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Title: The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan by William Sanders ISBN: 1-58715-485-4 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 October, 2001 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.74 (19 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Passionate and exciting contemporary fantasy
Comment: Fortunate SF readers will have encountered William Sanders' earlier novels _Journey to Fusang_, a fine, funny-serious, alternate history about a North American colonized by the Chinese instead of the Europeans, and _The Wild Blue and the Grey_, another alternate history about Indians from an independent state as pilots in World War I. Even more fortunate folk may have encountered some of Sanders' other work, published in a variety of categories.
Sanders has recently returned to writing SF, mostly in shorter forms. He has published such excellent stories as "Elvis Bearpaw's Luck", "The Undiscovered" (which was nominated for both the Nebula and the Hugo), and "Jennifer, Just Before Midnight". He has also published a new SF/Fantasy novel, _The Ballad of Billy Badass and the Rose of Turkestan_.
This is a very fine contemporary fantasy, with an exciting story in the forefront, as well an involving love story, plenty of humor, and even a message. The message doesn't get in the way of the story: instead, the story supports the message, and the message is a passionately presented and definitely worth hearing.
The title characters are Billy Badwater, a Cherokee and a Gulf War veteran, and Janna Turonova, a doctor from Kazakhstan. Janna is in the US partly to alert people to the terrible environmental damage done in Kazakhstan by Soviet nuclear testing and toxic waste. Billy meets her at a powwow, and they fall in love. Soon Billy finds himself chasing this woman across the western U. S., and on a reservation in Nevada he finds evidence that much as the Soviets used the Asian people's land as dumping grounds and testing grounds, the U. S. has used Native American land in the same way. The fantasy element arises from a monster that is called forth by the toxic waste in Nevada. Billy, aided by Janna and some other friends, especially his dead Grandfather, is pushed to use Indian magic in battle against the monster. The story is exciting and involving throughout, and the love story is convincing and sexy.
Rating: 5
Summary: Buy more than one copy--it's so good, you'll want to share!
Comment: Billy Badwater is one of the most appealing fictional characters I've ever met. In fact, all of the characters in THE BALLAD OF BILLY BADASS AND THE ROSE OF TURKESTAN are so fully realized that the book is replete with major characters and rich lives that continue well beyond the page. There are almost no minor characters because any character that comes under Sanders' skillful pen for a couple of sentences springs to life by such adept description and wise choice of detail as to defy understanding of quite how the hell Sanders manages to invest so much in each character time after time.
The book wove the seriousness of its subject matter brilliantly with generous, laugh-out-loud humor. Grandfather has to be the sweetest dead curmudgeon in all of literature. I'll never look at a crow again without wishing that Grandfather would suddenly say something insulting from the crow's beak and ride on my shoulder for a few sarcastic miles.
A wonderful romance takes place in the midst of intense action that keeps gathering momentum and doesn't let go of its grip on the reader as the story avalanches down an unearthly mountain of terror and something eerily vulnerable and wholly of this world while being altogether unworldly rises to battle the threat of chaos with the frailest and most potent of powers.
Best of all, even better than the fabulous characters, the heartwarming romance, a dead grandfather anyone would love to posthumously adopt, and a kickass plot, best of all is the overall sustained level of incredibly terrific writing. It would be a disservice to merely call William Sanders a great writer because he surely deserves the appellation of one of the world's greatest living writers. Grandfather, if looking over my shoulder, would dryly remark "One of the greatest, dead or alive, for that matter." And Grandfather knows his stuff.
Rating: 5
Summary: Really fine action fantasy with authentic colors
Comment: This guy has a very solid feel for motorcycling, sex, love, trouble, fights, dirty politics, and (as far as I can tell) Native American spirituality - and his writing is superbly wry and witty. The fantasy monster itself is a little hokey, but just read around it - this author is one of the best discoveries I've run across.
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Title: Are We Having Fun Yet?: American Indian Fantasy Stories by William Sanders ISBN: 1587157098 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title: The Wild Blue and the Gray by William Sanders ISBN: 1587156482 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 May, 2002 List Price(USD): $15.95 |
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Title:J. by William Sanders ASIN: B00005NZFO Publisher: iPublish.com List Price(USD): $3.95 Comparison N/A, buy it from Amazon for $3.95 |
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Title: Gateway (Heechee Saga) by Frederik Pohl ISBN: 0345346904 Publisher: Del Rey Books Pub. Date: 01 March, 1990 List Price(USD): $6.99 |
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Title: Smoke by William Sanders ISBN: 1592241468 Publisher: Wildside Press Pub. Date: 01 September, 2003 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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