STRAIGHT OUT OF DEADWOOD
Edited by David Boop
Baen Books
265 pgs
All too often we’ve heard literary types bemoan the fact
that the art of writing short stories is dead in America. Now that is geared to
the fact that many of the classic slicks like Saturday Evening Post and others
of such renown are no longer in existence. And yet it is in the field of New
Pulp that we find short stories are not only alive but flourishing thanks to a
new generation of talented young writers.
One genre in particular exemplifies that fact and it is
Weird Westerns. Recently writer/editor David Boop put together three good-sized
weird westerns anthologies of which “Straight Out of Deadwood” is the latest.
It contains 17 cautionary tales filled with suspense, horror and a good dose of
sheer creepiness. We confess most of the writers in this collection were
unknown to us, but after having read their stories, we certainly plan on
searching out more of their fiction.
In a perfect world, all anthologies would have nothing but
great stories. Alas, in our real world “Straight Out of Deadwood” runs the
spectrum in quality from top to bottom. Among our personal favorites were Mike
Resnick (a writer we are quite familiar with) “The Doctor and the Specter,”
about Doc Holliday’s last words before dying. It’s a gem. Charlaine Harris’ “A
Talk with My Mother,” has a marvelous O’Henry ending that had us
chuckling. Derrick Ferguson’s well known
Sebastian Red character shows up in “The Relay Station at Wrigley’s Pass” much
to our delight. We were impressed with Marsheila Rockwell’s “Dreamcatcher.” Honorable mentions for pure scary stuff goes
to Betsy Dornbucsh’s “The Petrified Man” and Travis Heerman’s “Blood Lust and
Gold Dust.”
The remaining entries were so-so, with one absurdly morbid
to the point of being disgusting. As we stated at the offset, anthologies
generally are a mixed bag. Overall, because there were more winners than
clunkers and so we gladly recommend you pick this one up.
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