Low Noon: Tales of Horror \u0026 Dark Fantasy from the Weird Weird West by David B. Riley

Low Noon: Tales of Horror \u0026 Dark Fantasy from the Weird Weird West Reviews

• 
  Melki

  Cowboys and Indians, ranch hands and bounty hunters mix it up with shapeshifters, witches, cannibals and all sorts of undead varmints in this collection of spooky, Western-flavored tales.
  
  Like most anthologies, this is a mixed bag of the good, the bad and the somewhat entertaining.
  Most of the stories are injected with a sly bit of humor, which I appreciated.
  
  Crow fired two more bullets into the badger-warrior's chest, and the badger-warrior's knees buckled and he pitched forward onto his face, his broadsword was still clutched in his spasming fingers.
  
  "Why did your bullets hurt him, and not my shotgun blast?" complained Ferguson.
  
  "My pistol has been blessed by a prophet," said Crow. With an uncharacteristic flourish, he spun the .45 Peacemaker and dropped it into his gunleather. "Has your shotgun been blessed by a prophet?"
  
  "No," growled Ferguson, "but my fist has blessed a few people in the face."
  
  Unless you're a yellow-bellied son of a brothel keeper,
  you'll probably enjoy at least a few of these stories.
  
• 
  Riju Ganguly

  Weird Western is a genre which is practiced by many, but where the actual rate of striking gold is very low. The collection under review is a classic case where several authors (including the esteemed editor) has thought that by throwing Indians, Blacks, Whites (mostly racists) and a few Mexicans into a potpourri and by applying heat to it in the form of some menace they can cook up a tasty dish. Alas, things weren’t that easy. But let me go story-by-story.
  1) ‘Drawn Out’ by Don D’ Ammassa: One of the better stories, with a nice twist in the tail, this one begins the book sweetly. 4/5
  2) ‘Trail of the Brujo’ by Matthew Baugh: Not as good as the first one, this story still makes for a good, fast read. 4/5
  3) ‘Before All This Modern Stuff’ by Lyn McConchie: Solid stuff. The weirdness came very late, but it was a gripping & grim read alright. 4/5
  4) ‘Feeding Pluto’ by C.J. Killmer: Very good story, with a lean narrative, and a vicious ending. 4/5
  5) ‘A Quarter Past Death’ by Henrik Ramsager: The book starts going downhill. 2/5
  6) ‘The Five Disciples’ by Joel Jenkins: The BEST story of this collection, and one (me included) would be prudent to go looking for more stories written by Joel Jenkins, rather than sifting through all these anthologies. 5/5
  7) ‘The Judiciales’ by John Howard: Absolute rubbish. 0/5
  8) ‘Hell Home on the Range’ by Sam Kepfield: A thriller, undoubtedly, which ended abruptly and in a most unsatisfactory manner. The author needs to be either sued, or harassed until he produces a novel. 3/5
  9) ‘Art Lessons’ by Kit Volker: A disappointment, really, to find such a muted & bloodless ghost story amidst all the sun, dust, blood, and spit. 3/5
  10) ‘The Temptation of Darcy Morgan’ by David Boop: One of the most long-winding stories that I have read, and which got totally wasted with its open-endedness. Stay away from the author. 0/5
  11) ‘Realgar’ by Jackson Kuhl: So much promise, and yet such a vague ending! Criminal wastage, really. 1/5
  12) ‘A Walk in the Woods’ by David B. Riley: Comic & weirdness can go together, but requires a huge amount of skill, which was absent in the story, making it a massive failure. 0/5
  
  Overall score: 30/60, making the book worth 2.5 stars, rounding it to 3 stars.
  
  Your call.
• 
  Catullus

  The two stories I liked best were by Don D’Ammassa and Joel Jenkins. Both authors are skilled story tellers who are a cut above the rest.