Reddit mentions: The best western books

Hmm. Tough question. The Alchemist is the first one I ever read and it is very good. It's the one that most people have heard of and is all about following your dreams and how if you want something badly enough that the entire universe conspires in helping you to get it, so long as you aren't afraid of it when it comes. It's really quite extraordinary and I think the message and inspiration from that one is my favorite. But just for the sake of reading its not my favorite. There is a short description in that link.

I think my favorite is either Eleven Minutes or By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept. Eleven Minutes is about sex and love and its the setting is wondrous and the characters are fascinating. The story is a bit more modern than the story in the Alchemist so its a bit more fun to read, just to read. I think my favorite might be By The River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept though. It is a story about forgiveness and the writing is beautiful and the places he takes you are beautiful and the characters are all likeable most of the time and the story is interesting. I'd highly reccommend any of those. But they're all good.

Despite being more religious than most of his, I actually really loved The Fifth Mountain. Its one I bought without knowing anything about it and the story is almost biblical (still not preachy though) but it was more about choices and duty and honor and I really liked it. Not my favorite, but very good.

Sorry, I'm long winded when talking about his books lol.

I'm sticking to short books that may be slightly above her reading level, but to be honest I think most kids read "up" anyways, and if she's bored she might like the challenge. These are all fast-moving, narrated by a first-person narrator with a great voice that hooks you, and they all have that "what happens next?" quality I think is really valuable in keeping you turning pages.

True Grit - yes, it's a Western, but it's a fast, funny book that is narrated by a 14-year-old girl who is a total badass. I didn't expect much from it and it hooked me like heroin.

Kamikaze Girls - a translation of a Japanese book about a super-high-fashion girl stuck in the sticks and her biker gang best friend. Really mean, really funny, and totally different from what you'd expect. The world it takes place in is so real, so detailed, but so alien to the US (but also kind of familiar - we all sometimes hate our hometowns) that it sucks you in.

Curious Incident of the Dog in the Nighttime - I agree with the other poster who says this is a good one. It's really sad, but the story sucks you in.

The Fault In Our Stars - great YA book that is funny and sad and all about cancer which feels Very Important to read about when you're 12. But super-gripping and the narrator has a great voice.

I'm not sure if it will be in her tastes but some of Nora Roberts are amazing in my opinion but she writes A LOT and not all her books are equal in style. The ones I love (older) have murder mystery and great sexual tension. One of my favorites is Public Secrets. Many of the good ones of hers that are good are similar in title - oxymorons like Divine Evil but I can't remember how much I like them. Ruver's End is another by her that comes to mind. I don't find them corny like a lot of the Harlequin or whatever. They have real plots.

Two others I came across randomly but left a permanent mark in my mind that I often think of and want to reread are more period pieces:

Hummingbird by LaVyrle Spencer https://www.amazon.com/Hummingbird-LaVyrle-Spencer/dp/051509160X

All I Need Is You by Johanna Lindsay
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0380762609/ref=yo_ii_img?ie=UTF8&psc=1

There is nothing like reading White Fang or Call of the Wild while in the Alaska backcountry. You start reading, and with no evidence of civilization suddenly it's 1890. Also read the short story, to build a fire.

Get a copy of a book or Robert Service poetry. You have to read the Cremation of Sam McGee at least once around a campfire (our most famous poem), it's even better if you cam manage to recite it from memory.

Here's a YouTube vid of Johnny Cache reciting it.

Here's one I read years ago where the sea breaks it's back it's the story of how captain Vitas Bearing and scientist George Stellar discovered Alaska. A truly harrowing tale.

this book is the memoirs or Dick Proenneke. He lived by himself in a cabin by a lake in remote Alaska for decades. The documentary based off of it (alone in the wilderness) is excellent but I haven't actually read the memoirs myself.

Since you're in the mountains read desperate passage this is an exceptionally well researched and written account of the Donner Party, it's chilling, I read while snow camping in the Chugach, powerful stuff.

Anther great thing to read in the wild, journals of famous adventurers. The Lewis and Clark diaries, for example.

A translation of the Poetic Edda (pretend your living in Viking times)

True Grit always an enjoyable slogging through untamed wilderness read.

Hatchet by Paulson, this book is aimed at a younger audience, but it's a good book for reading when out in the woods.

I'll second song of fire and ice, Alaska is the perfect place to read it and imagine themselves the king in the north, or wandering out beyond The Wall.

Also blood meridian is another good suggestion. Adventure in the wild lands with a big element of the unknown and sleeping under the stars. By that same token I'd recommend Dead Mans Walk by McMurtry, the fist prequel to Lonesome Dove, lots of slogging through the wilderness and mountains.

Those are all I can think of at the moment.

