Booklog: Prelude to the O.K. Corral

[nebroadwe]

Emma Bull, Territory

In Tombstone, Arizona, strange things are afoot. Widowed Mildred Benjamin, setting type for one of the town's newspapers, knows that the Earp brothers are up to their necks in dubious dealings, for all that Virgil Earp is Deputy U.S. Marshal. Itinerant horse-breaker Jesse Fox, suppressing burgeoning sensibilities that might be magic (as his mentor Chow Lung insists) or madness (as his sister's doctors back East have concluded), has no intention of making Tombstone anything but a brief stop on his way to Mexico. Brought together in an attempt to thwart a lynching, they forge a tentative alliance, refusing to be co-opted by any of the local factions. But in the looming land war between the Earps and the Clantons, neutrality is not an option. This is very good historical fantasy -- Bull handles real-life figures like Doc Holliday with the same deft touch she brings to her original characters. I have a quibble or two about the timing of events in Jesse's character arc, but that's small potatoes given how lively and round everyone is. Motivations are convincingly mixed and limited by talent, class, gender and ethnicity. The dialogue crackles (the opening scenes set the tone with their word-duels between the protagonists and their interlocutors) and the setting leaps to life. Most important of all, the earth magic is convincingly handled, perceived in different but related ways by Chinese physicians and American mining engineers, trained magicians and self-taught sorcerers. Highly recommended. I can't wait for the sequel.

Comments

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

aieee...my friend and I were writing this story in the mid-nineties.

Must go find it. *laughs* (The novel you speak of; our story died when our computers went BOOM.)

[nebroadwe.livejournal.com]

aieee...my friend and I were writing this story in the mid-nineties.

You can't keep a good idea down. :-) I thought of you immediately on picking this one up; do let me know what you make of it. It reminds me in some ways of Barbara Hambly's Bride of the Rat God -- widowed protagonist, educated drifter co-protagonist, Western setting (California, in that case), interest in how Jewish and Chinese culture fits into that setting and the larger American experiment -- but Territory is much stronger in its use of actual historical figures. I'm guessing you'll enjoy her Doc Holliday.

[evil-little-dog.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we also were part of the group that wrote the idea for Star Trek: Voyager...hahahaha....

The central library has it. I just have to get there when my library is open so I can ORDER it. *eyeroll for weirdo setup that won't let you order a book online unless it is previously checked out*