Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Dead Man's Hand, by Tim Lebbon (author),

Appears in Tor.com Season 2 Collection, Macmillan Audio, August 2016

A young storekeeper in a town in the American west sees a one-eyed man ride into town, and knows there's trouble coming. How much, he has no idea, because Gabriel is no ordinary gunslinger. He's hunting Temple, the man who killed his family--and has been for eight centuries. What follows is a game of chess with Doug as a pawn. Can a pawn survive this game?

This is horror, and that makes it hard for me to give it a fair shake. Doug is a decent enough young man, though, if still callow and unformed, and he does grow over the events of the story. Gabriel and Temple are every bit as distasteful as they are meant to be. The other figures of proper American frontier town are here, and reasonably well-done, if briefly presented.

Probably worth a read or listen if you like horror. I can't really say more than that.

No comments:

Post a Comment