The Science Fiction Western, or "Sci-Fi Western" for short, is a narrative that is can be a traditional or contemporary Western but includes elements of science fiction. Any type of science fiction can be implemented within the narrative to enhance it. Some examples include time travel, steampunk, alien invasion, space colonization, etc.
The Valley of Gwangi
A cowboy captures a prehistoric beast and hits on the idea of putting it on display at a traveling circus. The beast, however, has other ideas.
Westworld
This story of a technological paradise suddenly turned nightmare is a genuine shocker. For $1,000 a day, vacationers can indulge whims at the "theme park" called Westworld where the gunhands and dance-hall girls are all robots programmed to serve the guests' violent and lustful fantasies--until something goes wrong with their circuitry.
Back to the Future Part III
Doc Brown has decided to live in the Old West of the 1880's. But when he's in danger of meeting an untimely end, Marty travels back into the past to rescue him. There's just one problem: Doc is so smitten by a schoolteacher that he's become distracted. Now, it's up to Marty to keep Doc out of trouble, get the DeLorean running, and put the past, present and future on track so they can all get back to where and when they belong.
Wild Wild West
Special agent James West and fellow agent and crackerjack inventor Artemus Gordon team up on a daring assignment to stop legless Dr. Arliss Loveless and his diabolical plot for a Disunited States of America.
Cowboys & Aliens
A spaceship arrives in Arizona, 1873, to take over the Earth, starting with the Wild West region. A posse of cowboys and natives are all that stand in their way.
The Dark Tower
The last Gunslinger, Roland Deschain, has been locked in an eternal battle with Walter O'Dim, also known as the Man in Black, determined to prevent him from toppling the Dark Tower, which holds the universe together. With the fate of the worlds at stake, good and evil will collide in the ultimate battle as only Roland can defend the Tower from the Man in Black.
Nope
Two siblings who run a California horse ranch discover something wonderful and sinister in the skies above, and the owner of an adjacent theme park tries to profit from the mysterious, otherworldly phenomenon.
Quantum Cowboys
Two hapless drifters, Frank and Bruno, team up with Linde to recover her land and trek across 1870's Southern Arizona to find an elusive frontier musician. The complex quantum time theory is blended with philosophical musings about art as the way we understand our history and memories, with gunfights, horses, dance halls, cacti, and saloons!
The Wild Wild West
One of the most popular series of the 1960s, 'The wild wild West' involves the exploits of two Secret Service agents who protect President Ulysses S. Grant and investigate crime in the Old West.
The Adventures of Brisco County, Jr.
In the late 1890s, Brisco is a tough-as-rawhide cowpoke, debonair ladies' man, and Harvard-educated smarty-britches who roams from Frisco to Jalisco in pursuit of outlaws who killed his legendary lawman father. He is hired by rich tycoons as a bounty hunter and teams up with their liaison, nervous lawyer Socrates Poole, and rival African-American bounty hunter Lord Bowler to hunt down the evil John Bly. Both sides are aided by mysterious, futuristic inventions and powerful, mysterious orbs.
Annie and the Wolves by
Ruth McClintock is obsessed with the past. For nearly a decade, she has been studying Annie Oakley, convinced that the legendary sharpshooter experienced a scarring event in childhood that led her to fight for the right of every American woman to own and operate a gun. This fruitless search has cost Ruth her doctorate, a book deal, and her fiance. But Ruth may finally have the evidence she is looking for. She has managed to hunt down a journal purporting to be a 'true account' of Oakley's midlife struggles, including secret visits to a psychoanalyst and the desire for vengeance against the 'Wolves,' or those who have wronged her.
The Buntline Special by
Welcome to a West like you've never seen before, where electric lights shine down on the streets of Tombstone, while horseless stagecoaches carry passengers to and fro, and where death is no obstacle to The Thing That Was Once Johnny Ringo. Think you know the story of the O. K. Corral? Think again, as five-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick takes on his first steampunk western tale, and the West will never be the same.
Cowboys and Aliens by
The ultimate showdown between Cowboys and Indians is interrupted...by an alien invasion. The Old West will never be the same. When an extra-terrestrial armada lands in the Wild West, they find themselves in a showdown with one tough posse of rough-and-ready heroes--and the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel gives you the thrilling comic book stories that started it all off! Compiling every issue of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's electrifying comic book series, this gorgeous, full-color graphic novel features the dynamic creative talents of Fred Van Lente, Andrew Foley, and Luciano Lima--as well as all-new tie-in art from the spectacular motion picture, starring Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Sam Rockwell. Whether you're rooting for the gunslingers or the little green men, don't bring your guns to town without reading a copy of the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel!
