Review by Win Wiacek
Following on from Whisky & Hate, this utterly outrageous and supremely entertaining sequel sagebrush saga from Australian raconteur Christian Read and his latest visualiser Paul Mason blends time-honoured tropes of the wild west with sinister sorcerous sensibilities.
Once upon a time in the west, the world changed and magic – although always real and rare – became part and parcel of everyday life. Without preamble the adventuresome action opens with a gunfight against an extremely unpleasant and grudge-bearing witch.
Our narrator remains Wicasa Waken, Ten Shoes, an urbane and erudite Oxford-educated shaman detailing his life following his return to the land of his birth. His recollections began in the previous volume when he made the rather prickly acquaintance of a Western Legend and celebrated dime novel hero – The Eldritch Kid. Sadly like most heroes finally-met, he’s a disappointment, being a surly, taciturn, creepy freak.
He’s a mean, mercenary bastard and a tough man to like for the philosophically inclined, poetry-loving Ten Shoes, but circumstances keep them together after the Eldritch Kid reveals his origins. Despite his attitude, he’s been doing his Lord’s work.
That mission continues here as the Diabolist Duo inconclusively clash with bounty hunting old enemy Jacinta Gun-Gunn, and in the aftermath are recruited by former palaeontologist Mr. Othniel. He wants them to steal back his greatest discovery, the full and bejewelled skeleton of a lost prince of a civilisation that perished millions of years previously.
With dinosaur skeletons tearing the countryside up, the gunslingers are kept busy to stop the almighty horror called the Priest King and restoring an earlier age of bloody sacrifice and life-extending butchery. Ragnarok, anyone?
Rowdy, rousing, purely bonkers and spectacularly action-packed, Bone War is a sharp, satisfying and mordantly funny yarn to delight lovers of genre fiction and witty mash-ups. Unfortunately physical copies aren’t available via online booksellers, so you might want to try Gestalr Publishing direct.
