Book Review: Wyrd West by Raconteur Press

This ain’t your grandpappy’s wild west, Son - this is Wyrd West!

Think outlaws and grizzlies and clashes with natives are bad? Try werewolves, vampires, and eldritch horrors on for size!

So I’ve been sitting on this review for over a month now, trying to decide if I wanted to post it or not. I bought my copy of Wyrd West from Raconteur Press itself at Libertycon back in June (2024), purposely holding off until then when I found out they would be there in person - nothing better than getting a book straight from the author or small press, especially when they are indie! I even managed to hunt down two of the authors for signatures - thank you, Sam Robb and Matt Ryan!

However, I’ve really dithered with myself on whether or not to post this review and when. I did not want to give a bad impression - I did enjoy the book and WILL purchase the next volume! - but I wasn’t head over heels in love with it, either. And I think readers would like more honest reviews. But since I was inspired to give the genre a whirl myself and wrote a story I intend to submit for consideration for the second volume, I want to make sure this review is live first, just so its clear this review is my honest impression of the first volume alone and is in no way me being disgruntled if my story doesn’t make it into the next one. This review is being published three weeks before contracts go out for volume 2; thus I have not found out yet if my short story own will be quality enough to be included.

So, in short:

Is Wyrd West a good way to get a couple of hours of fun entertainment? My answer to that is an unequivocal yes!

Is it something that will draw me to re-read it over and over again because I loved it so much? Honestly? no.

My understanding of Weird West as a genre was based upon a passing brush with the Deadlands game and a few movies in that vein, which gave me the impression that Weird West as a genre was a focus on either Lovecraftian horror in the wild west, vampires in a Victorian wild west, or other such stories - not a whole lot of fairies or elves or dwarves, oh my.

However, my mind has for the last several years been merging my love of Tolkien with my love of Louis L’Amour, so I’ve been looking more closely at Weird West as a genre and have found that there is more to it than just horror of various types.

And I really wanted to support Rac Press and the author’s they publish!

So I bought my copy.

And before I finally get to the meat of the review, I will point out that no, I do not have publishing credentials - I am not a seasoned editor, journalist, or expert. I’ve only just now started to write down some of the stories in my head as a fledgling writer myself. I’m just a reader, and not even an avid one at that of late. I’m just one of the masses looking for some entertainment and adventure. But I believe that this is the kind of reader that Raconteur Press is targeting with their desire to bring back to life the old pulp style of stories - write stories that are fun and entertaining and written for no other purpose than that.

So take this with a grain of salt - this is purely my opinion as a lay-reader.

With that in mind and realizing I am very much their target audience, I did think that they might like to have the raw feedback from the common Josephine on the ground - how do their stories appeal to a typical reader? And this leads to why I dithered on publishing this review because while I did very much enjoyed elements of it I can’t give the book itself a solid 5 out of 5, no matter how hard I tried, not if I want to be painfully honest.

The Review

I set up a scoring matrix for each story so I could figure out what my overall impression of the book was, scoring each story 1 to 5 on theses metrics:

1. did the story fit the theme well i.e. does it feel like a western AND a fantasy? Did the Wyrd elements really shine through?

2. was the mechanics of the story handled well? Characterization, structure, etc.

3. was it immersive?

4. did the story feel professionally written or did it read more like fan fiction?

5. did I overall enjoy the story?

I used the matrix above to rank each of the 10 stories in order based on their average score, then tallied them all to get my total average for the entire volume. I will not give you that list, but will provide the over all score I came up with for the volume:

• Does it fit the theme well i.e. does it feel like a western? Did the Wyrd elements really shine through? Score: 0.7

This was a higher score. For the most part, the stories well captured in my opinion the feel of the wild west, including recognizable tropes and using typical western elements in a fun way. And most had enough of those fantastical elements to earn the weird description as well. However, there were a few that to me missed the mark a bit on this one, either feeling too fantasy and not enough western or too western and not enough fantasy.

• Were the mechanics of the stories handled well? Characterization, structure, etc. Score: 0.6

This one was, well, okay, but I felt could have been better. Some stories felt rough to me, less engaging. Not grammatically - I found no errors in punctuation, no run-ons, etc; the copy editor for this book did an outstanding job! - but it was more the development of the stories. Some felt like two different stories pushed together into one, while others felt chaotic, making it difficult for me to picture what was going on. A couple felt hurried, like the story was cut to fit the parameters and really should have been longer. This wasn’t true for most of the stories, but there were a few that dragged the overall scoring down, unfortunately.

• Were the stories immersive? Score: 0.8

I had very little trouble getting into the stories as a whole. They were definitely engaging and pulled me in and kept me invested in what was going on! The authors did a great job in crafting their worlds!