Custer's Last Jump and Other Collaborations by
Story collaborations between cult figure Howard Waldrop and numerous other celebrated science fiction and fantasy writers are collected for the first time in this unique volume. 'One Horse Town' breathes fresh life into an ancient tale, combining elements from the sack of Troy, Homer's early days, the last day in the life of a Trojan warrior, and the archaeological dig at Troy. In 'Custer's Last Jump!' the legendary Crazy Horse uses Confederate monoplanes in his famous battle against General Custer. 'A Voice and Bitter Weeping' paints a grim post-nuclear age where Israeli mercenaries fight Texans in a never-ending, hopeless war. Mystery, intrigue, and treachery abound in the Heian Japan setting of 'The Latter Days of the Law', where a clever man must find a lost prince.
Dead Iron by
Welcome to a new America that is built on blood, sweat, and gears... In steam age America, men, monsters, machines, and magic battle for the same scrap of earth and sky. In this chaos, bounty hunter Cedar Hunt rides, cursed by lycanthropy and carrying the guilt of his brother's death. Then he's offered hope that his brother may yet survive. All he has to do is find the Holder: a powerful device created by mad devisers-and now in the hands of an ancient Strange who was banished to walk this Earth. In a land shaped by magic, steam, and iron, where the only things a man can count on are his guns, gears, and grit, Cedar will have to depend on all three if he's going to save his brother and reclaim his soul once and for all...
The Ghosts of Watt O'Hugh by
Watt O'Hugh III is a self-made man, Civil War vet, Time Roamer, former orphan of the New York slums and dime novel hero of the lost, magical West of the 1870s - and his riotous adventures mark one of the most original literary fantasy novels in recent memory. When O'Hugh returns to New York as the star of a Wild West show, he thinks his ship has come in. But that's before he wakes up in a Wyoming penitentiary facing a murder charge, a corrupt Wall Street banker turned outlaw and a 2000-year-old Chinese mystery that could change the world forever.
The Gunslinger by
"An impressive work of mythic magnitude that may turn out to be Stephen King's greatest literary achievement" (The Atlanta Journal-Constitution), The Gunslinger is the first volume in the epic Dark Tower Series. A #1 national bestseller, The Gunslinger introduces readers to one of Stephen King's most powerful creations, Roland of Gilead: The Last Gunslinger. He is a haunting figure, a loner on a spellbinding journey into good and evil. In his desolate world, which mirrors our own in frightening ways, Roland tracks The Man in Black, encounters an enticing woman named Alice, and begins a friendship with the boy from New York named Jake. Inspired in part by the Robert Browning narrative poem, "Childe Roland to the Dark Tower Came," The Gunslinger is "a compelling whirlpool of a story that draws one irretrievable to its center" (Milwaukee Sentinel). It is "brilliant and fresh...and will leave you panting for more" (Booklist).
Karen Memory by
"You ain't gonna like what I have to tell you, but I'm gonna tell you anyway. See, my name is Karen Memery, like memory only spelt with an e, and I'm one of the girls what works in the Hôtel Mon Cherie on Amity Street. Hôtel has a little hat over the o like that. It's French, so Beatrice tells me." Set in the late 19th century--when the city we now call Seattle Underground was the whole town (and still on the surface), when airships plied the trade routes, would-be gold miners were heading to the gold fields of Alaska, and steam-powered mechanicals stalked the waterfront, Karen is a young woman on her own, is making the best of her orphaned state by working in Madame Damnable's high-quality bordello. Through Karen's eyes we get to know the other girls in the house--a resourceful group--and the poor and the powerful of the town. Trouble erupts one night when a badly injured girl arrives at their door, beggin sanctuary, followed by the man who holds her indenture, and who has a machine that can take over anyone's mind and control their actions. And as if that wasn't bad enough, the next night brings a body dumped in their rubbish heap--a streetwalker who has been brutally murdered. Bear brings alive this Jack-the-Ripper yarn of the old west with a light touch in Karen's own memorable voice, and a mesmerizing evocation of classic steam-powered science.
