Black Gate

U.S. Marshal John T. Marwood is a soldier in an eternal war, and he’s been traveling a long, long time. Some of the epic battles he’s seen include Thermopylae. Masada. and Agincourt. And when he came to New Mexico Territory, circa 1874, and a small town called Haxan, it became one of the most epic showdowns of his long career.

But before he was a Marshall, Marwood followed a darker path. In this prequel novel, Kenneth Mark Hoover explores some of Marwood’s mysterious past, telling the tale of his search for the fabled golden city of Cibola… and a battle against something very dark inside himself.

I bought the first John Marwood weird western novel, Haxan, at the World Fantasy Convention last year, and I was lucky enough to receive a copy of Quaternity at this year’s Nebulas here in Chicago. This look like one of the better dark fantasy series currently on the market. If you’re a fan of weird westerns, check it out.

Hell is Truth Seen Too Late! Before he became a U.S. federal marshal in Haxan, John Marwood rode with a band of killers up and down the Texas/Mexico border. Led by Abram Botis, an apostate from the Old Country, this gang of thirteen killers search for the fabled golden city of Cibola, even riding unto the barren, blood-soaked plains of Comancheria. And in this violent crucible of blood, dust, and wind, Marwood discovers a nightmarish truth about himself, and conquers the silent, wintry thing coiled inside him.

Quaternity was published by ChiZine Publications on May 21, 2015. It is 299 pages, priced at $16.99 in trade paperback, and $9.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Erik Mohr.

One of the more popular books I featured in my New Treasures coverage last year was the debut fantasy novel by Arianne ‘Tex’ Thompson, a delightful weird western titled One Night in Sixes. The border town of Sixes is quiet in the heat of the day, but at sunset wake the gunslingers and shapeshifters and ancient animal gods whose human faces never outlast the daylight. Appaloosa Elim had to enter Sixes to find his so-called ‘partner Sil Halfwick, who disappeared inside in the hope of making a name for himself among Sixes’ notorious black-market traders.

And now the story of Appaloosa Elim continues in Medicine For the Dead, Book Two of Children of the Drought, published by Solaris in March.

Two years ago, the crow-god Marhuk sent his grandson to Sixes. Two nights ago, a stranger picked up his gun and shot him. Two hours ago, the funeral party set out for the holy city of Atali’Krah, braving the wastelands to bring home the body of Dulei Marhuk.

Out in the wastes, one more corpse should hardly make a difference. But the blighted landscape has been ravaged by drought, twisted by violence, and warped by magic — and no-one is immune. Vuchak struggles to keep the party safe from monsters, marauders, and his own troubled mind. Weisei is being eaten alive by a strange illness. And fearful, guilt-wracked Elim hopes he’s only imagining the sounds coming from Dulei’s coffin.

As their supplies dwindle and tensions mount, the desert exacts a terrible price from its pilgrims – one that will be paid with the blood of the living, and the peace of the dead.

Read the first pages at Thompson’s website. Medicine For the Dead was published by Solaris on March 24, 2015. It is 480 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Tomasz Jedruszek.

I’ve been waiting for the conclusion of Guy Adams’s Heaven’s Gate trilogy since the first installment, The Good The Bad and the Infernal, appeared in March 2013. The second volume, Once Upon a Time in Hell, was published almost exactly a year ago. It’s a gonzo Weird Western with demons, supernatural cowboys, and steampunk Indians.

In the third and final volume, For a Few Souls More, Heaven has fallen to Earth, joining the Union as the 43rd state… and the President sets out for the legendary town of Wormwood, the traveling community which appears once every hundred years for a single day.

The uprising in Heaven is at an end and Paradise has fallen, becoming the forty-third state of America. Now angels and demons must learn to get along with humans.

The rest of the world is in uproar. How can America claim the afterlife as its own? It’s certainly going to try as the President sets out for the town of Wormwood for talks with its governor, the man they call Lucifer.

Hell has problems of its own. There’s a new evangelist walking its roads, trying to bring the penitent to paradise, and a new power is rising. Can anyone stand up to the Godkiller?

For a Few Souls More was published on December 30, 2014 by Solaris. It is 316 pages, priced at $7.99 in paperback and $6.99 for the digital edition. The cover is by Jake Murray.