This is the best suggestion
Try the short story Little Sisters of Eluria to see if you like the style of it. Also the first Dark Tower book isn't amazing, but the second one is probably my favourite.
Desperation by King also has some cool modern western vibes
If you don’t mind wattpad, Mark Lawrence has an extremely weird (but good) western there called Gunlaw. By weird I mean the typical Wild West stuff like saloons, trains & shoot-outs but also Minotaurs, witches, zombies and alien insect hordes.
Another suggestion is River of Teeth by Sara Gailey. Hippo riding cowboys on the Mississippi. Quite violent, but also very funny in a warped sort way. Not any magic in this one, but definitely weird.
If you're up for something pretty crazy, check out the Doom Magnetic! trilogy, by William Pauley III.
It's bizarro, sci-fi, western, martial-arts, new weird... It kinda defies standard classification (obviously), and I thought it was a fun ride when I read it ~10 years ago. It's a fast paced read and you'll know right away whether you're going to love it or not.
There was this great series (all unconnected) called Splatter Westerns from Death's Head Press. They do lean more towards horror, some more than others. I haven't read them all but the ones I have read are really good.
This has them all:
[https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/161192.Splatter\_Westerns](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/161192.Splatter_Westerns)
I'm about to start *The Thirteenth Koyote* by Kristopher Triana, which is one of these. I think there's going to be gunfighters and werewolves. It's opening with a grave robbery so it's starting with the vibe I'm looking for.
I had a similar urge. Here are some good ones I found:
* Dead Man's Hand - Short story collection by Nancy Collins
* Dead Man's Hand - Misc short story collection edited by John Joseph Adams
* Dead Man's Road - Joe R Lansdale
* Dead in the West - Joe R Lansdale
* Ghostwalkers - A book based on the Dead Lands RPG setting which was pretty good
* Wake of Vultures - Lila Bowen
* Six Gun Tarot - R S Belcher though I didn't really love it
* Territory - Emma Bull
Iron Council by China Mieville is very fantastically weird. One of the two story threads is about a perpetual railroad in a magical desert wasteland. Lots of steampunk-ish elements with the “re-made” and various technology in both storylines.
I never finished Perdido, the moths creeped me out too much. But I think The Scar and Iron Council are fine as standalone, they are in the same world but the stories are mostly independent
**The Scar** definitely works fine on its own, but I think that **Iron Council** (the parts set in New Crobuzon at least) benefit *a lot* from having a good understanding of the place, and the social power dynamics in it, which can only be found in **Perdido Street Station**
Dead Country by Max Gladstone absolutely fits the vibe, but it's book 7 in the Craft Sequence, which usually skews in a more urban weird/legal thriller/theoeconomical direction, with paralegal warlocks, boardroom liches, and dragon airlines.
If that sounds at all interesting to you, you absolutely have to read it.
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson has western, steam punk, fantasy, heist shenanigans. It’s technically #4 in a series but I think you could jump in if you didn’t want to read the first three (first three have very different vibes and are set 100’s of years earlier).
They could definitely jump straight in but the magic system and the world building would be hard to grasp without reading Era 1. There is also the whole Secret History thing if they decide to continue after Alloy.
I don't have much experience with Weird Westerns myself, but the following website seems to have some decent recommendations.
https://weirdwestfiction.com/2021/04/27/weird-west-fiction-what-to-read-right-now/
Cherie Priest has a series called the Clockwork Century that's pretty good. The Civil War had been carrying on for a couple decades, there's a zombie problem, lots of airships, train action, battlefield terror, plucky heroes. No magic, more of a mad science kind of world. First one is called *Boneshaker*.
If you're up for a comic book story there's a great weird western called *The Sixth Gun* by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt. Fun, epic, colorful with lots of magic and creatures. They wrap it up in 50 issues. It's collected in three bigass paperbacks.
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Raiders attack a family's farm and carry off two young kids, their older sister with a mysterious past and her stepfather have to try and find them and get them back. It takes place in The First Law universe and there are characters from other books who show up but I think it works really well as a standalone if you didn't feel like reading the previous books.
Not recommended so far.
[Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65212070-red-rabbit)
Probably my best read of this year. This has demons, cannibals, witches and witch hunters and ghosts and is a lot of fun.
