John Shiply is an ex-Army captain who leads a county militia detail in central Texas in 1857 during the Comanche wars. Their job is to find and kill as many Comanche warriors as they can before the Comanches kill all the Whites in central Texas. Join him as he and his men try to win Texas from the Comanches.
Size: 141 KB (26,439 words)
Genre: Western
Sex Contents: No Sex
Tags: Historical, Humor, Violent
Review by The Black Knight [other reviews by The Black Knight]
Reviewed:
This is yet another entertaining story from an author whose work I've followed from his initial offerings on SOL. As such, it's obvious that his skill has improved over time. Technically, this work seemed to contain fewer errors than his previous work; although his use of dialect may confuse or offend some, I think it does a good job of masking the inevitable typos.
That said, I notice that several of the deficiencies which have plagued aubie56's writing from the start are present in this piece. The pacing of the story is choppy (although this could be intentional... it's practically his trademark now) and many scenes are rushed through. Another one of his trademarks is the way his character's always seem to have a perfect approach to tactics, and his 'villains' never seem to learn... or when they do, the 'heroes' always have the perfect response.
Still, if one gets past those flaws, aubie56's stories are usually fun reads, and this one is no exception. The characters are interesting, if not fully developed, and the story gives a different approach in violating (and alternately following) normal Western convention. One day, when aubie56 finally fully develops as a writer, I would not be surprised — and I know, this sounds blasphemous — if he were to produce work as good as L'Amour or Grey. I truly hope to see that day, but in the mean time, I recommend fully that anyone who is interested in a different style of western to give this story a read.
I will, however, warn two groups: first, if'n y'all gots a probl'm wit' readin' this, y'all gonna jes' hate the dialog; second, if you are at all squeamish, some of the scenes (particularly in the final chapters) might be a little much.