Also a note on into the wild, I've never read it but it a lot of people up here do not like it because it's caused a lot of people to come up and emulate the guy, some of them have died or almost died. So don't tell anything to the effect of that book being your inspiration for coming to alaska.

List of Influential RPG Titles

Dungeons and Dragons - By TSR and WotC

Dungeons and Dragons 1st Edition - TSR

• Core Rulebooks
  
• Adventures (Keep on the Boarderlands, The Tomb of Horrors, The Temple of Elemental Evil)
  
  Advanced Dungeons and Dragons 2nd Edition - TSR
  
  
• Core Books (PHB, DMG, MM)
  
• Unearthed Arcana
  
• Campaign Settings (Dragonlance, Ravenloft, Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun)
  
• Arms and Equipment Guide
  
  Dungeons and Dragons 3.0 - WotC
  
  
• Savage Species
  
• Deities and Demigods
  
• Stronghold Builder's Guidebook
  
  Dungeons and Dragons 3.5 - WotC
  
  
• Core Rulebooks (PHB, DMG, & MM)
  
• Expanded Core (PHB2, DMG2, MM2, 3, 4, 5)
  
• Psionics Handbook
  
• Unearthed Arcana
  
• Complete Series (Arcane, Adventurer, Warrior, Divine, Champion, Scoundrel, Mage, Psionics)
  
• Campaign Settings (Ebberon, Forgotten Realms)
  
• Adventures (Return to the Temple of Elemental Evil)
  
  Dungeons and Dragons 4e - WotC
  
  
• Core Rulebooks (PHB, PHB2, PHB3, DMG, DMG2, MM, MM2, MM3)
  
• Essentials (Heroes of Forgotten Kingdoms and Heroes of Fallen Lands, Rules Compendium)
  
• Settings (Forgotten Realms, Dark Sun)
  
• Adventures (Tomb of Horrors)
  
  Pathfinder - Paizo Publishing
  
  
• Core Rulebook
  
• Advanced Player's Guide
  
• Advanced Race Guide
  
• Ultimate Magic
  
• Ultimate Combat
  
• Ultimate Equipment
  
• Game Mastery Guide
  
• Ultimate Campaign
  
• Mythic Adventures
  
• NPC Codex
  
• Bestiaries 1-4
  
  Not Dungeons and Dragons
  
  World of Darkness - by White Wolf
  
  
• Vampire the Masquerade - Vampires are so mainstream now...
  
• Werewolf the Apocylypse - Where there are vampires there are werewolves.
  
• Mage the Ascention - and witches and wizards.
  
• Hunter the Reckoning - and someone to hunt them.
  
• Changeling the Dreaming
  
  "New" World of Darkness
  
  
• Core Book
  
• Expanded Core (Vampire, Mage, Werewolf)
  
  AEG
  
  
• Legend of the Five Rings 4th Edition Core Rulebook
  
• Legend of the Five Rings 1st Edition Core Rulebook
  
• 7th Sea
  
• Deadlands
  
  Other
  
  
• Shadowrun
  
• Savage Worlds
  
• Dungeon World
  
• FATE Core
  
• Call of Cthulhu
  
• RIFTS
  
• GURPS
  
• Paranoia - Super expensive on Amazon, not sure why.
  
• Elf Quest - Also a very popular graphic novel.
  
  Authors to Look for
  
  
• Gary Gygax - Role Playing Mastery and Master of the Game
  
• Monte Cook
  
• John Wick
  
• Dave Arneston
  
  RPG Related Non-Fiction
  
  
• Confessions of a Part Time Sorceress - Shelley Mazzinoble
  
• Of Dice and Men: The Story of Dungeons & Dragons and The People Who Play It
  
  RPG Fiction, also essential
  
  
• Dragonlance - Chronicles Triligy by Weise and Hickman - Set in a D&D campaign Setting
  
• Drizzit's Series - By R. A. Salvatore. Icewind Dale Trilogy and The Dark Elf Trilogy
  
• The Riftwar Saga by Raymond Feist - It's allegedly the story of the author's long running D&D game.
  
  Other Lists
  
  
• Good Reads Popular RPG titles.
  
• Wikipedia timeline of RPGs
  
  Honorable Mentions
  
  
• Star Wars - d6 Edition, d20 Edition, SAGA Edition, Star Wars RPG (Fantsy Flight)
  
• Star Trek - Various Incarnations
  
• Serenity the RPG
  
• D&D Comic Books
  
• Buffy the RPG
  
• Whatever the heck "Demon" is...
  
  *Please add suggestions below, I'll add to the list as I revisit this thread throughout the day. Adding Amazon links now.

I've got several different books which may go great for readers who like stories about stories, general geekdom, or superheroes.

Genrenauts - Like Leverage meets Jasper Fforde. For anyone that likes heists, stories about stories, or comedy. The first episode is set in the Western genre. Available in paperback, ebook, and audio.

