Welcome to the Wild North, a desolate wasteland where criminals go to hide—if they can outlast the drought and the dangers of the desert. Or the dangers of something else.
Meet Nox, the Coilhunter. A mechanic and toymaker by trade, a bounty hunter by circumstance. He isn’t in it for the money. He’s in it for justice, and there’s a lot of justice that needs to be paid.
Between each kill, he’s looking for someone who has kept out of his crosshairs for quite a while—the person who murdered his wife and children. The trail has long gone cold, but there are changes happening, the kind of changes that uncover footprints and spent bullet casings.
Plagued by nightmares, he’s made himself into a living one, the kind the criminals and conmen fear.
So, welcome, fair folk, to the Wild North. If the land doesn’t get you, the Coilhunter will.
Source | Format | Pages | Publisher | Genre | Publication Date |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Amazon | ebook | 208 | Dioscuri Press | scifi/ steampunk | April 17th, 2017 |
The Coilhunter Chronicles starts with this cracking scifi western novel. Dean F. Wilson strikes again. If you’ve read The Great Iron War series by Wilson, then there will be aspects in the Coilhunter that you are familiar with. If you haven’t read The Great iron War series, fret not, Coilhunter will give you the right amount of info you need without infodumping.
Leaving aside the familiarity of the world, I feel like Wilson has his unique writing style (which I truly like), and I’d like to believe that if I were to read a book without his name on it, I would recognize it. There’s this special signature on the dialogue, the prose and the character names. And the book covers… gosh, The Great Iron War series had book covers to dies for, and now I’m admiring the cover of the Coilhunter Chronicles… [smiley with heart-eyes]
The people who recognised him had a dozen different names for him, and all of them were grim. The Coilhunter. The Sandsweeper. The Masked Menace.
Nox- a man that has lost all he held dear is now the unofficial sheriff of the Wild North. A bountyhunter that many fear. Wearing a multifunctional mask over his nose and mouth, he travels on his monowheel, accompianied by a mechanical duck, to hunt down the faces on the Wanted posters, while keeping an ear to the ground to find out who murdered his family.
There’s money to be made, but Nox doesn’t do it for the money. He does it for justice. If your face was on the Wanted poster, consider yourself hunted. Even worse, consider yourself most certainly on borrowed time and soon dead if it was the Coilhunter that was after you.
The bones weren’t much use either, not with the meat not on them. They didn’t weigh a whole lot without it. He knew that well, as he sometimes had to let the carrion birds pick a body clean to lighten the load when heading back to town. Except the head, of course. He had to keep that intact for identification. If anyone complained that there wasn’t much of a body left to go with it, he’d go with his usual retort: “Ya shoulda drawn more than a head on the poster then.”
Nox himself is of course the most important and full-bodied character of the novel. With a troubled soul and an immense drive to make sure he saves people before they become the victims of the criminals, there is no grey area with him. It’s either black or white. Criminal? You get a bullet. And the Wild North has taught his trigger finger not to tremble when facing scum.
But Nox isn’t just a grumpy, mask wearing guy trading bodies for coils (that’s moolah, btw). He can also be quite sarcastic and what I loved most about him was the fact that in certain situations he just walked away. Like he was too good, too busy to mingle with the underbelly of society. He doesn’t waste time nor breath on small talk or flirtations. Nox is cunning, smart and a man on a mission.
From beginning to end, this novel is action packed and fast paced. Where there’s Coilhunter, there’s plenty of background criminals. Sorry, characters! Each with a fantastically fitting name. We have TNT Tom, Danny Deadmaker, Nine-finger Nancy… nine-finger Nancy, who ‘only needs one finger to pull the trigger‘… heh… fabulous!
Wild North is like a sandy jungle of gangs and criminals, all making money off whatever they can. But there are some rules. Rules created by those who have the most money, power and presence in the vast desert.
“Don’t you worry about her,” Nox said. “I’ll take care of her.”
Ruby raised an eyebrow. “You do what you want, but the only bangs I want to hear are the sounds of bedposts against the wall. You can leave the pistols with me.”
The writing, as the case has always been with Wilson’s creation, is flawless and full of thoughtful little gems in addition to making the desert arena come alive with descriptions which will make you feel the sand and dust, the smell of gunpowder, the tense yet slow motion moments of pistols being drawn. The scenes where the tension was the highest (and there were many of those) fully captured me. These intense moments offered equal amounts of apprehension, humor and matter-of-fact philosophy.
If there were gods, you couldn’t trust them. Better to forge your path alone. Hell, better to see if there was a bounty on those gods too.
Perfect blends don’t only come in packs of tea. Coilhunter will offer you elements of scifi, steampunk and western as promised, all fused together in perfectly measured amounts.
You can find Coilhunter, currently on a special launch sale, on Amazon UK ¦ USA
I can not wait to read more about Coilhunter, so I preordered Rustkiller, which will be published on October 10th, 2017. It’ll be a helluva read I gather as Nox will face down the Clockwork Commune! Yikes!
