The Space Western forgoes all physical attachments to the American West and anything of planet Earth. These Westerns take audiences and readers across the stars to the farthest reaches of the galaxy and beyond. The stock characters that we are familiar with from classic Westerns still exist in these far-off planets and galaxies. In settings such as these, lawlessness and debauchery run amok as we have seen in Classic Westerns. Even beyond the stars, we find that those who enforce the law have trouble maintaining order in such desolate, isolated territories. These narratives demonstrate the universality of the themes found in Westerns by providing readers with this alternate setting.
Moon Zero Two
On a colonized moon, a sinister tycoon aims to have a disaffected former-astronaut-turned-satellite-salvager fulfill his goals, while at the same time, a woman comes to the salvager to help search for her brother, a miner last seen working a distant patch of moonscape.
Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope
Princess Leia is captured and held hostage by the evil Imperial forces in their effort to take over the galactic Empire. Luke Skywalker, Han Solo, and two robots (R2-D2 and C-3PO) work together to rescue the princess and restore justice in the Empire.
Battle Beyond the Stars
Seven mercenaries are recruited from throughout the galaxy to save a peaceful planet from the threat of an evil tyrant bent on dominating the entire universe. Among them are a lizard-like humanoid, a space cowboy, a female warrior, and a brooding killer-for-hire.
Outland
A future cop probes some mysterious deaths among the workers in a mining colony on on of Jupiter's innermost moons.
Pitch Black
When a group of marooned passengers must face a pack of terrifying creatures whose only weakness is the light, they turn to a vicious convict with an appetite for destruction and eerie eyes that can guide them through the darkness.
Cowboy Bebop: The Movie
A terrorist bomb destroyed a tanker truck on Highway One on Mars, killing hundreds. The rewards for the bomber's capture is massive and the crew of the Bebop would love to get their hands on it.
Serenity
When the renegade crew of Serenity agrees to hide a fugitive on their ship, they find themselves in an action-packed battle between the relentless military might of a totalitarian regime and the bloodthirsty creatures who roam uncharted outer space.
Avatar
When his twin brother dies in an accident, paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully takes his place on a mission to the human outpost on Pandora, where a corporate consortium is mining a rare mineral that is the key to solving Earth's energy crisis. Sully works with a group of scientists cloning near-duplicates of the planet's inhabitants, the Na'vi, whom specially trained scientists can control mentally to foster peace between the corporation and the natives. But when Sully finds himself lost on Pandora and trapped in a Na'vi clone body, a beautiful Na'vi woman saves his life and Sully discovers the corporation's plan to mine the mineral--at any cost.
Trigun: Badlands Rumble
In town surrounded by quicksand, an outlaw from Vash the Stampede's past has resurfaced after twenty years. His name is Gasback - and he's looking to cause a little trouble. It seems Gasback has a serious beef with the town's mayor, who's paying dozens of bounty hunters to protect his turf. One of those hired guns is a beautiful woman with a vendetta against Gasback. Will she get a shot at revenge?
John Carter
A war-weary former military captain is inexplicably transported to Mars and reluctantly becomes embroiled in an epic conflict. It's a world on the brink of collapse, and Carter rediscovers his humanity when he realizes the survival of Barsoom and its people rests in his hands.
Prospect
A teenage girl and her father travel to a remote alien moon; aiming to strike it rich. They've secured a contract to harvest a large deposit of the elusive gems hidden in the depths of the moons toxic forest. But there are others roving the wilderness, and the job quickly devolves into a fight to survive. Forced to contend not only with the forests other ruthless inhabitants; but with her own father's, greed-addled judgment; the girl finds she must carve her own path to escape.
Solo: A Star Wars Story
During an adventure into a dark criminal underworld, Han Solo meets his future copilot Chewbacca and encounters Lando Calrissian years before joining the Rebellion.