Night of the Cooters by
Award winning SF/Fantasy author Howard Waldrop is back with his third collection of "neat stories". Featuring nine stunning tales, Night of the Cooters is a riveting, sometimes hilarious, always thought provoking book that challenges as well as entertains. "He's like a wired-up naive artist, a futuristic folk writer with one foot in the research library & the other in the B-movie bins of his neighborhood video hut."--Voice Literary Supplement
The Place of Dead Roads by
A good old-fashion shoot-out in the American West of the frontier days serves as the springboard for this hyperkinetic adventure in which gunslingers, led by Kim Carson, fight for galactic freedom. The Place of Dead Roads is the second novel in the trilogy with Cities of the Red Night and The Western Lands.
Sarah Canary by
When an enigmatic woman cloaked in black wanders into a Chinese labor camp in the Pacific Northwest of 1873, one man is chosen to lead her out into the woods. But soon, he becomes the enchanted follower. Thus begins a magical journey. . . .
Stinger by
A relentless alien bounty hunter encloses a Texas town under a dome to isolate, hunt, and kill its prey in "the ultimate horror novel" (The Philadelphia Inquirer). Ever since the copper mine closed, the West Texas desert hellholes of Inferno and Bordertown have been slowly dying. Snake River isn't the only thing that divides them. Racism, gang wars, and anti-Mexican sentiment have turned the sun-scorched flatlands into a powder keg. If anything can unite them for now, at least in awe and wonder, it's the UFO that comes soaring out of the clouds like a flaming locomotive. In the wake of the crash, a young alien named Daufin has arrived, too. A fugitive who has taken the form of a human, she knows the terror that awaits the inhabitants of this planet--because it is looking for her. When Stinger, the monstrous alien bounty hunter, arrives, it's with a destructive fury and a devious plan to find Daufin--by entombing the residents in an impenetrable and inescapable dome. A relentless killing machine, Stinger has an infinite capacity for death and destruction. And over the next twenty-four hours, this town is going to bleed and burn. Now, the few remaining survivors must come together to protect Daufin, themselves, and the world beyond from total annihilation. From the New York Times-bestselling and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Swan Song, Stinger was called "one of the best suspense novels of recent years" by the Science Fiction Chronicle.
Where the Rock Splits the Sky by
The moon has been split, and the Visitors have Earth in their alien grip. But the captive planet? That's not her problem. Megan just wants to track down her missing dad...The world stopped turning long before Megan was born. Ever since the Visitors split the moon and stilled the Earth, permanent sunset is all anyone has known. But now, riding her trusty steed Cisco, joined by her posse, Kelly and Luis, Megan is on the run from her Texas hometown, journeying across the vast, dystopic American West to hunt down her father. To find him, she must face the Zone, a notorious landscape where the laws of nature do not apply. The desert can play deadly tricks on the mind, and the quest will push Megan past her limits. But to solve the mystery of not just her missing father but of the paralyzed planet itself, she must survive it--and an alien showdown.
Zeppelins West by
Irrepressible, irreverent and unpredictable, this hilarious fantasy with nostalgic touches of yesterday's SF shows off the narrative skills of an inventive author altogether comfortable in his métier. Legends of the Old West, plus characters both real and fictional, enliven the shenanigans, commencing with Buffalo Bill Cody, a head in a jar atop a mechanical body (after his ax-wielding wife caught him in bed with singer Lily Langtry), escorting his Wild West Show by zeppelin to Japan. Wild Bill Hickok romances Annie Oakley and discusses his old friend George Custer with his new friend Sitting Bull, who packs much comic punch in few words ("White eye motherfucker in wrong place at wrong time"). A ribald tall tale only gets wilder and wackier.
Cowboys and Aliens by
The ultimate showdown between Cowboys and Indians is interrupted...by an alien invasion. The Old West will never be the same. When an extra-terrestrial armada lands in the Wild West, they find themselves in a showdown with one tough posse of rough-and-ready heroes--and the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel gives you the thrilling comic book stories that started it all off! Compiling every issue of Scott Mitchell Rosenberg's electrifying comic book series, this gorgeous, full-color graphic novel features the dynamic creative talents of Fred Van Lente, Andrew Foley, and Luciano Lima--as well as all-new tie-in art from the spectacular motion picture, starring Harrison Ford, Daniel Craig, and Sam Rockwell. Whether you're rooting for the gunslingers or the little green men, don't bring your guns to town without reading a copy of the Cowboys and Aliens graphic novel!
