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Doctor And The Rough Rider (2014)

by Mike Resnick(Favorite Author)

3.74 of 5 Votes: 3

ISBN

130693396X (ISBN13: 9781306933964)

languge

English

genre

Historical Fiction

publisher

Pyr

series

Weird West Tales

review 1: This entry in the alternate history of Doc Holliday demonstrates that a good idea does not a good novel make. Sorry, Mr. Resnick, I respect a great deal of your work but this one just goes on a slow slide from poorly written to badly written.First, the only characters that are carefully drawn at all are Holliday and Roosevelt. Edison and Buntline are nothing more that foils and a little Deus ex Machina to move the story along more quickly.Second, there is an abundance of anachronistic dialogue. Not only does the author use the F bomb in a non-western traditionalist manner.. but 0occasional he puts a word like "Assigned" in Geronimo's mouth. Third, Doc's disease is so over-exaggerated-- the author has him bleeding pints of blood per day into handkerchiefs.. Finally, the... more author rushed the reader to a climactic battle and then wraps it up so neatly and cleanly in such a manner that removes all the suspense that should have been present. If not for the presence of the F-bombs and the references to robot hooker sex one would think it was written for a juvenile audience. Frankly, the setting is cool, the ideas are cool.. it is just that the execution feels rushed and hurried, leaving the reader to wonder how it could be so easy to kill the big bad guys.. etc. I think I'm done with this series.
review 2: Another fun book in Resnick's Weird West series, this one featuring one of Resnick's favorite topics, Theodore Roosevelt. Resnick's alternate Old West is a semi-steampunky world in which magic works (Bat Masterson was turned into a bat in a previous volume), and famous historical figures of the ago come together to try to extend the boundaries of the United States past the Mississippi River where the Native Americans have magically stonewalled them. Ned Buntline, Thomas Edison, John Wesley Harding and many others appear, and Doc Holliday is the main character. It's a quick read and a lot of fun. less

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