The Buntline Special

I'm not a huge fan of westerns, alternate history, or steampunk, but I am a huge fan of Mike Resnick so I decided to trust him. And I was not led astray. It's 1881 and Thomas Edison lives in Tombstone, Arizona, designing fantastic inventions for Ned Buntline to construct. The Earps are in town, and Bat Masterson and Doc Holliday and a bunch of other famous characters from the time period, plus cyborgs and zombies and vampires. Because why not. It's not really steampunk - it's all electricity, not steam - but the aesthetic is similar. I think this story might have been better had it been entirely fictional characters, but I've read enough fiction about Doc Holliday to appreciate him as an amusingly sardonic antihero. Looking forward to show more the rest of the series. show less

Mike Resnick is one of the most prolilfic speculative fiction authors around, but I had never read his work before. When I saw this steampunk novel, I jumped at the chance to give him a try and read more in one of my favorite sub-genres. Unfortunately, this novel doesn't encourage me to read him again.

First of all, the positive: the world here is fascinating, and Resnick has definitely done his research. His Tombstone is populated by people who really lived and died there. The tale is told through Doc Holliday, and his perspective is interesting and yet...

It's very hard to carry suspense in a book when your character is already dying of tuberculosis and doesn't fear death. A lot of dramatic things happen and Holliday doesn't really show more react. Actually, the entire cast consists of very stoic men. They make witty banter in conversation, but don't show any expression. It made the entire thing feel stiff and emotionless. The only women in the cast are Big Nose Kate, a madam, and her whores (which includes robotic ones). Most of the men in the book also frequent the whorehouse. That may be historically accurate, yet... meh. I also found the whole shiny steampunk robot sex thing to be a turn-off, and was glad it never showed a scene of it.

There was an entire subplot with Bat Masterson that seemed to be there to distract the others. I had been excited that Bat was a character, but he simply showed up, did weird stuff because of a curse, and never touched the main plot. Speaking of the main plot, the entire book works up to the big gunfight between Doc Holliday and Johnny Ringo. Doc quickly figures out why Ringo hasn't killed him yet, but every time they meet it becomes a chat of, 'You here to kill me yet?' 'No. Let's talk classic literature.' It was cute at first but got old as it dragged on. And then when they do fight, it's anticlimactic; actually, that's the pattern of the whole book--lots of talking and very little action. Because it's a steampunk book, it's like Resnick had to force steampunk into the resolution and then did the most obvious and practical thing (which involves fire).

Actually, a number of the steampunk elements felt forced in but didn't really make sense. For example, the point of the book is that the gunmen are there to protect Thomas Edison and Buntline. Their houses are reinforced by bullet-proof brass and even has a FORCE FIELD to keep them safe. Yet the men, especially Buntline, keep wandering all over town with chest armor but nothing to protect their heads. If they are really in danger, don't leave the house! And no one ever shot them.

In case you couldn't tell, I was disappointed by the book.

The concept is incredibly cool. I loved the world. But it really felt like it would have been better as a novella focusing on a steampunk O.K. Corral battle.

I won't be picking up the other books in the series, and I'll hold off on reading Resnick for a while, too. show less

This book is a steampunk 'penny dreadful' in that it is so bad, it's good. Enjoyable, anyway. If you're looking for great prose, characters, or dialogue, you won't find it here, but if you're in the mood for outrageous characters based loosely on historical figures and an unbelievable plot that makes no pretense of taking itself seriously, this is it. It really is a fun, light read.

A fast read, sympathetic to Doc Holliday in the same way as Mary Doria Russell's "Doc," set in an alternate timeline where Edison has teamed up with Ned Buntline to engineer steampunk-world devices. (in the real world a writer & publisher, who supposedly did commission a gun called "The Buntline Special" to give to 5 lawmen who helped him contribute "local color" to his works. This, however, is a myth.) Reznik's writing isn't complex, but it flows nicely with the storyline and is occasionally clever. His re-imagination of Holliday, Edison, et al is well put together and he manages to sneak in a vampire as rationally and naturally as Cherie Priest does zombies in her alt Civil War novels. As well as the steampunk engineering, magic is show more added in on the side of the Native Americans, who have used this to keep the invading whites from getting too far West. Both groups are portrayed as simply humans who have desires that are conflicting, and manage to avoid the "us vs. them" mentality that could easily have taken hold - though the "magic vs. science" issue is a bit cliche.
There are a few appendices. One details the characters' real histories and one repreintes the original newspaper articles from Tombstone about the shootout at the OK Corral. The third is about the author.
(The paper in Tombstone really was called "The Tombstone Epitaph", showing that at least one person there had a sense of humor about the town's reputation.) show less

"The Buntline Special" is weak. Coming off of Mieville's "Perdido Street Station" where I felt as if I could have skipped the setup of the first half of the book to get to the action, "Buntline" is a jarring reversal. There is practically no setting up or describing of anything. It is very much like reading a play because the vast majority of the book is dialogue. The illustrations are very well done, which is fortunate, because they make up for where the author has failed in painting the scene of this yarn.

This considered, the characters are amusing and the dialogue is clever and almost always entertaining. This makes "Buntline" a face-paced, action-packed read as long as conversations qualify as action. The actual shoot-outs that pass show more as the climax of "Buntline" feel rushed and seem to be squeezed in to include elements of actual history to this alternate history tale.

Regarding the plot, this is basically a reimagining of the story of Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday. Included with those familiar characters are cowboys, Indians, and outlaws, but also a zombie, a vampire, and robots (invented by Thomas Edison, of course).

I should probably just stop reading books with pictures. If that is the case, then I don't know for whom this book is intended: there are too many f-bombs for it to be a children's book. I didn't hate it, but I cannot recommend it. show less

An irresistible plot involving as streamline approach to the O.K. Corral gunfight. The story, which follows the consumptive Doc Holliday, draws you in and pulls you along as he allies himself with the Earps and Bat Masterson as they square off against the Clantons and Mclaureys and an erudite zombie Johnny Ringo as they protect inventor Thomas Edison.

I've read at least a couple short stories, novellas and novels from Mr. Resnick. I've enjoyed most of them a lot. This was obviously supposed to be lite and fun, and it was, but it was very repetitious. I felt it could have been about 100 pages shorter and been much better.

The ending scene was definitely not as exciting as I thought it would be either.

I had fun doing my "cowboy" voice while reading Doc Holiday's parts to Shelley (my gf) and she liked it too.

The appendices were a nice touch.