Dead Reckoning

May 28, 2012 Greta is Erikasbuddy rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-publisher-sent-me-to-review, net-galley, on-the-tabby, zombies, for-pw

In quite towns out West the townsfolk have gone missing! Three unlikely strangers team up to figure out the mystery of where everybody went. How did they become ghost towns? Was it a sickness? Or was it zombies!?!

A perfect book for your picky early teen!

Does your youngin' hunger for zombies?

A tad bit too young to have him/her reading books that might make them scream and wind up in bed with you?

Then fear not Mom and Dad because Dead Reckoning is the tween friendly zombie book with this mother's...more

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Apr 08, 2012 Sara rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-s, steampunk, 100-in-2012

It’s awesome! It’s a little bit steampunk, and a western, AND it has zombies in! what more could a girl ask for?

Our primary protagonist is named Jett, a young woman from Louisiana who is out west searching for her twin brother. He went missing during the Civil War and she’s convinced that he’s somewhere in the wide open spaces of the western territories. Of course, she can’t just travel as a genteel flower of the South. Jett has disguised herself as a gunslinger and has the skills to back up her...more It’s awesome! It’s a little bit steampunk, and a western, AND it has zombies in! what more could a girl ask for?

Our primary protagonist is named Jett, a young woman from Louisiana who is out west searching for her twin brother. He went missing during the Civil War and she’s convinced that he’s somewhere in the wide open spaces of the western territories. Of course, she can’t just travel as a genteel flower of the South. Jett has disguised herself as a gunslinger and has the skills to back up her costume. She’s small and looks young so people test her frequently. When she gets into yet another saloon brawl she has no reason to think that anything different will happen this time. However, her private argument is broken up by a horde of zombies! Only the fact that her horse is brave and loyal saves Jett from the horrible fate of the rest of the town.

Outside of town Jett runs into the other two driving forces of this book; Miss Honoria Gibbons, a socialite and inventor from San Francisco, and White Fox, a freelance scout for the Army. Tensions are initially high as Jett has no reason to like those who worked for the Union army, but White Fox soon proves a staunch ally and a good friend.

Both Honoria and White Fox are in search of the same thing. Entire towns have been going missing all over the southwest. Honoria’s father is a rich, but terribly gullible man. Shysters have written to him claiming that flying machines have come and stolen all the people. They could bring him proof, for a modest consideration. Honoria travels constantly trying to debunk the hundreds of crooks who write to her father. She uses her travels as chances to test out her new inventions. Her latest invention is a sort of steam-powered horseless wagon with a few surprises for less than friendly visitors.

White Fox is also following the path of the missing. He was asked by a soldier to find out why his family had stopped writing. When he arrived at the settlement he found everyone gone and signs of a struggle. He began to track rumors and follow clues until he arrived at the same place as Honoria and Jett. Together, the three new friends will try to discover what the creatures that attacked Jett and the townsfolk are and who or what created them.

There are definite overtones of COWBOYS VS. ALIENS here, but only in the best ways. The two authors have come up with engaging characters and a fantastic world for them to play in. There are indications that this will not be the last we see of Jett and her companions, and I for one, am hoping for many more books!(less)

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May 24, 2012 ☆Jessie☆ (Ageless Pages Reviews) rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: horror-zombies-gore, arc, netgalley-arc, steampunk, historical-fiction, hf-america, 2012-reviews, 2012-reads, reviewed, actiontastic

Read This Review & More Like It On My Blog!

I had a lot of unexpected fun with this quick-moving tale of zombies in Texas - even when the steampunk aspect came in unexpectedly I was more than game for a late addition. I'm not one much for reading western novels in general; I grew up with a Louis L'Amour and Tony Hillerman-novel-guzzling dad and though he and I can find common ground on fantasy and science fiction (less so on contemporary YA romances, though I can't imagine why..), I rarely st...more

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Mar 05, 2013 Paper Droids rated it 5 of 5 stars

Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill’s Dead Reckoning is an entertaining addition to the sub-genre (is it a sub-genre? Shouldn’t it be?), a quick read you can easily devour in one cozy evening. Although the plot suffers from brief slumberous moments of inaction, the three main characters are the ones in the driver’s seat, anyway, and they’re the whole delightful reason to stick with it.

The year is 1867. Jett Gallatin is actually Philippa Sheridan, a former belle from New Orleans now masquerading...more Mercedes Lackey and Rosemary Edghill’s Dead Reckoning is an entertaining addition to the sub-genre (is it a sub-genre? Shouldn’t it be?), a quick read you can easily devour in one cozy evening. Although the plot suffers from brief slumberous moments of inaction, the three main characters are the ones in the driver’s seat, anyway, and they’re the whole delightful reason to stick with it.