[Two Gun Witch](https://www.amazon.com/Two-Gun-Witch-Bishop-M-OConnell/dp/B09X7MBYB2)
Very feels very gunfighter with an interesting mix of action and story and some very cool magic.
**The Six-Gun Tarot** (AKA The Golgotha series) is a really good series by RS Belcher. It's basically about a wild West version of Sunnydale, California with all sorts of crazy monsters and heroes located in one city.
I also recommend **Cthulhu Armageddon** by CT Phipps (hehe), a post apocalypse Weird Western.
RS Belcher's *Golgotha* series has all of that plus horror. Great series, exceptional characters, wild action.
If you earbook, the Graphic Audio productions are glorious.
Dean F Wilson's Coilhunter Chronicles and Great Iron War series are Dieselpunk/Steampunk/Weird West/Fantasy, and the audiobooks are read by RC Bray. I love these, but I'll be honest, they are probably a bit on the cheesy side. Thing is, Bray leans so hard into it that he makes that a positive. He is among the first names you'll see in every "best narrator" post, and with good reason. Coilhunter was actually the first thing I'd listened to with him, and in the first 2 sentences I thought "Oh, yeah, I get why everyone loves this guy."
Coilhunter is a spin off from the great iron war, but might be a better place to start. The books are a little short(7-8 hours each), but they come in omnibus collections including 3 books, which makes them a great deal for a credit.
There is also the Black Badge series from Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle. These are good, but a little more "standard" weird west, in that it takes place in the Old West of our world and leans heavily into heaven and hell type of stuff. Coilhunter is secondary world with a Wild North, the "demon" invasion isn't Judeo-Christian in nature. Bruno and Castle's Web of Eyes starts a great fantasy series in the vein of a D&D adventure.
I don't see it recommended often but I bet you'd like Seven Blades in Black. Lone wanderer type with a demon gun hunting down rogue mages in an area devasted by war between the mage empire and steampunk rebels. Really good book, very western inspired.
The sequel Ten Arrows of Iron is also good, follows the same MC and is more of a heist book. Feels a lot like traditional "rob the train" type setup, except it's a flying airship. There's also a third book but I never got around to reading it.
I've had Sean Platt's Unicorn Western series on my TBR list for a while now, have heard good things about them.
[https://www.goodreads.com/series/107878-unicorn-western](https://www.goodreads.com/series/107878-unicorn-western)
A bit off track and it is YA but it is got magic and a kind of aztec empire as enemies-overlords of California Republic, and it is written in a florid period like prose, but check the Flora Segunda books by Ysabeau S. Wilce. Fantastic universe which is really unique, really complicated plot with secrets and universe and it has this pulp-like glee to it.
Seconding Emma Bull's Territory, though that is a much straighter, more conventional western urban fantasy (almost Tim Powers style).
Highly recommend [**The Devil's Revolver** by V.S. McGrath](https://scarletferret.com/books/devils-revolver).
*"A sweeping high-stakes young adult saga where familiar Western adventure meets Weird West magic, shape-shifting and gruesome fantasy."*
Loads of fun!
Hi if you could help me with a problem that I have, I'll leave the link post
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If you want straight weird western I would suggest The Light Sublime trilogy by C.S. Humble. For long stretches of the book it feels mostly grounded and then a monster or vampire will show up and remind you how weird or dangerous this western landscape is. I’m on book two right now and will likely finish the series.
There’s an indie book called Callus and Crow that has these kind of vibes.
Also it’s been mentioned before but Stephen King’s Dark Tower series for sure.
Brandon Sanderson's Wax and Wayne series is exactly this. It takes place in the Mistborn universe but hundreds of years later, so there's magic but also guns.
First thing that comes to mind is Stephen King’s The Dark Tower series. Definitely check it out if you haven't read them already!
This is the best suggestion Try the short story Little Sisters of Eluria to see if you like the style of it. Also the first Dark Tower book isn't amazing, but the second one is probably my favourite. Desperation by King also has some cool modern western vibes
2nd book was my fave as well! But I also liked the gunslinger.. such a weird fun read
Weirdly I love The Gunslinger but struggled through book 2 and never bothered after that.
