Westerns, I should say, were never really my thing. I liked Emma Bull's SF-novel Falcon just fine though, and so I decided to give Territory a try, too, in spite of its not-immediately-appealing premises as stated on the back-cover.

And I enjoyed it. More, I'd say this is my favourite work by this author thus far.

In my opinion, it's not really a Western. I wouldn't describe it as 'fantasy' either, or a 'western fantasy'. To me, Territory is, at heart, a tragicomedy of manners, comparable to Connie Willis' To Say Nothing of the Dog, Lois McMaster Bujold's A Civil Campaign and Jane Austen at her best. It's not a romance, pur sang, but yes, there is ado about a ball and who gets invited to it by whom, and yes, the story is very much driven by its characters and their place in the society of Tombstone.

It's also a smashing good read. ( )

In Serenity Found (essays about the Serenity/ Firefly ‘verse) there’s an essay by Bruce Bethke explaining why there’s so little science fiction (and by extension, fantasy) with western themes and settings. As I remember Bethke’s essay, Hugo Gernsback put a one- page ad in every issue of Amazing saying you’d never find that trope in his magazine. So, even though Gene Roddenberry described the original Star Trek to the NBC studio execs as “wagon train to the stars,” and there was an episode (a stupid one) of that show set in Tombstone, there just isn’t much sf/ f with western settings.

According to Bull’s novel, which is set in Tombstone, where we never see the infamous gunfight, Wyatt Earp is a powerful sorcerer, who has his three brothers and Doc Holliday under his magical control, and a lot of the rest of the town, as well. This story is told from the simultaneous points of view of the invented Mrs. Mildred Benjamin, a recent (and Jewish) widow, who comes to know the Earps wives and has some magic of her own. She works as a typesetter, then reporter for one of the local newspapers, and she has sent off two stories and had them published in a national magazine. She also has a good impression of Jesse Fox, a cultured white man, who learned his magic from Chow Lung, a Chinese doctor. When he is murdered, Jesse must find his murderer. Doc Holliday is also a POV character, he has a little magic as well.

After reading this and Sarah Canary I hope to chase down more sf/f western pastiches. I would very much like to read more by Emma Bull about Mildred Benjamin, her incipient career as a writer, and Jesse Fox, his magic, and horse training and whatever it is Chu will be able to do. But I don’t expect to, because Emma Bull is not very prolific in her wonderfulness, nor is she prone to write sequels, but on her website or live journal or something she says she is working on one! Yippe-kayo-kay-yeah! ( )

This is really good - intriguing characters, a neat spin on an old story, and a quietly twisty plot. I reached the end and wished that it kept going ( )

This book finally came out in paperback, so I jumped on it. Bull writes a fine quality of fantasy in general, and this is no different in quality. But she has produced something highly original. In substance, this is a story of life in Tombstone, Arizona, in the days when it was a booming mining town. The historic verisimilitude comes through at every point without detracting from the finely drawn characters. The women characters are especially well done, although every character is distinctive and believable. The fantasy is subtle, running through the plot without ever coming quite out into the open. This blend of Western and fantasy is a fine example of story-telling. ( )

Profound pacing problems really made this book hard to finish. Which is too bad; I'm a big fan of Emma Bull's writing. ( )