Weird West

Outlaws and occultists...sharpshooters and starships...this is the strange and amazing world of Weird West, a literary subgenre that combines elements of the Wild West with fantasy, science fiction or horror. Yeergh-hawhrrr! (That's zombie-speak for "Yee-haw!").

Bull, Emma. Territory. 2007. (Science Fiction Bull.E) 

Wyatt Earp. Doc Holliday. Ike Clanton. You think you know the story, but you don't. Tombstone, Arizona in 1881 is the site of one of the richest mineral strikes in American history, where veins of silver run like ley lines under the earth, a network of power that belongs to anyone who knows how to claim and defend it. Above the ground, power is also about allegiances. A magician can drain his friends' strength to strengthen himself, and can place them between him and danger. The one with the most friends stands to win the territory. Jesse Fox left his Eastern college education to travel West, where he's made some decidedly odd friends, like the physician Chow Lung, who insists that Jesse has a talent for magic. In Tombstone, Jesse meets the tubercular Doc Holliday, whose inner magic is as suppressed as his own, but whose power is enough to attract the sorcerous attention of Wyatt Earp. Events build toward the shootout of which you may have heard. But you haven't heard the whole, secret story until you've read Emma Bull's unique take on an American legend, in which absolutely nothing is as it seems...

Bunn, Cullen. The Sixth Gun (Vol.1). 2010. (YA 741.5973 Bunn.C bk. 1)

During the darkest days of the Civil War, wicked cutthroats came into possession of six pistols of otherworldly power. In time, the Sixth Gun, the most dangerous of the weapons, vanished. When the gun surfaces in the hands of an innocent girl, dark forces reawaken. Vile men thought long dead set their sights on retrieving the gun and killing the girl. Only Drake Sinclair, a gunfighter with a shadowy past, stands in their way.

Bunn, Cullen. The Sixth Gun (Vol.2). 2010. (YA 741.5973 Bunn.C bk. 2)

In the aftermath of the tragic battle of the Maw, Drake and company hide in the sprawling city of New Orleans. But as they plot their next move, they find themselves embroiled in another harrowing adventure. Unexpected threats, new enemies, and a host of strange spirits are already aligning against them.

Kibuishi, Kazu. Daisy Kutter. 2006. (YA 741.5973 Kibui.K v. 1)

Daisy Kutter, notorious bandit of the New West, takes one last train heist before leading a normal life. But this job will alter her life more drastically than she realizes. Full of action and romance, this trade paperback collects the very first Daisy adventure into one complete volume.

King, Stephen. The Gunslinger. 2003. (Fiction King.S 2003)

Roland, the world's last gunslinger, tracks an enigmatic Man in Black toward a forbidding dark tower, fighting forces both mortal and other-worldy on his quest. The first book of King's epic Dark Tower series.

TenNapel, Doug. Iron West. 2006. (YA 741.5973 Tenna.D)

Preston Struck is an incompetent outlaw with a heart of fool's gold. He discovers an army of metal men bent on destroying central California. While Struck avoids any form of heroism, he gets a little help from a magical old shaman and his sidekick Sasquatch. Struck is going to need all the help he can get because he's deputized just as the mechanical men have taken over the railroad and are mutating the train into a giant demonic iron monster.

Van Lente, Fred. Cowboys and Aliens. 2011. (741.5973 Vanle.F)

In 1873 Arizona, the continuous battle between a Native American tribe and white settlers is halted when an alien spaceship lands in the desert with plans to conquer Earth.