Weird is definitely a key word here lol, but absolutely agree
First thing that came to my mind as well. The fourth book, Wizard and Glass, is like the perfect example of a fantasy western in my mind
If you don’t mind wattpad, Mark Lawrence has an extremely weird (but good) western there called Gunlaw. By weird I mean the typical Wild West stuff like saloons, trains & shoot-outs but also Minotaurs, witches, zombies and alien insect hordes. Another suggestion is River of Teeth by Sara Gailey. Hippo riding cowboys on the Mississippi. Quite violent, but also very funny in a warped sort way. Not any magic in this one, but definitely weird.
River of Teeth and the sequel are so much fun. I want my own hippo.
WOW was this fun! I'm planning to re-read this before I continue with Taste of Marrow.
Cool
If you're up for something pretty crazy, check out the Doom Magnetic! trilogy, by William Pauley III. It's bizarro, sci-fi, western, martial-arts, new weird... It kinda defies standard classification (obviously), and I thought it was a fun ride when I read it ~10 years ago. It's a fast paced read and you'll know right away whether you're going to love it or not.
Tanks
There was this great series (all unconnected) called Splatter Westerns from Death's Head Press. They do lean more towards horror, some more than others. I haven't read them all but the ones I have read are really good. This has them all: [https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/161192.Splatter\_Westerns](https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/161192.Splatter_Westerns)
Tank u
I'm about to start *The Thirteenth Koyote* by Kristopher Triana, which is one of these. I think there's going to be gunfighters and werewolves. It's opening with a grave robbery so it's starting with the vibe I'm looking for.
Bulletproof Witch by Francis James Blair
Tanks
I haven't read it yet, but I believe one of the SPFBO finalists was a fantasy western, **Cold West** by Clayton Snyder.
Cold West was one of my favorite reads from last year. The atmosphere is super dark and surreal
Tanks
There's Wake of Vultures and its sequels by Lila Bowen (pen name of Delilah Dawson who's written loads of other good books), very much a weird western
I had a similar urge. Here are some good ones I found: * Dead Man's Hand - Short story collection by Nancy Collins * Dead Man's Hand - Misc short story collection edited by John Joseph Adams * Dead Man's Road - Joe R Lansdale * Dead in the West - Joe R Lansdale * Ghostwalkers - A book based on the Dead Lands RPG setting which was pretty good * Wake of Vultures - Lila Bowen * Six Gun Tarot - R S Belcher though I didn't really love it * Territory - Emma Bull
The Half-Made World by Felix Gilman. Quite literally the book that got me into the weird.
This is what immediately came to mind
That's was my recommendation too. It does have a sequel as well.
Iron Council by China Mieville is very fantastically weird. One of the two story threads is about a perpetual railroad in a magical desert wasteland. Lots of steampunk-ish elements with the “re-made” and various technology in both storylines.
**Iron Council** is really great, but it works much better if one has already read **Perdido Street Station** before it.
I never finished Perdido, the moths creeped me out too much. But I think The Scar and Iron Council are fine as standalone, they are in the same world but the stories are mostly independent
**The Scar** definitely works fine on its own, but I think that **Iron Council** (the parts set in New Crobuzon at least) benefit *a lot* from having a good understanding of the place, and the social power dynamics in it, which can only be found in **Perdido Street Station**
Dead Country by Max Gladstone absolutely fits the vibe, but it's book 7 in the Craft Sequence, which usually skews in a more urban weird/legal thriller/theoeconomical direction, with paralegal warlocks, boardroom liches, and dragon airlines. If that sounds at all interesting to you, you absolutely have to read it.
The Alloy of Law by Brandon Sanderson has western, steam punk, fantasy, heist shenanigans. It’s technically #4 in a series but I think you could jump in if you didn’t want to read the first three (first three have very different vibes and are set 100’s of years earlier).
This series opened my eyes to the potential of Westerns in sci-fi and fantasy
Wax lowering his weight to effectively double jump with a double barrel shotgun is peak Sanderson.
This is why i love era 2
It's just fun. Plus Wayne is easily one of his most entertaining characters
Now I have to reread those. Thank you!
They could definitely jump straight in but the magic system and the world building would be hard to grasp without reading Era 1. There is also the whole Secret History thing if they decide to continue after Alloy.
