So, while I was out of town, I managed to finish 2 books and start another 2, thanks to the Nook and some Library Wi-Fi. Also picked up St. John's Lutheran Church's recipe book, which has become a sacred relic. (Whomever used it last added annotations that had everyone laughing. That, and being published in 1979, some of the recipes are quite dated.)
None of which has to do with the two-fer I plan on posting tonight. That, and I will not likely be posting about the one book I got digitally, since I don't really think people want to hear about what turned out to be Gay Amish Romance Porn written about the level of USA today.
Anyway, I had started R. S. Belcher's The Six Gun Tarot before I left, but I finished it while I was gone. And since I wasn't about to try to type a blog post on a tablet with a stylus...
This was a fun book that left almost no cliche unused in places, and had a few parts that disturbed me, but probably not for reasons the author anticipated. (One involved the drinking of a mythological creature's menstrual blood, the other involved a hentai like scene wen something in the silver mine claimed its bride.)
However, there is quite a mythological mess contained within. Which, as written, works out well, since none of the characters involved in the mystical shenanigans seems aware of other characters' special place in their respective mythologies.
We get introduced to Jim, trying to cross the 40 mile desert on his was to Golgotha, Nevada. It's post Civil War Era, but not quite past the Gold and Silver Rushes of the mid to late 19th century. Jim nearly dies, talks to a Coyote, and winds up getting saved by Mutt, a Native American who's been outcast by his tribe.
Mutt refers to one of the coyotes as as his brother.
Then we meet Sheriff Jon Highfather, who strangely has several noose marks around his neck, where they tried and failed to hang him. Who saves Maude and Auggie from a man rambling about worms while trying to rob the general store. Maude is married to the local banker and is training her daughter to be one of Lillith's avengers. Auggie, with help from the local taxidermist, is keeping his wife alive in a fish bowl of chemicals in a Frankenstein way.
You get the idea.
Add into this mix the Mormon mayor with two wives and a boyfriend who plays piano at the Chinese brothel (and access to such Mormon paraphenalia as the plates, the glasses, and the sword of Latham), The mysterious man who owns most of the town, and seemingly unrelated passages relating to Biqa, an Angel guarding something on the Earth when not being tempted to rebel by Lucifer Morningstar. (This proves what Uncle Milton already know. Lucifer is a scene stealer.)
Then there are the mad preachers who somehow got control of the mine and start waking up what's bound inside. Which is when all the Lovecraftian incantations start coming out and someone gets tentacles in her private parts.
I know this sounds like a corny train wreck, and there are a few parts where is really is, but there are some rather fascinating meditations of what is real, and how our perceptions of reality are colored by what we believe. Because there are about 5 different explanations of what exactly lies under the mountain, and all of them are treated as equally valid.
It really is a supernatural western, and quite the enjoyable ride. Almost makes me wish I could find that picture of Cthulhu in a stetson.
No comments:
Post a Comment