Avatar: The Way of Water
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, it begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
Cowboy Bebop: The Complete Series
The Bebop crew is just trying to make a buck. This motley lot of intergalactic loners teams up to track down fugitives and turn them in for cold hard cash. On their own, any one of them would be likely to get lost in the sprawl of space, but together, they're the most entertaining gang of bounty hunters in the year 2071.
Outlaw Star: The Complete Series
Gene Starwind and his partner Jim Hawking have a small business, but have been hired by Hilda for bodyguards. Now they are on the run from cops, pirates, an angry alien and a mysterious assassin. There is only one thing in their favor- an advanced ship.
Trigun: The Complete Series
Vash the Stampede is a wanted man with a habit of turning entire towns into rubble. The price on his head is a fortune, and his path of destruction reaches across the arid wastelands of a desert planet. Unfortunately, most encounters with the spiky-haired gunslinger don't end well for the bounty hunters who catch up with him, someone almost always gets hurt, and it's never Vash.
Firefly: The Complete Series
Five hundred years in the future, a renegade crew aboard a small spacecraft tries to survive as they travel the unknown parts of the galaxy and evade warring factions as well as authority agents out to get them.
The Expanse: Season 1
A thriller set two hundred years in the future, after mankind has colonized the solar system. A hardened detective and a rogue ship's captain come together for what starts as the case of a missing young woman and evolves into a race across the solar system to expose the greatest conspiracy in human history.
The Mandalorian: The Complete First Season
After the fall of the Galactic Empire, a lone gunfighter makes his way through the lawless galaxy's outer reaches, earning his keep as a bounty hunter. When he refuses to deliver a specific bounty, he makes himself a target for some of the most powerful forces in the fallen Empire and unwittingly becomes entangled in the remnants of the rebellion.
Big Damn Hero by
The original novel tying into the critically acclaimed and much-missed Firefly series from creator Joss Whedon. The Battle of Serenity Valley was the turning point that led the Independents to their defeat at the hands of the Alliance. Yet the Browncoats had held the valley for weeks against all odds, before being ordered to lay down their arms. Command stated they refused to send in airpower because the ground war was "too hot." But the soldiers who were there insist that was not true... While picking up a new cargo on Persephone, Captain Malcolm Reynolds is kidnapped by a bunch of embittered veteran Browncoats who suspect him of sabotaging the Independents during the war. As the rest of the crew struggle to locate him, Mal is placed on trial for his life, fighting compelling evidence that someone did indeed betray them to the Alliance all those years ago. As old comrades and old rivals crawl out of the woodwork, Mal must prove his innocence, but his captors are desperate and destitute, and will settle for nothing less than the culprit's blood.
Cowboy Bebop, A Syndicate Story: Red Planet Requiem by
Prequel novel to the upcoming Netflix series, Cowboy Bebop. Discover the origins of the classic rivalry between Spike and Vicious amongst the dark underbelly of Mars, 2161!
The year is 2161. The Red Dragon Crime Syndicate is king, and for all those lucky enough to be members of this crime family, life is damn good.
Well, not for everyone... For two entry-level gangsters in Tharsis City, Mars, life in the Syndicate isn't quite all guns and glamour. That's right. Long before they were mortal enemies, Spike Spiegel and Vicious were just two friends clawing their way up the crime ladder and trying to have a little fun while doing it.
But when an opportunity to pull a job for their boss arises, it's make or break time. Literally. All they have to do is deliver a suitcase. How hard could it be?