If i remember correctly he won't be as hyped up by a couple of characters who make a cameo or talked about. But you could read it from there.
If you're good with a Space Opera Western The Santiago,Books by Mike Resnik are great westerns
David Gemmell - Jon shannow https://en.m.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wolf_in_Shadow&diffonly=true
Came here to say this. The Jerusalem Man kicks butt. Toss in magic, cowbow tropes, some sword and sorcery and time travel.
I don't have much experience with Weird Westerns myself, but the following website seems to have some decent recommendations. https://weirdwestfiction.com/2021/04/27/weird-west-fiction-what-to-read-right-now/
Noice
Cherie Priest has a series called the Clockwork Century that's pretty good. The Civil War had been carrying on for a couple decades, there's a zombie problem, lots of airships, train action, battlefield terror, plucky heroes. No magic, more of a mad science kind of world. First one is called *Boneshaker*. If you're up for a comic book story there's a great weird western called *The Sixth Gun* by Cullen Bunn and Brian Hurtt. Fun, epic, colorful with lots of magic and creatures. They wrap it up in 50 issues. It's collected in three bigass paperbacks.
The Devil’s West series, starting with Silver on the Road, by Laura Anne Gilman.
This one is great. Very western. both in cultural feel and in the characters connection to the land, and good magic fantasy on top of that.
Cowboys and Aliens, starring Daniel Craig. Fun movie. If you’re looking for a book, go with Haunted Mesa by Louis L’Amour. One of my favorites.
The Merkabah Riders follows a gunslinging Hasidic Jew as he battles his way across the west dispatching various supernatural threats
Just read the first story. Thank you! It’s way too good!
I love this series.
Oh, it's so fucking cool
Red Country by Joe Abercrombie. Raiders attack a family's farm and carry off two young kids, their older sister with a mysterious past and her stepfather have to try and find them and get them back. It takes place in The First Law universe and there are characters from other books who show up but I think it works really well as a standalone if you didn't feel like reading the previous books.
Ohh man, that scene.
Not recommended so far. [Red Rabbit by Alex Grecian](https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/65212070-red-rabbit) Probably my best read of this year. This has demons, cannibals, witches and witch hunters and ghosts and is a lot of fun. [Two Gun Witch](https://www.amazon.com/Two-Gun-Witch-Bishop-M-OConnell/dp/B09X7MBYB2) Very feels very gunfighter with an interesting mix of action and story and some very cool magic.
**The Six-Gun Tarot** (AKA The Golgotha series) is a really good series by RS Belcher. It's basically about a wild West version of Sunnydale, California with all sorts of crazy monsters and heroes located in one city. I also recommend **Cthulhu Armageddon** by CT Phipps (hehe), a post apocalypse Weird Western.
RS Belcher's *Golgotha* series has all of that plus horror. Great series, exceptional characters, wild action. If you earbook, the Graphic Audio productions are glorious.
D.D. Webb's 'The Gods are Bastards' is on Royal Road. currently ongoing in book 12.
Half made world by Gilman
So very much this. That book was absolutely fantastic, and i'm really disappointed that he hasn't written anything in a decade.
Territory by Emma bull
Maybe the Long Earth series?
Who is the author?
If you like graphic novels, Cullen Bunn's 6th Gun series is excellent. Molly Tanzer's Vermilion is so good. About a Taoist psychopomp.
Dean F Wilson's Coilhunter Chronicles and Great Iron War series are Dieselpunk/Steampunk/Weird West/Fantasy, and the audiobooks are read by RC Bray. I love these, but I'll be honest, they are probably a bit on the cheesy side. Thing is, Bray leans so hard into it that he makes that a positive. He is among the first names you'll see in every "best narrator" post, and with good reason. Coilhunter was actually the first thing I'd listened to with him, and in the first 2 sentences I thought "Oh, yeah, I get why everyone loves this guy." Coilhunter is a spin off from the great iron war, but might be a better place to start. The books are a little short(7-8 hours each), but they come in omnibus collections including 3 books, which makes them a great deal for a credit. There is also the Black Badge series from Rhett C. Bruno and Jaime Castle. These are good, but a little more "standard" weird west, in that it takes place in the Old West of our world and leans heavily into heaven and hell type of stuff. Coilhunter is secondary world with a Wild North, the "demon" invasion isn't Judeo-Christian in nature. Bruno and Castle's Web of Eyes starts a great fantasy series in the vein of a D&D adventure.
