Monday, April 1, 2013

The Six-Gun Tarot

The Six-Gun Tarot
by R. S. Belcher
Tor, 2013.  361 pgs. Science Fiction

Take a big old galvanized metal washtub such as were used for Saturday night baths in the real Old West. Fill it with reanimated body parts, a one-of-a-kind guardian angel and his occasional visitor, Lucifer, a jade eyeball of immense power, a sturdy little pony named Promise, a slew of memorable characters including the sheriff who couldn't die, the half-breed Indian named Mutt, and the Sword-of-Laban wielding Mormon elder, along with a  young boy named Jim who just arrived in the Nevada town of Golgotha carrying a great secret.  Pour poisonous black blood over the whole mixture, and throw in a handful of tiny but bright sparkles, LED lights or fireflies or the like. Stir it altogether and you have an idea of the contents of R. S. Belcher's The Six-Gun Tarot.  Not a book to everyone's taste, granted. But memorable and even heartening in the end.

LW

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