Once Upon a Time in the Weird West

Reaper's Ride - Astrid Amara - **Featuring a pony express rider and a deal with the devil.Fun story with a nice touch of the occult and ever so slightly creepy.Wild, Wild Heart - Shira Anthony - **Featuring a master inventor of clockworks and a clockwork heart that needs to be repaired.Loved the story, but I am a huge fan of mechanical limbs and such - especially mechanical hearts.Dr. Ezekiel Crumb's Heavenly Soul Purifying Elixir - Lex Chase - *Featuring a snake oil Medicine Show and a deceased lover.Honestly, not my type of story. Second chance romances aren't my type and I was startled by how sci-fi it was.Corpse Powder - Jana Denardo - **Featuring a Jewish doctor, a Navajo airship privateer and a skinwalker.This story was kind of awesome. I like the idea of skinwalkers and it was neat seeing two different religions. (And I loved the black lady captain.)The Sheriff of Para Siempre - Jamie Fessenden - *Featuring a gunslinger turned sheriff and an established relationship.Honestly, there was nothing about this story I liked. The writing style didn't work for me, the story itself was very uncomfortable for me to read.The Tale of August Hayling - Kim Fielding - *The story of a hoard of gold, a prospector and general strangeness. (Can't say what because huge spoilers!)Very seldom am I truly surprised by a book - even the ones that have ‘twists' I can usually see coming or at the very least speculate on. This one though has a pair of twists that I honestly didn't expect at all. Beyond that, it's a rather sweet, simple story.Time Zone - Andrew Q. Gordon - **
Stop me if you've heard this one before: two espers walk into a gay bar and they both have voices in their heads.

So, this story is awesome except for one thing. I don't know how/why it's in a western anthology. I could pick nothing up about where it was set and it is set in modern times with RAM's and flash drives. It is however a story about folks with superpowers that work for a shadowy government organization which is always a quick way to my heart so I'll forgive the out-of-place feeling.


Get Lucky - Ginn Hale - **Dinosaurs, clockwork atomata, element mages and a couple that is so different and yet so perfect for each other. What more do you need?<3 I mean, dinosaurs and steampunk and magic and I'm in love with this story. Simply love and adore everything about it. Except it could have been longer. I would have LOVED that, too. This is the only author in this anthology whose work I've read before, and she's quickly becoming a favorite for me.From Ancient Grudge to New Mutiny - Langley Hyde - **A very western, magiky and very gay Romeo & Juliet.I honestly don't know what to make of this story. There is so much going on in here with feuding families, stolen metal, star-crossed lovers and a very creepy collaring magic. (Like think trackers that send out pain signals when you're supposed to return to the person controlling the collar.) Yet, for me, the weirdest thing was the sex scene where the main guy didn't know his partner's name and mentally refers to him as ‘Golden Boy'. What does it say about me that when I read that, I thought of an over weight, middle aged washed up has been of a superhero?POMH - Venona Keyes - **Featuring a mechanical man that is more than he seems and a inventor of some genius.<3 <3 We have a dog with a prosthetic limb! cough Besides that, I like the story, but the writing style is jumpy. We'll be following one part of the story and then we'll get a flashback to something that happened a few days ago and then we'll be back to the present with little indication of the time changes. There are also bits of the writing that is just plain awkward to read. The story itself relies on a major dues ex machina. (Also, a name was spelt Markus most of the time, but occasionally Marcus.)Oh, Give Me a Home - Nicole Kimberling - **Featuring a pair of space homesteaders. And giant bugs.This story is, most specifically, a space western. We have a pair of ranchers that handle the genetically modified bugs that are fertilizing part of the planet, and rustlers. So, I think the idea is really cool, but something about it - the writing, maybe - just didn't work for me.Gunner the Deadly - C.S. Poe - **
Take one magical special agent from back east, add in one criminal with a heart of gold and mix. (Only one of these is a figurative description.) Season liberally with a totally mad inventor with crazy steam powered weapons and simmer.

I liked this story a lot. It had delightful steampunk contraptions and magic and it was just a blast. I also have been discovering an affinity for lawman/criminal romances.

After the Wind - Tali Spencer - *****
Featuring one fire elementalist, one wind elementalist, and a horde of other elementalists floating around.

I absolutely adore this story. I probably shouldn't say this about a romance - and instead focus on the two totally sweet guys - but the world building was epic. Seriously, I loved the depth that went into this short story.


So, I was very mathematical and figured out the average of all these ratings is 3.5. So, that was close enough to my first thought, I went ahead a gave the book four stars.