiar and oft-chronicled time in American history. VERDICT Resnick's followers and fans of the Old West will appreciate the author's humorous take on both the Western and steampunk genres.

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