Geekomancy - It's like Buffy the Vampire Slayer meets Ready Player One. For folks who play D&D, love Firefly, or ever worked at a coffeeshop or comic store. Available in ebook and audio.

Shield and Crocus - Like China Mieville meets Marvel's Avengers. Set in a city built among the bones of a titan. For readers of weird fantasy, action/adventure stories, or superheroes. Available in paperback, ebook, and audio.

I enjoyed The Strange Affair of Springheeled Jackby Mark Hodder. He has at least two other books featuring the same lead characters, but I haven't picked them up yet.

Steampunk Prime: A Vintage Steampunk Reader edited by Mike Ashley was quite good. He includes a blurb about the original authors' history and information about the original publication dates before each short story.

Mike Resnick's The Buntline Special: A Weird West Tale was really good. Apparently he's got another one out that I have yet to buy.

I've also got Tim Akers' The Horns of Ruin sitting on my shelf, but I haven't made the time to read through it. The summary on the back interesting enough for me to actually buy it.

Copying my post from this thread:


"You want Francis James Blair's Bulletproof Witch! It's pretty short, but book two's coming out soon.

Mistborn Era 2 is pretty excellent, to my mind- it's just a very different beast than Era 1, and I think a lot of people really wanted it to be the same.

There's also a pretty good collection of Weird West short stories I picked up a few years ago called Westward Weird that's worth checking out."

Hey r/Fantasy! I’m back with another one of my weird west stories with the magic bullets, daemons, and talking horses. These are set in an original fantasy world based (loosely) on the United States of the late 1800s. In thanks for the community always being here with a smile and friendly recommendation for me, I’ve got the first book in my series FREE until Sunday night, and the second book is only $0.99 (In the US only, £0.99 in the UK starting 5/26)!

For anyone unsure if this series is for them, I humbly offer the following blurb:

Temperance Whiteoak is the last surviving heir to her grandfather’s legacy. Gunslinger. Daemon-hunter. Witch. Able to call forth powerful magicks with the pull of a trigger, she travels the continent of Korvana seeking after the creature that destroyed her town along with everyone she ever knew and loved.

The links below are episodes one and two of an eight-part series, and not only include a gunslinging story, but also fantastic interior art as well by artist Jin Lee! If any of the links below don’t work, feel free to shoot me a message, and thanks for taking the time to check out my stories!

Episode 1 - US Link

Episode 2 - US Link

International Links for Episode 1:

Canada

UK

Australia

Germany

Spain

Italy

Netherlands

Japan

India

Brazil

Mexico

International Links for Episode 2 (starting 5/26):

UK

Bill Pronzini has some western mysteries but I haven't read any of them. On my list. Here's one:

https://www.amazon.com/Peaceful-Valley-Crime-Wave-Western-ebook/dp/B07GVBZ5D4

And people seem to like the Holmes on the Range series, but again I haven't read them.

https://www.amazon.com/Double-Western-Detective-Agency-Mysteries-ebook/dp/B07L1YY3VP

I've read a few Walt Slade books by Bradford Scott and they kind of have the structure of a mystery.

Hope that helps. I think the Western Mystery could be a cool genre if more people tried it. They seem hard to come by.

Love your username - I was at game 7!

Was going to write my own response, but MCG pretty much summed up my thoughts as well. It was wordy: about 50 seconds to read it out loud. I suggest maybe half of that. I also agree about the names, they just aren't needed when it comes to marketing the story. I think Red Country is a pretty good example at a blurb that works.

I like that they encouraged gender switching and then stated that it must be kid-friendly. The fangirl conundrum!

I am curious about what will get published. As an aside, the Sherlock Holmes western has already been written. Holmes on the Range, more of a homage, but still pretty awesome.

This is quite cool. Pratt's original short story is pretty great (text or audio). His novel The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl is an underrated gem.

Elmore Leonard's Western short story collection is pretty rad, mostly 10-30 page ditties with great dialogue: https://www.amazon.com/Complete-Western-Stories-Elmore-Leonard/dp/0060724250

Other than that, definitely recommend Leone's stuff, the True Grit/3:10 to Yuma remakes, and if you're looking for a neo-western, Cop Land.

Thank you [both]. It's nice to finally have some suggestions from outside. [I lifted mine off the top layer of Amazon]. They look great. Also, I just bought Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny, and it's marvelous.

The Time It Never Rained by Elmer Kelton deals with a drought in west Texas in the 1950s and takes on farm subsidies and their unintended consequences. Kelton also wrote dozens of westerns, but none of them I've read are particularly political except perhaps Barbed Wire, which deals with property rights. Still, they're great reads if you're a fan of the genre.

The Land Beyond the River by Jesse Stuart is another favorite of mine. It's about the effect of government welfare programs on a poor Appalachian family. And, as with Kelton, Stuart's other work is well worth checking out, particularly his poetry and short stories.