This author seems to be such a huge success with you. I do have the Great Iron War Series on my Kindle since you reviewed. I admit that I have not gotten to it though. But you always describe his writing in a way that sounds superb! And science the idea of a science fiction western sounds fun and has your backing, I just added this to the collection!
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I hope you do enjoy this read… I think if I was really to sum this book up, I would say- simple, but well executed. It’s like some kind of balance is just right… the fun, the heartbreak., the action, the prose… I just enjoy Wilson’s writing so much.. it flows! 🙂
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I cannot wait to explore his work 🙂
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Ah, I remember your reviews for his other series, you do like this author don’t you ‘smiley with heart eyes’ for the cover and swooning like an unspoilt weak at the knee maiden for the prose!😂
All joking aside it’s definitely a cool cover and sounds like a fun book, those names are funny as f#ck TNT Tom and Nine Finger Nancy who only needs one finger to pull the trigger and only needs one finger for other things too!😂😈
OK, gotta ask, mechanical duck?? Seems a weird choice for an animal.
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Aye, Wilson’s style just works for me quite well. Didn’t think I’d be so into his works, considering the machinery, the pistols, the testosterone, but hey… there’s plenty fun as well and some punches in the heart so it’s a nice balance 🙂
Mechanical duck… yeah… he has mechanical butterflies, too… I think that’s the odd fun factor… the character names, the choices for mechanical companions, etc… I mean the Coilhunter book/world has its very own Red Light District! All fun and games!
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Ah, I’ve seen mechanical butterflies and insects in other things, games, TV, books so that doesn’t surprise me, just found ducks amusing!lol
Nothing wrong with it though, it’s fun and as you say so are the names, fun names are cool, don’t always want prim and proper serious guff. I think most books have there very own red light district, well adult books anyway do, hell, inmost fantasy books the whole city is one big red light district! 🙂
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Hey! It’s that author with that rainbow-cover series! 😀 Pretty cool to see you rave about this author; to the point of pre-ordering the next book! That’s really a beautiful sight, just like this review. Love the sound of this story and how fast-paced and well-written it is. The mechanical duck had me laughing though. Really curious about that little guy. 😀
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LOL- it is the author with rainbow-cover series!!! XD You’re funny…
Yes… with some author styles you just click, and Wilson is one of those for me… I kind of can’t believe I’;m so into this ‘content’- all machines, and pistols and iron and… testosterone… but it’s kind of exciting and fun.
The mechanical duck is Nox’s companion, but he has some uses… Nox also has mechanical butterflies that can be very dangerous! 😉
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It sounds either really fun or really corney. It also reminds me of a TV show I watched as a kid. Look up Bravestarr if you want a good laugh (not because the show is funny but because it really dates me and the 80’s in general).
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OK… Bravestarr looks…. interesting… Coilhunter though is a bit less ‘family friendly’ XD
Hmm… corney… let me think… Nope… I can’t say Coilhunter was corney, but then again, define corney, right?! XD
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Me want! Great review as always. Maybe Nox will hunt Kai Ripplyabs.
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Hahahahaha…
Dean- if you’re reading this- give one of your criminal characters the name ‘Kai’XD
Yeah, this book was awesome!
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ooh so Mechanical Ducks are back in fashion ? awesome
http://vignette4.wikia.nocookie.net/darkwingduck/images/9/95/Gizmoduck.jpg/revision/latest?cb=20100130104939
Sounds Like a superhero comic book made into a novel , Me gusta !
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Hahaha.. that image you linked is awesome! XD
Yeah, it’s quite… flavorsome! 🙂 I love the characters and the story was just the right amount of activity and motives and tense moments…
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OMG I love it when an author has this ability and unique way of writing that makes you recognize it as soon as you start reading! Nine Fingers Nancy? Mouhahahahaha, that’s a fun name. Very western like but gosh so funny! I doubt this one’s for me but I had lots of fun reading your awesome review, it was like enjoying the essence of what makes this book worth reading!
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Ooh sci fi western- my brain is going full on Firefly right now!! This sounds like such an exciting book!! Great review!!
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There is something about science fiction set in a Western setting which really tickles me. I don’t know what it is– but the idea of cowboys and sharpshooters with technology makes me so happy. I’m glad that you enjoyed Wilson’s work so much you’re seeking out more! Is this set in the same world as The Great Iron War?
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Thanks Jackie! 🙂 I think the author has something good going on here and when you discover where the inspiration for the world came from, it’s rather cool (it’s to do with Irish history and smuggling of contraception in the 70s, interesting stuff 🙂 ) Yep, the 2 series are set in the same world… dystopian, deserty, war, criminal, etc… nice mix with strong and a huge variety of diverse characters 🙂
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Now I am certainly intrigued… the smuggling on contraception in the 70s affects the inspiration for this world? I must read it.
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