The wild west, but on an alien planet. No, this isn’t the novelization of the Bravestar cartoon, but Kenneth Wolfson’s The Beast of the East. A much better concept, though I am partial to the 80’s cliches and the rocker haircut on that horse. Here instead we follow Sam, a gunslinger on the frontier, now glorified babysitter for her hopeless son. All together it’s a satisfying read, though a bit of a mixed bag of nuts. Perfect for the trail, I suppose?
The novel is a bit of a paradox. The characters are meant to be foul-mouthed and gritty. Hardnosed, and all that jazz. Yet sometimes their portrayals come off as non-serious. I had a hard time knowing what mood Wolfson was going for. However, the strange thing was, I liked them. Maybe I even loved the characters, even as their portrayals and my feelings for them leaned in the same way I enjoy Bruce Campbell in almost anything. And per that reference, Wolfson adds enough moments of genuine drama, amidst all the action, to wreck my normal review writing style.
Now, as alluded to, the next nut. The writing; concise, and hard to follow. Wolfson’s style lends towards the succinct, but there are moments where he can turn a pretty phrase, “flakes began to glow in the streetlight. In seconds they’d grown to a slow but steady curtain of white flecks.” Two birds one stone with that one line. First, he foreshadows a bit of the danger in the next few chapters. Second, it is a nice bit of imagery. Now, this sort of thing is woven into a narration where transitions are an afterthought, and I noticed this right in the beginning. For example, one moment Sam is lying down in a cave discussing sleeping with her injured son, the next it is morning. I was left a bit confused, even with Deckard asking if it was morning; a cue for the scene change. This was simply because the move was so jarring, with so little set up. A quiet moment would have been perfect here, and the rhythm/flow of the chapter was calling for it. Instead, we got a hard transition. There were a few little moments like this where I had to re-read and see where I was.
None of these were enough to wreck my enjoyment of the book (there were no cranberries in the bag, at least). The novel is entertaining, the world building imaginative. The characters are likeable, even loveable. Kenneth Wolfson’s The Beast of the East certainly isn’t a perfect book, but it is a distinct one, and an enjoyable read. I am sure most science fiction fans find it as such.
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