Well, if you want stupid comedy adventures, Christopher Moore's books are awesome, I really like Coyote Blue for the same reasons I like American Gods and Anansi's Boys.

can confirm this also works for amazon.co.uk and have just purchased it for myself so thank you Ben and Merry christmas to you as well :)

links are here for anyone interested.

Good Morrow, ladies an gentlemen, and all in between!

At the moment, my three collected volumes of work are all on sale for 99p/99¢, and are fun, action Urban/Historic/Weird Western fantasy stories that are just thing to celebrate and/or pick you up after the election results!

High Moon Rising: Volume One - US link
UK Link

 

High Moon Rising: Volume 2 - US Link
UK Link
 
Order Of Britain: Volume One - US Link
UK Link
 
These books meet the following bingo squares: Self Published, Published in 2016, Fewer than 3000 goodreads ratings, Weird Western, Military Fantasy - so you can check off a few entries there!
I also have a blog/website at http://Benmyattwriter.co.uk.

Heads up, the UK Publisher Hodder & Stoughton has all 8 Dark Tower novels and the Complete Concordance as a matching set, and on amazon it would actually cost me less to have the H&S set shipped all the way from the UK than it would to preorder this set. That's the 7 main books, Wind Through the Keyhole, AND the concordance, whereas I'm pretty sure this set available for preorder is only the 7 main series novels. I saw the H&S books in person in China and they're beautiful, so if this set doesn't look super beautiful or have SOMETHING better than the H&S set, I'm getting the H&S set instead. The H&S books are all available on amazon.co.uk as well as eBay.

Here are links for books 1-7, WttK, and a copy of the concordance.

The Gunslinger

Drawing of The Three

Waste Lands

Wizard & Glass

Wolves of the Calla

Song of Susannah

The Dark Tower

Wind Through The Keyhole

Dark Tower: Complete Concordance

Seconding anything Benedict Patrick.

Also Travis M. Riddle.

Recently finished the first book of The Quest of Five Clans by Raymond St. Elmo and would highly recommend it.

Episode 1 of Bulletproof Witch by F.J. Blair was lots of fun, and Episode 2 is due to be released on the 17th of this month.

I enjoyed Iron Truth by S.A. Tholin - it's more on the sci-fi side than the fantasy side.

Masters of Deception by JC Kang is the selected book for May for the Resident Authors Bookclub here on /r/Fantasy, so it's a good one to pick up if you're interested in bookclubbing it. The halfway discussion will be posted at the end of this week, I believe.

Check out the self-promo thread for some more authors local to the sub. A lot of their books are available through KU.

Also the majority of the SPFBO finalists for 2018 are available through KU. You can find the finalist table here: http://mark---lawrence.blogspot.com/2018/11/spfbo-2018-finals.html

----

^(Side note, since I suppose it's relevant. I started writing reviews this year for all the KU books I read, so you can find reviews of several KU books if you want to lurk through my post history. Seems awkward to link them all here...)

Try The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl or Briarpatch by Tim Pratt. Or anything by him, really. I'm a big fan of Neil Gaiman, Douglas Adams, (and to a lesser extent) Terry Pratchet. You'll like this guy.

I'm 90% sure it's these ones:

• Gunslinger
  
• Drawing of the Three
  
• Waste Lands
  
• Wizard and Glass
  
• Wind Through the Keyhole
  
• Wolves of the Calla
  
• Song of Susannah
  
• Dark Tower
  
  
  Links obtained here.

A lot of historical / historical adventure / Western novels that I've really enjoyed feel like genre SF adventure novels exploring unfamiliar settings but with no actual SF elements:

• Tom Holt The Walled Orchard (well, there's a tiny fantasy element)
  
• Frans Bengtsson, The Long Ships
  
• Rafael Sabatini, Captain Blood, The Sea-Hawk, Scaramouche, etc.
  
• Samuel Shellabarger, Captain from Castile and Prince of Foxes
  
• Owen Wister, The Virginian
  
• Charles Portis, True Grit
  
  See also actual historical narratives, particularly of contact between different cultures:
  
  
• Bernal Diaz del Castillo, The Conquest of New Spain
  
• Cabeza de Vaca, Adventures in the Unknown Interior of America

https://www.amazon.com/Red-Country-World-First-Book-ebook/dp/B0076DEJMO/ref=sr_1_1?keywords=Red+country&qid=1554144477&s=gateway&sr=8-1

Too lazy to make the url look nice.

Link for the lazy

Ready Player One by Ernest Cline.

Red Country by Joe Abercrombie.

Episode 1 on Amazon.es (yes we Alston read English books).

Bulletproof Witch: The Delivery of Flesh (Episode 1) (English Edition) https://www.amazon.es/dp/B07JLDPZM7/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_-Ig6CbS33QDDX