R. S. Belcher’s debut novel, The Six-Gun Tarot, was enthusiastically greeted by critics and readers, who praised its wildly inventive mixture of dark fantasy, steampunk, and the Wild West. Now Belcher returns to Golgotha, Nevada, a bustling frontier town that hides more than its fair share of unnatural secrets. 1870. A haven for the blessed and the damned, including a fallen angel, a mad … angel, a mad scientist, a pirate queen, and a deputy who is kin to coyotes, Golgotha has come through many nightmarish trials, but now an army of thirty-two outlaws, lunatics, serial killers, and cannibals are converging on the town, drawn by a grisly relic that dates back to the Donner Party…and the dawn of humanity.
Sheriff Jon Highfather and his deputies already have their hands full dealing with train robbers, a mysterious series of brutal murders, and the usual outbreaks of weirdness. But with thirty-two of the most vicious killers on Earth riding into Golgotha in just a few day’s time, the town and its people will be tested as never before–and some of them will never be the same.
The Shotgun Arcana is even more spectacularly ambitious and imaginative than The Six-Gun Tarot, and confirms R. S. Belcher’s status as a rising star.
At the Publisher’s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
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The SHOTGUN ARCANA by R.S. Belcher is the sequel to THE SIX-GUN TAROT that I very much enjoyed. It once more returns us to the town of Golgotha, Nevada where the town undertaker is a mad scientist and the Sheriff cannot die. I very much was interested in this book and picked up immediately after finishing the first. I was not disappointed but I do have some minor complaints about the book.
The premise is that the events of the first book have passed but things have not entirely gotten back to normal. The town has not so much changed as it’s participants have been hardened by the events of fighting the Great Wurm. Unfortunately, life going on has not been kind to some. Poor Auggie the shopkeeper has found himself in debt to the fallen angel Biq, Mutt is threatened with lynching for dating a white woman, and the Mayor finds himself even more immersed in the politics he’s desperate to escape.
Unfortunately, things are about to get even worse as a mysterious man named Ray Zeal is coming to Golgotha to retrieve the First Murderer’s Skull. He has a army of serial killers, rapists, and psychopaths that he is leading down on the town in order to acquire it. The fact he’s a fallen angel like Biq makes it especially difficult to stop him.
I liked the story and all of the various twists and turns it employs but I also note that it’s somewhat similar to the original book. There’s a bunch of excessively evil monsters out to destroy the entire world. The story also plays out mostly the same sort of way. This isn’t necessarily a crippling flaw but it was a noticeable one. I initially liked the relationship between Constance and Jim developing, though I didn’t when I remembered he was sixteen and she was fourteen. That made it all sorts of squick.
Much of the book’s midpart is devoted to the fact that the position of women in the Old West was, shockingly, not great and no one initially cares when one of the doves gets killed by a client. Even our otherwise progressive lawmen. I liked how Maud and new character, Rowan, set about to do their best to establish protections for the local working women. I found this plot more interesting than the actual apocalypse story.
In conclusion, this was a very fun book and had a lot of development but I didn’t like it as much as the Six-Gun Tarot. I think the stories are at their best when dealing with smaller scale adventures and character development rather than trying to stop the end of everything. The villains are all very one-dimensional and I think that hurts the conflicts. Still, I’m definitely picking up the rest of the series.
The Shotgun Arcana (Golgatha)
By R.S. Belcher
Top notch western horror, and book 2 in the series. Read them in order. A very alternative history with various creatures, spirits, angels, gods, myths, and human monsters centered around the town of Golgotha. We have the same great characters from book one but added a few more to our great crew.
I really love the variety and their various backgrounds.
This is action packed, A bit gory at times, it is a horror novel and has horrible experiences in it, but it also has wit and a touch of humor sprinkled here and there.
Ending was great and can’t wait to follow the series!