Frontier by
FRONTIER is a heartfelt queer romance in a high noon standoff with our planet's uncertian future. Frontier is The Mandalorian meets Mad Max, with the emotional heart of the Wayfarers series. But at its core, Frontier is a love story, about two women who find each other, lose each other and then find each other again. "Curtis oozes charm and humour in this pacey debut, which will be devoured by fans of Fallout and Firefly" Tamsyn Muir A dazzling debut for fans of Becky Chambers and Mary Robinette Kowal. In the distant future most of the human race has fled a ravaged Earth to find new life on other planets. For those who stayed a lawless society remains. Technology has been renounced, and saints and sinners, lawmakers and sheriffs, travelers and gunslingers, abound. What passes for justice is presided over by the High Sheriff, and carried out by his cruel and ruthless Deputy. Then a ship falls from the sky, bringing the planet's first visitor in three hundred years. This Stranger is a crewmember on the first ship in centuries to attempt a return to Earth and save what's left. But her escape pod crashes hundreds of miles away from the rest of the wreckage. The Stranger finds herself adrift in a ravaged, unwelcoming landscape, full of people who hate and fear her space-born existence. Scared, alone, and armed, she embarks on a journey across the wasteland to return to her ship, her mission, and the woman she loves. Fusing the fire and brimstone of the American Old West with sprawling post-apocalyptic science fiction, FRONTIER is a heartfelt queer romance in a high noon standoff set against the backdrop of our planet's uncertain future.
Gunfight on Europa Station by
An actual wagon train to space? Gunslinging cowpokes riding in rickety rocket ships? What isn't possible when you mix science fiction and Westerns? The final frontier ain't so final in these 12 tales of space exploration and adventure: each a timeless yarn told around the warm glow of a nuclear reactor just before it goes supernova. There's a story for everyone who's ever dreamed of traveling the stars. From the lone stranger who flies into town to help a widow and her daughter to the alien rancher trying to pose as human, they are familiar, yet with completely new twists. Take the pair of mercenaries who sign on to stop a mining camp insurrection only to discover they might be on the wrong side of evolution, or the prospector who finds the strike of a lifetime but ends up stranded on a barren moon without hope of rescue. And if that's not enough to catch your fancy, then how about a cloned Doc Holliday making his way in a future where both sickness and gambling are ancient history? Assembled inside are the biggest names in science fiction, taking you to the farthest reaches of the galaxy like they've never done before.
High Noon on Proxima B by
Adventure! Danger! Revenge! And a mail-order robot gunslinger in a wedding dress? Only in the wildest parts of space could this happen. It's time again to get in your ramshackle rocket ship and journey to the universe's western territories with this follow-up to "Gunfight on Europa Station." Meet the employees of a space bordello as they're drawn together to pull a con on a con. Or the crew filming a Western on a colony ship only to fight gravity and each other. Or a soldier on a backwater planet hiding from her past when it--and the military--finally tracks her down. Each voyage invokes the type of western yarns you've loved before, but with a science fiction upgrade you'll get to enjoy anew. Taking you on this ride are another set of astounding space opera authors such as Walter Jon Williams (Hardwired), Susan R. Matthews (Under Jurisdiction), Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (Star Trek), Brenda Cooper (Project Earth), Milton Davis (Changa's Safari), John E. Stith (Naught for Hire), and Peter J. Wacks (Caller of Lightning). High Noon on Proxima B. Ten tales of the West . . . not as it was, but as it might be!
A Princess of Mars by
Civil War veteran John Carter is unexpectedly transported to Barsoom, the planet we call Mars, and finds with the weaker gravity that he has super-human strength. In combat he finds respect and belonging with the Tharks, an aggressive race of green four-armed nomads. But when the Tharks capture the human-like Dejah Thoris, Carter feels the need to help this beautiful princess of Mars.
The Strange by
1931, New Galveston, Mars: Fourteen-year-old Anabelle Crisp sets off through the wastelands of the Strange to find Silas Mundt's gang who have stolen her mother's voice, destroyed her father, and left her solely with a need for vengeance. Since Anabelle's mother left for Earth to care for her own ailing mother, her days in New Galveston have been spent at school and her nights at her laconic father's diner with Watson, the family Kitchen Engine and dishwasher as her only companion. When the Silence came, and communication and shipments from Earth to its colonies on Mars stopped, life seemed stuck in foreboding stasis until the night Silas Mundt and his gang attacked. At once evoking the dreams of an America explored in Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles and the harder realities of frontier life in Charles Portis True Grit, Ballingrud's novel is haunting in its evocation of Anabelle's quest for revenge amidst a spent and angry world accompanied by a domestic Engine, a drunken space pilot, and the toughest woman on Mars. Nathan Ballingrud's stories have been adapted into the film Wounds and the Hulu series Monsterland, The Strange is his first novel.
