The Devil's Standoff (Devil's Revolver #2) by V.S. McGrath

Hettie and her sister are travelling to Mexico, where the demonic revolver, El Diablo, was first created in the hope they can finally destroy it an Hettie can get her life back

But the journey has complicates - crossing the magical wall into Mexico isn’t easy and despite all their efforts, local politics catches them as a General with a full army behind him is less than happy with the magical independence of Villa Del Punta. And the town itself has divisions inside - not least of which with Walker’s family

And then there’s Abbie; the Indigo child with impossible magical powers growing by the day… and she’s picked up some disturbing habits from her captivity with the Kuklos warlock which is only more worrying...

Hattie is the core of his book and her conflicts and personality are what really gives the whole story so much more depth. We’re reminded that Hattie is very young and utterly out of her depth but equally determined to keep on going for the sake of her sister. She has this really powerful sense of fatalism while still clinging to hope. After her experiences she’s almost given up on her own future. She doesn’t have any long term plans, she doesn’t even seem to consider the future - focusing only on her sister’s survival and ignoring herself almost entirely. Yet at the same time she is clinging so desperately to getting rid of the Diablo and getting her missing years back. And I don’t think it’s worry about aging or dying - but the desperate desire for a do-over, a wish that she could go back to where this story began, before the loss of her family, before the revolver, before she killed people.

On top of that she has her sister Abbie, impossibly, terrifyingly powerful, increasingly out of control with more than a few unsavoury habits and a growing sense of almost desperation.

This is the backbone of the book -and pretty necessary as the pacing has an odd moment in the middle. The journey to Mexico and Villa Del Punto has action, magic and fighting. And the end of the book has some grand reveals and a lot of powerful scenes and epicness. But the middle? It’s kind of flabby and meandering without a lot of forward movement. But it does allow a lot of exploration - especially of Hattie; her trying to fit in with the inhabitants of Villa Del Punta, her dealing with her complicated relationship with Walker, trying to look after Abbie. Facing the fact she doesn’t really trust anyone around her. And even her evolving connection with El Diablo.

It also allows for a lot of world building of magic, the relationship between Mexico and the US as well as the local politics of this world’s Mexico as well: which has some interesting twists including magical areas as a vital resource and how this world with magic has created a much more balanced tension between the US and Mexico. In fact, there’s a wall across the Mexican border built by the Mexicans to keep Americans out. I do like to see how our world would differ if magic is introduced to history; how wars and conflicts would be completely different when the power is so changed.

We also get to explore the magic system some more as well as the nature of both the demonic and the angelic.

It’s still kind of flabby in the middle since it basically involves Hattie and Abbie settling into the village, slowly winning over the people’s trust, learning about magic, learning about Walker’s past, his relationship to the sorcerer who created Diablo and, of course, his step brother who rules the town and there’s some tension there. Not a lot happens but it’s ok; it allows the characters to grow and learn especially after all the action of the last book. And the action beginning and ending the book which is full of war, and fighting and magic and guns to definitely make up for a slow middle

I like that Hettie does meet several women in Villa del Punta and generally respects them… while I’m not thrilled by Julia. A clear love interest of Walker’s we get a definite hint of jealousy from Hettie which she handles really well and we have a great point of it being hettie’s issue and not the objectionable fault of Julia. Still the ending does kind of have a sense of vindication for Hettie and demonisation of her.

Dawn in the Damnation by Clark Casey

Damnation is the afterlife… not quite Hell but possibly in the same neighbourhood. Many a not-quite-as-bad-as-he-thought man ends up there to spend eternity drinking, gambling and not doing much else. Not out of choice - there simply isn’t all that much to do

Though eternity ends quickly for some - there’s a theory that if you go a year without killing someone then you’re redeemed for Heaven. No-one has succeeded so far; though Thomas, the town chronicler, is trying.

The men eke out their existence in the saloon, trying not to antagonise the werewolves or annoy the town’s vampire; and trying to not get into any gunfights they might lose.

But things are changing - there’s a new gunslinger in town, better than any before. And following him is rarest of all, a woman.

This book is, in many ways, pointless. It’s full of unknowables, with virtually no world building, no set motivations, little understanding, conflict without foundation, characters without purpose and no real conclusion

Which is excellent.

Which is the whole point.

The cast is in an afterlife… an old west afterlife - people die and appear in this old west town which was the original era for most of the people there. But time is clearly moving on - so we don’t know if, as the years pass, this town will evolve especially as new characters are descending down to the town of Damnation where they spend their days eating pork, drinking whiskey, gambling and having various gun battles.

But the core foundation of Damnation is even “Damnation” is an assumption. No-one really understands the nature of it’s town, why they’re there, where they go when they die, what its purpose is. What’s really fascinating is us being presented with a lot of really interesting rules and theories but ultimately it all rests on no-one knowing: of people living every day without real purpose except to live another day

I think beyond anything else that is the underpinning foundation of this book. We get conflict and more structured purpose later on and we definitely have individual character arcs. But the first half, maybe even third, of this book does an excellent job of world building - or theme building rather. We have all these people in this afterlife eeking and existence and struggling for… well… nothing? Anything?

