Tin Swift
Devon Monk
Roc, Jul 3 2012, $15.00
ISBN: 9780451464538

Cursed hunter Cedar Hunt leads a band of travelers across Oregon. Their destination is Kansas where the ailing widow witch Mae Lindson may regain control of her mind with the help of her former coven. Also in the party are dead shot Rose Small, the three mining lunatic Madder brothers and Cedar’s sibling Wil the wolf. The Madder kin expect Cedar to find the Holder powerful weapon that he can sense.

The weary travelers reach Vicinity, Oregon where they find everyone eerily dead and Cedar senses that the evil Strange Mr. Shunt who he thought died in Hallelujah (see Dead Iron) killed the townsfolk. Rose insists they bury everyone, but the deceased begin to rise. A trap Rose and Cedar spring propels a piece of tin into her shoulder leaving her severely hurt. Captain Hink leads the Swift glim “mining” ship to explore Vicinity as he has heard odd rumors. He and his loyal crew rescue Cedar, Wil and the two females while the Madder threesome tells them they will catch up to them soon. As General Saint sends airships to destroy Hink for betraying his plans to become a dictator, Mr. Shunt offers him a deal he cannot refuse.

The second Age of Steam super old western fantasy is an exhilarating adventure thriller that grips the audience from the moment the magnificent seven enter Vicinity and never slows down as the good confronts the bad and the ugly. The Monk realm keeps the scientific babble to a minimum as the author makes her mythos feel real from the cursed to the reanimated dead. Fans will want to soar with the crew of the Swift as they struggle to survive the pact made by two evil essences.

Harriet Klausner