Tuesday, April 12, 2005

Lone Star Law

I read this anthology, which is published by Pocket Books, the other day and enjoyed it quite a bit. I'm a sucker for Texas Rangers stories (which explains those hundred-plus issues of the pulp TEXAS RANGERS that I own). This book contains twelve stories, eleven originals and one reprint ("A Job for a Ranger", one of the Chick Bowdrie stories by Louis L'Amour), and was edited by Robert J. Randisi. Among the writers of the originals, we have veterans like Elmer Kelton and relative newcomers like Troy D. Smith and Rod Miller (both of whom contribute excellent stories, by the way). The other authors are Dusty Richards, Randy Lee Eickhoff, Robert J. Randisi, Peter Brandvold, Ed Gorman, Marcus Galloway, and my wife Livia and myself. I liked all the stories, which is a little rare for me where an anthology is concerned. Usually there are one or two I don't care for. I thought Pete Brandvold's "Ghost Colts" was especially entertaining. It's a Western with a little touch of horror to it, a cross-genre combination I'm especially fond of. Most of the stories are traditional Westerns, but there are a few that are more contemporary tales of the Texas Rangers. This one is well worth picking up. (Trivia note: For some reason, the cover that Amazon shows for this book is not the real cover. The cover art on the Amazon page is actually from RAIDER #42: END OF THE TRAIL, which was the final book in the Adult Western series by "J.D. Hardin".)

No comments: