The year is 1881. The United States of America ends at the Mississippi River. Beyond lies the Indian nations, where the magic of powerful Medicine Men has halted the advance of the Americans east of the river.

An American government desperate to expand its territory sends Thomas Alva Edison out West to the town of Tombstone, Arizona, on a mission to discover a scientific means of counteracting magic. Hired to protect this great genius, Wyatt Earp and his brothers.

But there are plenty who would like to see the Earps and Edison dead. Riding to their aid are old friends Doc Holliday and Bat Masterson. Against them stand the Apache wizard Geronimo and the Clanton gang. Battle lines are drawn, and the Clanton gang, which has its own reasons for wanting Edison dead, sends for Johnny Ringo, the one man who might be Doc Holliday's equal in a gunfight. But what shows up instead is The Thing That Was Once Johnny Ringo, returned from the dead and come to Tombstone looking for a fight.

Welcome to a West like you've never seen before, where "Bat Masterson" hails from the ranks of the undead, where electric lights shine down on the streets of Tombstone, while horseless stagecoaches carry passengers to and fro, and where death is no obstacle to The Thing That Was Once Johnny Ringo. Think you know the story of the O.K. Corral? Think again, as five-time Hugo winner Mike Resnick takes on his first steampunk western tale, and the West will never be the same.

From Publishers Weekly

In this lusterless steampunk western, Wyatt Earp and Doc Holliday are outfitted with superhard brass body armor and Gatling-style handguns; Thomas Edison is a cyborg working with Ned Buntline on motorized stagecoaches and other wonders; lawman Bat Masterson has vampiric tendencies; gunslinger Johnny Ringo is a zombie bent on besting Holliday in a gunfight; and Geronimo is a successful shaman and general making sure the United States stops at the Mississippi. Five-time Hugo winner Resnick brings a sparse, dialogue-centric writing style to the classic story of the gunfight at the O.K. Corral, twisting it ever so slightly to blend magic and mechanism into its narrative weave. The larger story of the feud is untouched, making Resnick's rendition feel like a copycat of Tombstone with gears glued on. (Dec.)
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From Booklist

Tombstone, Arizona, 1881. Thomas Alva Edison, sent by the American government to devise a scientific way to combat the magic of the Apache, who have stalled U.S. expansion past the Mississippi, has been viciously attacked. Hired to protect him and to find out the identity of the attempted assassin are Wyatt Earp and his brothers. Earp reaches out to his old friend, Doc Holliday, and to gunslinger-turned-newspaperman Bat Masterson. Resnick's spirited retelling of the Gunfight at the OK Corral is, like Mark Hodder's recent Burton & Swinburne in the Strange Affair of Spring Heeled Jack (2010), an imaginative and thrilling blend of historical fact and science fiction. In Resnick's version of the Wild West, science and magic are poised for a showdown. Real-life American publisher and dime novelist Ned Buntline constructs wondrous, futuristic devices out of brass. Tombstone is lit by Edison's electric lights. Gunfighter Johnny Ringo returns from the dead to join the Clanton brothers against the Earps. And Bat Masterson'well, let's just say there's a good reason why he's called Bat. Sf veteran Resnick's skillful storytelling makes it difficult to separate real characters and events from his wild imaginings, and that's just part of the fun. --David Pitt

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