Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: Steampunk

Thursday, February 08, 2024

The Doctor and The Kid (Weird West Tales #2) 2.5Stars

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Title: The Doctor and The Kid
Series: Weird West Tales #2
Author: Mike Resnick
Rating: 2.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Steampunk
Pages: 235
Words: 77K

Another lacklustre series by Resnick. This was Book #2 in the Weird West Tales series and you might wonder why I read and reviewed this instead of the first book, The Buntline Special. I would recommend you sit down. If you have a weak heart or are given to vapors, please, stop reading now. I didn’t read the first book BECAUSE, da da dum, it wouldn’t open on my kindle oasis.

Shock

Gasp

Wince

Vapors!

I know, I know. It shocked me to the core as well. I even reconverted the azw3 file with calibre and it still wouldn’t open. Since I had stopped caring about Resnick since his pathetic outing on the John Justin Mallory series, I pre-emptively didn’t care about book 1 of this series either. So on to book 2 it was.

Sadly, I made the right choice in pre-emptively not caring.

Doc Holliday is a bastard, pushing away everyone near to him. At one point he deliberately says some really nasty things about his best friend’s wife just because he’s feeling ornery. And Holliday even likes the poor lady. He’s just the worst that humanity has on tap.

Resnick does his patented “He said, He did” style of writing and what could have been a real interesting idea (Geronimo and other Indian shamans have kept the US bottled at the Mississippi River and the US Government has hired Thomas Edison and Ned Buntline to try to find a way to break their magic using technology coupled with Doc Holliday taking down Billy the Kid) turned into a drunken, consumptive asshole killing some people and telling everyone he meets he can’t wait to die.

Inspiring stuff! I was thrilled beyond belief.

It wasn’t terrible. It just wasn’t any good. But I have given Resnick enough passes and so I am done with him as an author.

Next!

★★✬☆☆

From the Publisher

Click to Open

Welcome to a West like you’ve never seen before! With the O. K. Corral and the battle with the thing that used to be Johnny Ringo behind him, the consumptive Doc Holliday makes his way to Deadwood, Colorado. But when a gambling loss drains his bankroll, Doc aims for quick cash as a bounty hunter. The biggest reward? Young, 20-year-old desperado known as Billy the Kid. With a steampunk twist on these classic characters, nothing can be as simple as it seems.

All of My “Mike Resnick” Reviews

Thursday, December 07, 2023

Deja Vu Halloo (Reeves and Worcester Steampunk Mysteries #5) 3Stars

Title: Deja Vu Halloo
Series: Reeves and Worcester Steampunk Mysteries #5
Author: Chris Dolley
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre: Steampunk Mystery
Pages: 139
Words: 42K

It’s been about 2 years since I read the previous Reeves and Worcester book, The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall, and I was hoping that would breathe some new life into this fifth book. Unfortunately, it did not.

Don’t get me wrong, this was still amusing and I don’t regret reading it at all, but it was starting to feel tired. Time machines, the faux-PG Wodehouse expressions, it seemed like Dolley (the author) was just going through the motions. Considering this was published in ‘20 and there’s not been another one, I suspect Dolley realized where things were headed and just stopped before he ran off a cliff. I can respect that in an author.

The timey-wimey aspect of this, with Reeves and Worcester repeating the same day over and over again, glazed my eyes over. When Reeves began explaining how they were going to break the time loop I completely checked out until they did. Worcester getting sloshed every night so he’d remember the time loop was amusing and when you throw in the various things he and Reeves get up to, it was a good time all around. There was one particular amusing part to the story where Worcester meets the Aunt and Uncle of his fiance and they are 8^th Day Secessionists. I just laughed my head off, what with being a 7^th Day Adventist myself.

One thing I would like to see is Worcester and his fiance get married. That has all the hallmarks of some serious Wodehousian shenanigan potential. But sadly, I doubt it will happen. Ahhh, it is better to have read and not got the ending you wanted than to have never read at all. Some bloke named Bookstodge made up that quote. Quite a genius, eh? I thought so. If I could track him down, I’d like to give him a solid gold dumptruck just to show him how appreciative I am of his input into the literary world.

★★★☆☆

From the Publisher

Details-Click to Expand

It’s Groundhog Day, 1906. February 2nd is stuck on repeat, and only our intrepid trio appear to have noticed. Emmeline senses the meddling of a higher power – possibly her aunt. Reggie’s sure it’ll be the handiwork of the subterranean horror one least suspects. And Reeves considers it all “most disturbing.”

Can our heroes save the world from perpetual winter? And could ending the time loop be just the start of an even thornier problem?

This short novel is the sixth Reeves & Worcester Steampunk mystery and is set a few months after The Unpleasantness at Baskerville Hall.

All of My “Reeves and Worcester” Reviews