• Did the stories feel professionally written or were they more like fan fiction? Score: 0.5

Now we’re getting down to the lowest scores, unfortunately. I’ve read a lot of fan fiction in my time, especially western, and when I compared the writing quality the stories within this volume, several came across to me with the *cringe* amateur feel that comes from very well written fan fiction and not what I’d expect of a professionally written novel. I felt like I was reading fan fiction in several cases.

Now before you get your rope and start herding me towards the nearest tree, I do understand that Raconteur Press is pursuing new authors, and I do understand the challenges of being an indie author - after all, I’m aspiring to be one myself and I am married to an indie author who is trying to make a career out of it! Still, there is a difference between reading free stories posted online that are only looked at by the writer and a few friends before being put up for all to see and reading stories that were professionally edited and reviewed and that I plunked down cash to read, if that makes sense? I guess the best way to put it is that it was obvious that several of these writers are amateurs - good amateurs with potential, but its potential at this stage, and I wish them well and hope they continue to grow in their craft.

• Did I overall enjoy the stories? Score: 0.5

So this score is the most subjective of them all, as this was just my own personal impression of the stories without taking into account the mechanics, the immersion, etc. Did I just plain like the stories? And, as you can tell, the answer is half and half. There were 2 that stood out as absolute favorites - so much so that I am actually looking to see what else those authors have written! - and there were others that I did enjoy. But there were a few that just missed the mark, even though I really, really wanted to like them, and a couple that I just plain did not like at all due to subject matter or ending.

Overall Score: 3.1

I do want to call out my two favorite stories of the set:

Benediction in Lead by Sam Robb - this one I couldn’t read at night because I wimp at things horror and this one definitely had some horror elements! But I loved the characters involved and the story was rock-solid and pulled me in. And it has a fantastic action-packed climax worthy of the small screen at least, if not a movie screen, and a great twist ending I didn’t see coming. Very well done, Mr. Robb!

Dust and Decisions by Keith Ahrens - After much consideration, I have decided this one is my favorite of the whole book, though it was in a very close running with Benediction. What caused this one to come out a nose ahead? It came down to the writing style. I wonder if the author spent months reading journals from that time period, because this first-person story read just like the journals of Bill Hickock or Buffalo Bill Cody. The terminology, the phrasing all felt taken from that time period and did a wonderful job of pulling me into that world. Plus the dry humor of the hero of the story very much appealed to me. This is one I highly recommend and will probably re-read to death for inspiration and because it was just so darn fun! I look forward to more from Keith Ahrens!

So back to the over all volume itself.

Content - for the most part, I had no trouble with anything portrayed in the book; its a good, solid PG-13 and pretty much just like any other pulp novel you would pick up to read. Its fun, engaging, and has enough variety of stories to appeal to a wide audience. It’s not a bad way at all to spend a few hours in escapism, and I would recommend it to anyone looking for stories that are meant to just be fun.

But would I re-read it again? Probably not (save for a story or two).

As a Christian, I will say there were one or two stories with occult elements that bothered me, but they were vague enough that I could complete the stories, even though I admit those elements left a distaste. I don’t have a problem with magic in a story, but it depends on how the magic is handled and its source. Vague fairytale magic or D&D magic where a wizard mumbles a few words and shoots a fireball? Not a problem. Having good and evil magic with witches and warlocks doing bad things? They’re the bad guys, of course they are going to dabble in bad things. But when the magical elements skew real-world and have elements of modern witchcraft and occultism that even the protagonists use? That I don’t read and avoid. No stories in this book had this sort of magic blatant and as I said, I was able to finish them all, but a few toed the line just a bit, enough that they did bother me (this is purely subjection, of course as I know that was bothers me as a Christian won’t bother others, and some things I don’t have a problem with will bother others, so your-mileage-may-vary).

And as a wimp when it comes to all things horror, there were a couple that definitely fell into the macabre side of things which left me feeling, well, ick. Nothing terrible, really, and truthfully, nothing more than you would have seen in a typical 80’s kids movie - I just have a very low bar for horror elements and what will start to bother me that way. As I said, I’m a wimp when it comes to all things horror! If you could handle Goonies level squick or Tales from the Crypt, RL Stine or The Twilight Zone or even modern forensic shows or Supernatural or the Grimm TV series, you won’t have any problem with the horror vibes in some of the stories here.

Unfortunately, I did not come up with a 5/5 score, and I do apologize for this. This is why I didn’t leave a review on Amazon for the book, either, as I very much want to support Raconteur Press and did not want even a 3 star rating to hurt their statistics because I do very much believe in what they are trying to achieve.

I also worried that some people might become upset with me - I want to be honest and supportive, I really do, but sometimes honesty stings? And I detest when I ruffle feathers. And I’m not even talking about the professionals at Raconteur as they are, after all, professionals, but fans these days can become pretty darn unglued when they perceive a slight against something they adore!

So please, remember this is just my opinion, written for folks who might be interested! I DO SUPPORT THE BOOK and recommend it! And I hope that as Raconteur Press grows, they only get better and better, including the authors they support.

All hail the rising tide!