With a Blaster on My Hip (Read a space western)
December 9, 2021
The vast distances of space create barriers and difficulties like those faced by settlers as they traveled across the continent to stake a claim in the wild, undeveloped regions of their country. The characters of these stories are forced by a harsh, unforgiving land to become self-sufficient and fiercely independent or insular to survive the trials of a world where centralized help is in short supply and often lightyears away. With these books, you’ll forge a trail through the last unexplored territory, our final frontier: SPACE!
Serenity by Joss Whedon
Everyone’s favorite space cowboys are back in a thrilling, action-packed adventure, where Mal and his crew take on a heist that promises a big payoff. But when a crew member is taken captive, the gang must put aside their differences and work together to save one of their own, even if it means losing the cash prize of a lifetime!
Dark Run by Mike Brooks
The Keiko is a ship of smugglers, soldiers of fortune, and adventurers travelling Earth’s colony planets trying to eke out a living in a corrupt galaxy where life is cheap and criminals are the best people in it. Captain Ichabod Drift and his crew of thieves and con artists could make serious money with this next job—if they survive it.
Ten Low by Stark Holborn
At the edge of the universe, ex-medic and ex-con Ten Low rescues a teenage girl from a crashed spacecraft, setting into motion a perilous race to get off-world. Lawless wastes, military hit squads, savage bandits, organ-sharks, and a good dose of treachery won’t make doing so easy, however.
Red Noise by John P. Murphy
Looking to sell her cargo and get back to the solitude she craves, a lone asteroid miner finds herself caught up in a space station turf war between gangs and corrupt law. Faced with either taking sides or cleaning out the Augean Stables, she breaks out the flamethrower.
Perdition by Ann Aguirre
Perdition: A floating city where the conglomerate’s most dangerous criminals are confined for life, orbiting endlessly around a barren asteroid. Hailed as the Dread Queen, inmate Dresdemona “Dred” Devos controls one of Perdition’s six territories, surrounded by would-be kings eager to challenge her claim. Survival is a continual battle, death the only escape.
Stars Uncharted by S.K. Dunstall
A mismatched crew will end up on one ship, hurtling through the lawless reaches of deep space with Captain Hammond Roystan, a simple cargo runner, at the helm. Trailed by nefarious company men, they will race to find the most famous lost world of all—and riches beyond their wildest dreams.
The Long Earth by Terry Pratchett & Stephen Baxter
1916: The Western Front. Private Percy Blakeney wakes up. He is lying on fresh spring grass. He can hear birdsong and the wind in the leaves. Where have the mud, blood, and blasted landscape of no-man’s-land gone? 2015: Madison, Wisconsin. Police officer Monica Jansson is exploring the burned-out home of a reclusive–some say mad, others allege dangerous–scientist who seems to have vanished. Welcome to the Long Earth, where the further away a stepper travels, the stranger—and sometimes more dangerous—the Earths become.
Dead Man’s Hand edited by John Joseph Adams
From a kill-or-be-killed gunfight with a vampire to an encounter in a steampunk bordello, the weird western is a dark, gritty tale where the protagonist might be playing poker with a sorcerous deck of cards or facing an alien on the streets of a dusty frontier town. Here are twenty-three original tales—stories of the Old West infused with elements of the fantastic.
Frontier Earth by Bruce Boxleitner
In Tombstone, 1881, there’s many a person without a past. But Macklin is a man with no memory. Hunted by bounty hunters, he struggles to make sense of a land on the brink of war while visions of death and destruction on an alien world haunt his memory. He alone has the key to stopping Earth’s destruction—but only if he can remember what it is.