[DL] New Book: "Zeppelins West"

["Wangenstein " <wangenstein@mad.scientist.com>]

I found an article about it at CNN.com and thought I'd reprint it here, for anyone who might be interested. As you will see, it seems to be very appropriate for Deadlands:

[[[CNN]]](CNN) -- "Zeppelins West," by Joe R. Lansdale opens shortly after the end of the Civil War. The landscape of the United States has changed. With the Japanese occupying the West Coast and Canada being annexed as the 20th state, things are a little bit confused. 

This is western history as told around the campfire by a grizzled ol' miner still searching the untamed plain for that hidden gold vein. Its cast of characters is made up of those traveling with Buffalo Bill Cody and his Wild West Show. This is not a quaint roundup of a show, but 700 performers, livestock, stagecoaches and cooks traveling around the world by a wagon train of 12 air zeppelins. 

Main travelers besides Buffalo Bill (more on him later) consist of Annie Oakley and her lover Wild Bill Hickock; Sitting Bull in all his political incorrectness; a monster made up of dead body parts; Tin, the man of metal from a distant land where scarecrows talk and lions are cowardly; and a talking head kept alive in a jar containing pig urine, 100 proof whiskey, and chemical # 415 (who knows?). That would be the head of Mr. Cody. It is that kind of novel. 

Texan Lansdale's writing has ridden a wild rampaging bull in the queen's china shop of storytelling genres. From award-winning horror novels to his 2000 Edgar award for best mystery novel for "The Bottoms," Lansdale is the master of yarn spinning. 

Now comes "Zeppelins West," which takes the gold in presenting a cross-genre blender of western, science fiction, horror and adventure to concoct one hell of a fun, wild, rip-snorting, belly-laughing, six-gun-shooting, roller coaster ride of a novel. 

Return with us now as our group of adventurers escape from Japan with Frankenstein's creation and go adrift in the Pacific only to be rescued by Captain Bemo and his undersea craft "The Naughty Lass" and finally end up on the mysterious island of Dr. Momo. Well, it is that kind of novel. 

Lansdale has written a story for those of us who have never outgrown our childhood love of movies and books for a rainy afternoon. It's the kind of book where a genetically enhanced seal has to remind Buffalo Bill of his humanity. A wonderful novel for the inner-geek in all of us. 

Subterranean Press has published "Zeppelins West" in an illustrated edition.[[[/CNN]]]

If you pick it up, be sure to let us know if it's worth getting.

Derek D. Bass
Etheric Musings - The Science of the Sons of Ether
http://www.steamenginechaos.com/mage/ether.htm

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