The hero is from a high tech space-faring society, but is currently in a low tech world. I cannot remember story details, but remember that he had a mechanical horse that could pass for real, although it could do some very un-horsey things. The horse was intelligent and could communicate with him. I read this several years ago. It may have been a dead-tree story. Any ideas?
Hero from high tech space-faring society on a low tech world is pretty common. L.E.Modesitt did that many times. Fick Suck's 'Blue Hand' is a similar concept. Pretty sure Ka Hmnd used the idea a few times. The 'Von Solon' stories are similar.
The mechanical horse thing rings a bell. Although the one I'm reminded of, the rider escaped (or was sent as a bounty hunter) from hell. Not sure if it was dead tree or not.
bk, you might be thinking of black_coffee's "McAllister's Redemption." The horse is metallic, though not mechanical, and the man is from what I'm thinking is Victorian-era Earth. An excellent story but I agree that it's probably not it.
Seeing the name, yeah, that's what I was thinking of. For some reason, I wasn't sure if the story was one of Zelazny's...
For some reason, I wasn't sure if the story was one of Zelazny's...
I recognise that plot as having been from Zelazny, specifically from Dilvish the Damned.
Dilvish fits mostly, there were two books and I (or a search engine) thinks the second one could have been "The Changing Land".
The divergence is in the horse, I think it was magical rather than very hi tech.
Yup, probably Oh, Hell No! It's also no longer available from Banzai Ben's site.
I patted him on the neck and lifted up the hair. Printed in what looked like magic marker was: Name: Stubbs – Property of: United Planets.
Yup, probably Oh, Hell No! It's also no longer available from Banzai Ben's site.
terriblethom Also had a story by that name but is no longer there.
I tried to find the story by terribletom a few years ago and I believe he had pulled it and the sequel to clean up and never re-published them. There was also a very large "dog" that was actually an alien. The M/C isn't from a space faring race but a highway traveler who had pulled over on the side of the road to camp for the night and woke up "elsewhere" in a place loosely based on an old west Texas.
I believe he had pulled it and the sequel to clean up
Really? I must've confused him with someone. The one I thought was terribletom was one of those rabid "my writing is good enough and I don't need no steenking editor or proofreader, despite evidence to the contrary" types.
I emailed him a couple years ago and he stated that he
was working on cleaning up the story. If I understood
him correctly, he pulled it because he was tied up in day to day life events and did not have much time to write or had writers block. And since the last part of
the story hinted at another book, everyone kept
wanting to know when he was going to start posting it.
I think he kind of was thinking "out of sight out of mind".
This is just what I recall so it does not mean that is
what he intended.
It's a bit confusing. I have an old zip file with 111 chapters and at the end of the last chapter he states that he is first going to complete Shamus and then see if he will add to story. Then I have another version with 150 chapters and at the end of the last chapter he says:
This is the End of Book 5. I purposely left it up in the air, 'cause Grizz threatened to strangle me if I didn't do a Book 6. Thanks to all of you that have faithfully followed this story, Thom.
I don't know where I got that version from.
Christopher Stasheff's Warlock books.
I think we have a winner! I've read the first couple of chapters in the Amazon preview of "The Warlock in Spite of Himself" and it rings lots of bells.
Thanks everyone.