Saturday 12 March 2022

                     The Way-Out Wild West

                       by Lyn McConchie


     This is a collection of stories by Lyn McConchie dealing with the West in the USA not as it was but as Lyn has imagined it to have been. 

     Here there is some steam punk, a touch of the supernatural and more than hints of outer space activity on Earth. 

     The cover is a perfect illustration of what one might expect to come across inside these tales. Yes there are life and death moments. Yes there are mechanical horses. Yes time does play its role in a particular story and yes there is a woman within with extraordinary powers. 

     The stories may be fanciful but they are grounded in Lyn's own knowledge of farming her New Zealand property as well as her travels to the USA and also Mexico.  Lyn knows about horsemanship and has cattle, hens, geese and a cat on her land. She has quite a collection of books including novels from around the world. She also has an extensive understanding of weapons including firearms she can put to great use in her writing. 


      Of the stories the one that I liked most was Harry's Bad Man. It touched upon life and death matters. It was about a strange pack of near humans with their own unique sense of justice.  

      There was The Looking-Glass Girl in which I re-discover that, in the past, inheritance was not always divided up evenly between men and women. The women tended to get less or nothing at all because it was once viewed that a woman would be provided for by her husband and so would require less. I admit this was the thought of my own grandmother when she made out her will. I am glad times have changed. 


          There was Before All This Modern Stuff in which an evil man, sick of the present, journey's back in time only to face his past misdeeds head on. 

           Firedancer is about a gifted woman who is considered by some to be a witch and by others a potential saviour. 

           All considered, a brilliant collection.    

 

Bellambi Lagoon, New South Wales