Book Review: A Fistful of Legends

A Fistful of Legends
Edited by Nik Morton
Introduction by James Reasoner
Express Westerns, 2010

I can't remember the last time I've been so entertained by a anthology of western short stories that I've wanted to read the entire collection. Usually when I pick up an anthology, I'll read one or two stories, then get bored and put it away thinking "I'll finish this some other time" and I never do. But with A FISTFUL OF LEGENDS, it's still here on the coffee table, almost every story read by this point.

Before sitting down to write this review, I tried to pin down why this collection worked so well for me. I think what helps is that these stories are fresh and original. These writers -- some of which are authors that have written under the Black Horse Western imprint of Robert Hale, but not all -- really know how to craft an efficient short story. Maybe its because they've been trained well in how to write a good story without wasting too many words, because Hale has a strict word count that doesn't cater to long-winded writers. But they still need to be able to tell a full novel-length story. The result are stories that don't wander too much but still manage to be nuanced and complex.

Some themes are just a little on the edge, while others follows the standard western story lines. Dead Man Talking by Derek Rutherford recounts a childhood in which a family is slaughtered. Lonigan Must Die by Ben Bridges is about a convict who confronts a minister who was responsible for his arrest years earlier. Some are hilarious, such as "The Pride of the Crocketts" by Evan Lewis. Two stories centered around characters that are usually outcasts in western society, "Billy" by Lance Howard, and "The Gimp" by Jack Martin, are stunning stories that will break your heart with just a couple of words.

I'm not quite done yet, but I've read enough to know that, for me, this is a collection that will be read from cover to cover, rather than sitting on the "to be read" shelf -- right next to the collection of Eudora Welty stories.

To order a copy of A Fistful of Legends, go Here.