Ten Low by
Firefly meets Dune in a breakneck race to escape across an alien moon thriving with aliens and criminals. Ten Low is eking out a living at the universe's edge. An ex-medic, ex-con, desperate to escape her memories of the war, she still hasn't learnt that no good deed goes unpunished. Attempting to atone for her sins, she pulls a teenage girl from a crashed lifecraft. But Gabriella Ortiz is no ordinary girl - she is a genetically-engineered super soldier and decorated General, part of the army that kept Ten prisoner. Worse, Ten realises the crash was an assassination attempt, and that someone wants Ortiz dead... To get the General off-world, they must cross the moon's lawless wastes, face military hit squads, savage bandits, organ sharks and good old-fashioned treachery. But as they race to safety, something else waits in the darkness. Something ancient and patient. Something that knows exactly who she is, and what she is really running from.
Copperhead Volume 1: a New Sheriff in Town by
Welcome to Copperhead, a grimy mining town on the edge of a backwater planet. Single mom Clara Bronson is the new sheriff, and on her first day she'll have to contend with a resentful deputy, a shady mining tycoon, and a family of alien hillbillies. And did we mention the massacre? Questions swirl around not only the murder mystery, but around Sheriff Bronson herself. What brought her to a place like Copperhead? Is she running from something? Or towards something? Collecting Copperhead #1-5, the debut story arc in Image's gritty new sci-fi/western mashup!
Firefly: the Unification War by
A new era of Firefly starts here, as the secret history of the Unification War is revealed at last! From Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Avengers) comes a new era of Firefly, as the definitive story of the Unification War is told at last! Captain Malcolm Reynolds thought he could outrun his past, but when a simple heist goes wrong, he's forced to confront it. With the fabled Traitor of Serenity Valley in his sights, Mal's quest for revenge will put him at odds with his own crew, forcing him to make a choice: fix the past or fight for the future. Along with Whedon, writer Greg Pak (Mech Cadet Yu, Totally Awesome Hulk, Weapon X) and artist Dan McDaid (Judge Dredd: Mega City Zero) take you back to the battleground where it all began...and reveal a secret history that might end it all.
Queen Emeraldas 1 by
The sci-fi classic from the creator of Space Battleship Yamato (Star Blazers), Galaxy Express 999, and Captain Harlock in English for the first time! Emeraldas, known throughout the galaxy as the Pirate Queen, travels through space on her heavily-armed ship, searching for a secret. Hiroshi Umino is a young boy who escaped the bounds of Earth only by building his own spaceship. He crashes on Mars, where he encounters Emeraldas, who sees a little of herself in the reckless young man.
Those Left Behind by
Joss Whedon (Buffy the Vampire Slayer) bridges the gap between his cult-hit Firefly TV series and his Serenity motion picture with this three-issue comics series - now in a hardcover edition! The ragtag crew of Serenity - mercenaries, fugitives, and one law-abiding prostitute - pursue fast cash and a little peace along the fringes of space. On a scavenger mission that promises a big payoff, they realize too late that they are being played by an old enemy with a grudge.
Trigun Maximum: Death Blue by
In the first volume of Trigun Maximum, we caught up with Vash and watched him jump back into service for Peace and Love! But now the action really begins. Remember the Gung-Ho Guns? That modge-podge group of assassins born and bred to kill Vash? Well, they're still trying to kill him, and, we'll see the beginning of a whole new set of worries for our gunslinging mysterious nice guy.. The fun is really getting rolling in Trigun Maximum, taking you way beyond the anime and into new, dangerous territory