This is an excellent foundation to underpin the feeling of almost desperate hopelessness with the place, in some ways even the desperate pointlessness of it - and of that thing thread of survival they cling to. It underpins all the characters as people come and go, new leaders, new gun slingers who leave their stamp on the town before fading when the next threat comes. And people die, even people who have been central for so long and it fades and changes

The Devil's Revolver (The Devil's Revolver, #1) by V.S. McGrath

Family history has caught up with Hattie: her father’s past and connection to a terrifying demonic revolver has lead to a lot of bad attention. Attention that robs Hattie of everything and leaves her desperate to find her sister; in a trek across the magical Wild West with a range of forces arrayed against her. She’s backed by a group of allies - but how many of them can she trust and what is their real agendas?

Well, this is different. Well developed magical steampunk western. Ok, bizarre quirk? I hate westerns but I love paranormal westerns and steampunk westerns. Especially if you throw in some really excellent world building

And this world building is excellent. The way magic is incorporated into the actual world and businesses. Like the Pinkertons are a magical detective agency, the use of Zoom tunnels not just as magical transport, but the way they’ve been controlled and used basically in the same manner as railroad companies. We have magical rich and poor areas but we also have a world where magic is very much integrated into daily life with common ranchers using magic to protect their livestock, competitions regularly checking if people are carrying magic and a general assumption of magic as a common factor in everyone’s world without turning it into an odd fantasy elves-and-wizards-story. There is a suggestion of greater than normal technology as well - a definite steampunk edge but we don’t explore that much because magic and technology don’t mix much and these characters are all magical but it does promise a lot for future books.

But it’s also interesting how the magical setting actually works with the prejudices of the era (which continue to this day) and how it’s considered how magic would change history - or not. Like there’s an exploration of massacred Native Americans and they talk about how magic doesn’t generally work on metal (except very limited special circumstances): and no matter how magically powerful Native tribes were, because magic cannot stop bullets and modern weaponry is just deadly. This is something we see reinforced a lot which does a great job of emphasising why the Diablo is so special: magic is impressive but if men are pointing guns at you? Or gatling guns are being brought out?

Peacemaker (Arcane West #1) by K. A. Stewart

Caleb is a travelling law man, following his patrol route through towns in the west; and he’s not too happy about it. But there’s not much place for him in the east, not after the war when most of his power was burned out of him, his old skill reduced to a fraction of what he was. Now almost an embarrassment, he is shunted off to the edge of the country.

But things are not peaceful on the outskirts, tensions are rising between the Cheyenne and the local town, there’s a rash of children with strangely weakened magic, towns being destroyed an a local land owner almost ruling the town. Something is up and it’s Caleb’s job to find out what.

I’m rapidly developing a love for paranormal westerns – which is odd, because I Ioathe westerns generally – but if they keep being this good then I’m hooked.

The world building of this book is fascinating and incredibly different. This isn’t a world where some people have magic – this is a world where everyone has magic. Everyone has powers within them and those powers in turn are used near constantly to power the world around them. From the arcane mechanical horses, to electric fences to basic smithing and most certainly in war. The way the arcane ability is integrated into just about every aspect of society is fascinating and really smoothly done – creating a world that is so very like our own but with this constant thread of difference that twists everything. It’s an excellent, rich, fun world that I just desperately want to explore more. Especially since the world building was excellently written with all the information we need to be fully immersed but no long, dry explanations and lectures to tell us exactly how it works. I can see the framework of it but desperately want to know more – but it was and it’s going to be given in increments – after all, if everyone in society knows how to use magic, why would we need lectures on how to use that magic? It would be like random characters deciding to lecture us on how to read.

Also, some magic users have familiars. And Caleb has a jackalope and he’s cute and funny and I love the addition to the world, he lightens things without being ridiculous, is amusing without being slapstick and fits into the world rather than being an odd add-on

This is all really helped by a wonderful writing style. Detailed and evocative when necessary – such as Caleb’s reminiscing of the war – with some excellently written action scenes (with magic and some really novel uses of that power and integrating it with the weapons of the time) that cross the line into amazingly epic at times. The pacing is perfect, that balance between development and action, between moving the story forwards while preserving the mystery really works.

Then we have those people who have, either from birth or with an accident with their magic, been drained of their ability. They’re burned out and nulled and, in a society where everyone else does have magic, they’re considered disabled. Now, we do have a bad record in fiction of marginalised issues being appropriated poorly for fiction, but this is an excellent example of it being done. If magical ability is considered the default state of humanity, if the majority of jobs regularly use magical ability then those without magical ability are very much disabled and disenfranchised. The way they are regarded by the other characters is an extremely good representation of how the disabled are treated in general – pitied, a kind of fawning, horrified pity mixed with a cautionary tale (since it could happen to them as well), but at the same time condescended too and assumed to be lesser and weaker – there’s an inherent superiority assumed by anyone with magic over them. Caleb also talks about the lack of opportunities for them, of the magic-less being forced to become homeless beggars and everyone assumes they cannot work. The blacksmith in the town has no magic, but with simple accommodations he does apparently good work – yet people still hesitate to rely on, assuming that his in-world disability means he cannot do his job properly.