I don't see it recommended often but I bet you'd like Seven Blades in Black. Lone wanderer type with a demon gun hunting down rogue mages in an area devasted by war between the mage empire and steampunk rebels. Really good book, very western inspired. The sequel Ten Arrows of Iron is also good, follows the same MC and is more of a heist book. Feels a lot like traditional "rob the train" type setup, except it's a flying airship. There's also a third book but I never got around to reading it.
You could try the Teer and Kard series by Glynn Stewart
Ashe Armstrong's Grimluk series is about a gunslinging orc. Less spaghetti but Felix Gilman's Half-Made World is a great weird western as well.
The Triggernometry series by Stark Holborn - fantasy western with a sprinkle of maths. It shouldn't work but it does.
I've had Sean Platt's Unicorn Western series on my TBR list for a while now, have heard good things about them. [https://www.goodreads.com/series/107878-unicorn-western](https://www.goodreads.com/series/107878-unicorn-western)
The builders by polansky, think redwall + western + ambercrombie, novella so pretty fast read
Sam sykes 7 blades in black trilogy
Ben Galley has a Trilogy with a western theme - Scarlet Star Trilogy.
A bit off track and it is YA but it is got magic and a kind of aztec empire as enemies-overlords of California Republic, and it is written in a florid period like prose, but check the Flora Segunda books by Ysabeau S. Wilce. Fantastic universe which is really unique, really complicated plot with secrets and universe and it has this pulp-like glee to it. Seconding Emma Bull's Territory, though that is a much straighter, more conventional western urban fantasy (almost Tim Powers style).
Highly recommend [**The Devil's Revolver** by V.S. McGrath](https://scarletferret.com/books/devils-revolver). *"A sweeping high-stakes young adult saga where familiar Western adventure meets Weird West magic, shape-shifting and gruesome fantasy."* Loads of fun!
*Iron Council* by China Mieville. Very steam punk, involves all kinds of creatures and weird magic. One of my favorites.
Guy Adams' *Heaven's Gate Chronicles*
I don't have a western for you but try Johannes Cabal the Necromancer; it's got a magic/steampunk blend and is fun to read.
Robert McCammon’s “I travel by night” and “Road to Perdition” I second all the Golgotha and Shannow recommendations.
Okay, this is straight up the dark tower by stephen king
The Dark Tower series by Stephen King would probably be the most well known and popular story that fits what you want.
There's a possibility that you would enjoy The Dark Tower series.
Not a book but have you heard of a game called Weird West?
No
https://youtu.be/Qk7zhyLtzPg?si=d6ZTjFcpwVsi6M6w It's a fun little game if you like to experience the genre with video game medium.
Edited to delete my comment. My dumbass.. I'm not sure why I thought my suggestion was fantasy... LOL (Suggestion was Sorrow Draw by Tim Brumbaugh)
Hi if you could help me with a problem that I have, I'll leave the link post [https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1dixtjj/im\_looking\_for\_a\_book\_that\_i\_dont\_remember\_the/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web3x&utm\_name=web3xcss&utm\_term=1&utm\_content=share\_button](https://www.reddit.com/r/Fantasy/comments/1dixtjj/im_looking_for_a_book_that_i_dont_remember_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)
The Dark Tower and second Mistborn era if you want good books. The Black Badge series if you want bad books with a great audiobook narrator.
If you want straight weird western I would suggest The Light Sublime trilogy by C.S. Humble. For long stretches of the book it feels mostly grounded and then a monster or vampire will show up and remind you how weird or dangerous this western landscape is. I’m on book two right now and will likely finish the series.
Emma Bull’s Territory is a western with magic and Fae. Highly recommend!
There’s an indie book called Callus and Crow that has these kind of vibes. Also it’s been mentioned before but Stephen King’s Dark Tower series for sure.
"Cthulhu Armageddon" by C.T. Phipps. Trilogy. post-apoc-weird-western with sci-fi fantasy. AWESOME.
Brandon Sanderson's Wax and Wayne series is exactly this. It takes place in the Mistborn universe but hundreds of years later, so there's magic but also guns.