Looking for the latest in weird west fiction? We’ve got you covered. Below is a running list of featured Weird West new book releases coming out in 2023 from traditional and small-press publishers. These Old West stories range from supernatural horror, sci-fi, epic adventure and much more. The list will be updated throughout the year, so be sure to check back for new book recommendations.
*Last updated Feb 2023.*
February 2023
Title: Melinda West: Monster Gunslinger
Author: KC Grifant
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Type: Supernatural adventure horror
Description:
In an Old West overrun by monsters, a stoic gunslinger must embark on a dangerous quest to save her friends and stop a supernatural war.
Sharpshooter Melinda West, 29, has encountered more than her share of supernatural creatures after a monster infection killed her mother. Now, Melinda and her charismatic partner, Lance, offer their exterminating services to desperate towns, fighting everything from giant flying scorpions to psychic bugs. But when they accidentally release a demon, they must track a dangerous outlaw across treacherous lands and battle a menagerie of creatures—all before an army of soul-devouring monsters descend on Earth.
Supernatural meets Bonnie and Clyde in a re-imagined Old West full of diverse characters, desolate landscapes, and fast-paced adventure.
Title: High Noon on Proxima B
Editor: David Boop
Publisher: Baen
Type: sci-fi, adventure and horror
Description:
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), Hank Swchaeble (Moonless Nocturne), Peter J. Wacks (Caller of Lightning) and more!
Ten tales of the West . . . not as it was, but as it might be!
April 2023
Title: The Survival of Margaret Thomas
Author: Del Howison
Publisher: Pandi Press
Type: adventure horror
Description:
In this action packed horror novel set in the old west, Margaret “Peggy” Thomas’ peaceful life is turned upside down after the murder of the local sheriff, her husband, James. Peggy, accompanied by a group of misfit companions, will stop at nothing to face her husband’s killer, and time is running out. Del Howison has crafted a dark, nuanced tale about justice, found family, and the choices we make in the throes of desperation when faced with nothing to lose. The Survival of Margaret Thomas transcends genre into a tale of hope, heart, and revenge.
Margaret Thomas lives a quiet life with her husband James in the small town of Bleak Knob, Missouri. Until one afternoon James is gunned down on the sidewalk in front of her, and she’s left to care for the land and herself, alone. With more questions than answers, and years of grief and alcohol, a sudden telegram announcing the upcoming trial of one of James’ killers pushes Peggy into action. accompanied by groups of misfit companions, Peggy will stop at nothing to face her husband’s killer, and time is running out.
Powerful and wrought with adventure, The Survival of Margaret Thomas is the newest in a long line of great American road novels.
Title: The Massacre at Yellow Hill
Author: C.S. Humble
Publisher: Cemetery Dance Publications
Type: supernatural horror
Description:
When George Miller is killed in the mines of Yellow Hill, his wife and children are left to try and piece their lives back together. Tabitha Miller, George’s widow, is thrown into deeper chaos when she discovers that George’s death had nothing to do with the cave’s collapse, but was caused by some terrible predator deep within the earth. His death covered up by the mine’s Proprietor-Jeremiah Hart.
In nearby Big Spring, freed slave-turned-occult bounty hunter Gilbert Ptolemy arrives with his adopted son in search of a murderous vampire. New revelations in Yellow Hill draw the duo toward the struggling Miller family, the strange mine, and the horrors lurking within.
The Miller and Ptolemy families are pitted against mundane and supernatural forces in this Weird West adventure. Family struggles, heart-stopping gunfights, and nightmare creatures from dark realms abound in this award-winning novel from C.S. Humble.
Title: “For A Few Souls More”
Author: Wil E. Young
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
Type: splatter western
Description: TBD
May 2023
Title: Hungers as Old as This Land
Author: Zachary Rosenberg
Publisher: Brigids Gate Press
Type: Supernatural horror
Description:
The settlement of Grey’s Bluffs is a prosperous town. An independent community dwelling in the shadows of the mountains known only as The Hungers.
Esther Foxman and Siobhan O’Clery have grown up in Grey’s Bluffs, thriving out on the western territories in the aftermath of the Civil War. Devoted to one another and their home, the two set out to complete a regular pact at the Hungers to ensure that Grey’s Bluffs continues to prosper.
Cyril Redstone is a man who knows death well. Becoming a mercenary after the Civil War, Cyril leads the marauding Blackhawks from one slaughter to the next. Hired to destroy Grey’s Bluffs, Cyril cares little for morality, nor that he owes its founder his life.
Esther and Siobhan are left to defend the only home they have ever known from the Blackhawks, their confrontation driving them deep into the mountains.
Where the darkest secrets of the Hungers await them.
Summer 2023
Title: Along Harrowed Trails
Publisher: Timber Ghost Press
Editor: Cody Langille
Fall 2023
Title: Midas
Author: Tyler Jones
Publisher: Earthling
Month TBD
Title: Cruel Angels Past Sundown
Author: Hailey Piper
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
Title: That Light Sublime Trilogy
Author: C.S. Humble
Publisher: Cemetery Dance
Title: Hot Iron and Cold Blood anthology
Editor: Patrick R. McDonough
Publisher: Death’s Head Press
*Miss something? Shoot over a message to have a book or recommendation considered for inclusion. Please include the publisher, description and date of release. The book should be set in the Old West and have a speculative element or crossover with another genre to be considered (e.g., not a classic western).
Weird West Fiction 