2022 saw the end of the Series Showdown and the debut of Trash Fiction Championship. 57 novels were covered, not including short stories and magazines.
For book of the year we have a tie - David Sodergren's Dead Girl Blues and Derrick Ferguson's Dillon and the Legend of the Golden Bell.
Gatling is hired to test advanced weaponry for Maxim, and uses the opportunity to protect a Zuni tribe from Aztecs hired by a mining consortium. The action scenes start with tactical set ups, but the actual shooting is brief and confusing. Gatling is suitably gritty, murdering more mining executives than the Molly McGuires. A personal gripe, it ends with two of my personal least favorite western elements - a trial, and the US Army agreeing to treat the native tribes fairly. It's not that I don't want to see them being treated fairly, but it's kind of a Pollyanna ending given history.
Our inaugural champion Mike McQuay swaps titles, bringing the Book of Justice against challenger Jack Slade with Gatling.
John Maddox Roberts vanquishes Sigfridur Skaldaspillir and retains the European Title
The original Eric Brighteyes by H. Rider Haggard was published in 1891. This is more of remake than a sequel, and not much room to make this a series given that Brighteyes is born and dies in this Viking saga.
Brighteyes is banished for a couple years from Iceland and does Viking stuff around the British Isles. Swanhild the witch is obsessed with him, and her manipulations lead to both their downfalls. In true saga form, most of the story is in broad summary, with some battles being wrapped up in a sentence. The more "real time" the story the better, but things speed up again towards the end making the conclusion feel like an epilogue. As this is someone's life story, not much in the way of a plot, just Eric going from place to place.
I've seen this described as the story from Swanhild's perspective, and while I haven't read the original to compare, most of the story focuses on Eric. I half expected some revisionist version, like the way Grendel was from the perspective of the monster, but not so much.
The book stands on weird moral grounds. While Eric seems to have some modern ideals (no killing monks, sees dishonor in attacking the weak) he's still a psychopathic serial rapist slaver. This is historical fiction and these are Vikings, after all, and most of the book is written without judgment. This is olden times and this is a story of horrible people doing horrible things to each other. However, there are parts that imply that Eric is supposed to be a honorable hero, and the ending definitely makes Swanhild out to be a villain deserving of being dragged to Hel at the end.
The ending plays sadly tragic for Eric, but it's hard to feel any sympathy. Can't get too outraged that he was framed for that one rape he didn't do. Morals aside, some occasional good battle sequences and historical details, but I didn't dig the narrative structure.
Roald Dahl turns on Ed Wood Jr. as soon as the bell rings, only to be knocked out by a double drop kick from Lansdale and Etchison. The two go at it blow for blow, but Lansdale comes out on top.
Lansdale is declared number one. Followed by Etchison at ten, Dahl at twenty, and Wood at thirty. These are their numbers for the Reading Rumble! Thirty authors go in, but only one will stay to the end and be crowned the Cruiserweight Champion!
A Texas Gulf Coast detective looks for a missing boxing trainer. Standard hardboiled detective fare, though well above average. May be Lansdale's first fiction credit. His name is spelled Lonsdale in the table of contents.
