Santiago

I grabbed this book largely because I love the cover art, which was painted by Michael Whelan. I wasn't sure if I wanted to read it when I saw that Mike Resnick was the author (see my review of another book by the same author), but I decided to give it a try anyway.

I'm so glad that I did.

It's been a long time since I read a book that was so utterly engrossing I couldn't put it down long enough to eat. I actually annoyed my friend by taking it to the restaurant when we had breakfast together and reading it instead of talking to him. Fortunately, he's known me long enough to take that sort of thing in stride.

Mr. Resnick has done a wonderful job of creating an entire frontier mythos populated with some of the most bizarre and original characters I've ever encountered. Some of them are not very pleasant; it's the frontier, after all, but the main character, Sebastian Nightingale Cain (you can call him Songbird . . . once) is a terrific hero. He reminds me of Clint Eastwood from some of his earlier Westerns, in fact.

The ending is a lovely twist, but it's too much fun to give away. Grab the paperback and enjoy being a kid with an adventure story again.