Peter Grant is one of my favorite indie authors writing today. I first discovered him when his western Brings the Lightning came to my attention last year. Upon reading it, I found the first Western worth reading since Louis L'Amour's passing.
Quoting from the review that I left on Amazon:
The western novel once was a top seller, as the west faded into memory and nostalgia set in for that bygone era. Authors such as Zane Grey, William Raine, B.M. Bower, Max Brand and many others wrote engrossing novels that brought the mythical west to life. These novels emphasized the key aspects of the western mythos: self-sufficiency, integrity, a love and respect for America, and the need for a man to stand on his own two feet.
Sadly, as the authors faded into history themselves, the quality of the Western novel declined, and once the last great western author, Louis L'amour died, the genre completed its fall into decrepitude.
Go to any bookstore today and you will see that the Western section is small(typically restricted to maybe two shelves at your local Barnes & Noble), contains a smattering of reprints of L'amour and Zane Grey, and otherwise is dominated by slender volumes of erotic pornography masquerading as a western. The traditional western is dead and buried, as far as authors and bookstores seem to be concerned.
I had given up on anything worthwhile in that genre being published again, so imagine my pleasant surprise when I found that Castalia House had published the finest western in the last thirty years, a genuine callback to the classics.
Its fast moving, but maintains a focus on what matters. The protagonist is developed, has clear motives, and is a nuanced character without being dragged into the morass of nihilism that so many books today throw the protagonist into. The story is enjoyable, moves along at a good pace, and contains some fine writing and period descriptions. Peter Grant clearly went to some considerable lengths to make sure the book felt authentic to the period, along with being authentic to the rich literary tradition of the western.
The western tradition is strong throughout the book, and a great addition is that the author clearly knows his period guns, as this book has some of the finest gun porn throughout it since...anything Larry Correia ever wrote.
I thoroughly enjoyed reading it and look forward to further books in the series.
As I said in the review, I really looked forward to the sequel, Rocky Mountain Retribution, and upon buying it shortly after its release, I discovered yet another solid entry in the Western genre and a worthy successor to the first book. Walter Ames' continuing adventures are well worth the read and we actually find our character's development having continued from the first book. But I still found myself slightly...unsatisfied with the book and enjoyed it a bit less than the first one.
Let me explain what I mean by that. While I find this book to be slightly inferior to the first book, at least as far as my enjoyment went, that still leaves it as a superlative entry in the genre. I will try not to spoil anything here, but one of the things I like about the stereotypical western novel is the happy ending. At the end of a Zane Grey, B. M. Bower, William Raine, and especially L'Amour novel the characters' have a resolution of some type that by and large is fulfilling, especially in regards to the romantic subplot, and gives the reader a nice way to leave the characters.
We don't really get one of those here, and although the book's major conflict is wrapped up nicely, and the villain is properly seen off in true western fashion, the protagonist is left battered and changed in ways that keep it from being a very happy ending. To my mind at least. It's a lot more like a Max Brand novel in many ways, which is not a bad thing at all, just a personal preference on my part.
The initial inciting incident of the book is well told, and I thought that I knew pretty well where it was headed. Then the actual inciting incident happened, which completely came out of nowhere. If in the first book Grant was writing in the vein of L'Amour, here he is very much writing in the vein of Max Brand. Sometimes bad things happen to good people, deeply scarring things, and the consequences are permanent and irreversible.
It's true to life, but since I read books to escape, I prefer things a little more upbeat. Still, these are two very well written entries into the western genre, a breath of fresh air that it sorely needed, and I strongly recommend you check them both out.
I was especially impressed with the detail that was put into the main antagonist's plan to seize control of large areas of land in Rocky Mountain Retribution, it is complicated and carefully detailed down to the period legal minutiae that show the author's careful research.
The characters are well written and memorable, the story moves along at a brisk pace, the villains are well written and satisfactorily taken down and most enjoyable of all(at least to me), the gun porn is woven throughout both books in a way that not only shows the author's personal familiarity and research with these period guns, but also brings the reader ever deeper into the world. For all the skill that the classic western authors had with their craft, none of them put a fraction of the detail into the period weaponry that is displayed here.
I give Brings the Lightning five stars out of five, and Rocky Mountain Retribution four stars.
For extra enjoyment, read the interview that Castalia House did with Peter Grant where he answers the question of what guns he would use if he were back to the Old West.
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