I like the mix of western and fantasy/horror/even scifi where I can find it, but a lot of the books recommended along that line are a bit too tongue in cheek, or the author is having too much fun stretching their legs with the novelty and freedom of it, which, no hate, but I hate that. I don’t want silly, I don’t want campy, I want real and gritty. I want something written by someone who’s written books before and had something else to say, or needed badly to pay rent. Not someone having fun.
Many many thanks to those who can help me scratch this itch if anything like it exists.
by Chili_Maggot
3 Comments
These might be low hanging fruit but,
The Gunslinger by Stephen King – It’s more of a mix of western and fantasy/horror but is still written very seriously and doesn’t feel like clashing genres.
Blood Meridian by Cormac McCarthy – This is a far darker novel that some people can’t get through. It’s sometimes classified as “anti-western”.
If you want something different, check out Isabel Canas. The wrote The Hacienda and Vampires of el Norte. They are weird west…but Mexican weird west, during the time of the big haciendas. The books are very gothic horror, so you have to be in to that as well.
Vermillion by Molly Tanzer is going to be a bit more weird west traditional, but the main character is Asian and from San Francisco, so bringing a different historical perspective.
Finally, if you just want a more traditional western, Silver on the Road is much more in that vein. Isobel works as the left hand of the devil, who controls the Lousiana Territory in an alternate history.
The Man in the High Castle