The Six-Gun Tarot -- R. S. Belcher

Sometime when I wasn't looking, the weird western got a lot more popular, and R. S. Belcher's The Six-Gun Tarot is about as weird as they come.  How weird is it? Well, just to give you an idea, it has Lovecraftian horrors, Coyote (and his sort of human son), a sheriff who can't be killed, angels walking the earth, zombies, the blood of Lilith, Anne Bonny, Mormon theology, Christian theology, Chinese theology, and the Eye of Sauron.  Okay, I'm just kidding about that last one, but there's a jade eye of tremendous power.  And there's lots more, like the mad scientist who's a lot like Frankenstein. There are also dozens of characters (and plot lines), and every one of them has a backstory that's gone into, sometimes at length.  There are passing references to other things that have happened in the town of Golgotha, Nevada (giant rats, a giant bat), where many weird things seem to happen all the time.

So the book is really stuffed.  Even at over 350 pages, it seems too short.  Or rather, it seems as if an editor might have said, "Hey, we can lose this entire plot and nobody will ever know the difference."  There's just too much going on, but you sure can't accuse Belcher of not being ambitious.  It's as if he figured, hey, I may never write another book, so I'm going to put everything into this one.  And even at that, things are clearly set up for a sequel.

I'm not hesitant to recommend this one.  If you like this kind of thing, you're going to love it.  If you don't know much about the weird west, this might be a good introduction.  Check it out.