The year is 1867. Jett Gallatin is actually Philippa Sheridan, a former belle from New Orleans now masquerading as a man: she’s a gunslinger and a gambler, a drifter searching for her twin brother Philip, lost during the war. Jett wanders into the town of Alsop, Texas, looking for news of Philip, and instead walks headlong into a nightmarish zombie attack. Barely escaping with her life, she meets up with two strangers, and the trio band together to find out who is controlling the zombies and why. It’s handy that Jett’s companions are highly skilled in their own ways: Honoria Gibbons is an emancipated woman, a pantaloons-wearing scientist who refuses to allow anyone to use her first name, and White Fox is a handsome, enigmatic army scout with unrivalled tracking skills (of course, he was raised by natives and in addition to navigating between two cultures, he is burdened with a deep, dark secret).

While tackling superstition, science, and a cult called Jerusalem’s Wall that is holed up in a nearby settlement, Jett, White Fox, and Gibbons manage to do a little zombie dissection, blow a bunch of stuff up, and drive around in Gibbons’ fabulous invention, a horseless buggy she calls an Auto-Tachypode. It’s all genuinely good fun, and it is made even better by the skillful way the characters are drawn. Jett may be a sharp-shooting gunslinger, but she’s also a seventeen-year-old girl, and she is shaken up just as much as you think she should be by the zombie attacks. Gibbons, for all of her rigid belief in the power and truth of science, realizes that she’s as vulnerable as the next girl when it comes to death and destruction. And if you automatically assume that White Fox is the manly hero, think again — he is kind and generous, yes, and you hope that there might be a few more hints at a love triangle, but White Fox is not actually a romantic stereotype.

Complete Review: http://www.paperdroids.com/2013/01/30/book-review-dead-reckoning/(less)

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Jan 14, 2013 Sarah rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: genre__science-fiction, genre__historical-fiction, young-adult, zombies

Very weird book. I picked it off the library shelf because I like Mercedes Lackey's other works (I haven't heard of the other author, Rosemary Edghill). The characters were funny and intriguing and I was actually a bit mad when the story ended because I hadn't gotten to spend enough time with them to find out more about them.
The setting (Texas, shortly after the Civil War) was rich and genuine - I liked it and I'm not even a big fan of historical fiction. There were some humorous references to...more

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Sep 24, 2012 BAYA Librarian rated it 2 of 5 stars

This genre-blending collaboration between fantasy author Mercedes Lackey and fantasy and sci-fi writer Rosemary Edghill tells the story of three adventurous young people in the postbellum southwest who cross paths and join forces to defeat a zealous religious leader with a vision of world dominance and his army of zombies. Former southern belle Jett Gallatin poses as a male gunslinger as she flees her home in devastated Louisiana in search of her missing twin brother; Honoria Gibbons follows the...more This genre-blending collaboration between fantasy author Mercedes Lackey and fantasy and sci-fi writer Rosemary Edghill tells the story of three adventurous young people in the postbellum southwest who cross paths and join forces to defeat a zealous religious leader with a vision of world dominance and his army of zombies. Former southern belle Jett Gallatin poses as a male gunslinger as she flees her home in devastated Louisiana in search of her missing twin brother; Honoria Gibbons follows the path of westward expansion seeking adventures in scientific exploration and spreading the message of enlightenment and equality for women; White Fox, a Caucasian raised by a native tribe, is on a mission scouting for the army. Although all three characters are presented as protagonists, the two female characters dominate the action and the narrative, and the character of White Fox, who could play a pivotal role in the presumed love triangle, is overshadowed by Jett’s inner conflicts and misgivings over the war and Honoria’s relentless enthusiasm for intellectual pursuits.

Riding the gritty wave of zombie westerns, this book falls flat in the attempt to deliver a western-zombie-steampunk-romance for teens. It tries to achieve too much, and fails to deliver a satisfying example of any genre. Judging the book by its cover, and also by the assumed age of the three central characters, it is hard to say with certainty that the intended audience is even the teen market. Jett, Honoria, and White Fox all seem to be in their early twenties; the recommendation of this book for teens is based on the cleanliness of the content – there is only the slightest hint of a brewing romance and no sexual content; zombie mayhem is minimal – these zombies seem more interested in plundering than devouring; and the language is decidedly mild and appropriate for a younger audience.

Fans of steampunk may take an interest in the inventions and forms of locomotion described, but the appeal fizzles, just as the promise of romance or zombie horror. The few action scenes are interlaced with long lulls of meandering, pretentious debate between Jett and Honoria on strategies to outwit their enemy. Jett’s original mission to find her brother is left dangling, and White Fox’s role as scout seems to be completely unnecessary to the plot line. There is a suggestion of a sequel, although the zombies and their creator are defeated and there is little compelling reason to follow the series (assuming a series is in the works).

To be fair, there are moments of humor and the foundation of an exciting genre-blending romp through the zombie-ransacked west on a wondrous steam-powered “auto-tachypode” but the title is recommended with reservations as a moderately enjoyable light read for young teens who can identify with an older protagonist or adults who like genre mash-ups. (less)

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Aug 09, 2012 Kathy Davie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: steampunk, young-adult

A steampunk Western for young adults.

My Take
Interesting comment Lackey and Edghill made that once people went West, they tended to ignore the law—after all, who would see or hold them to account.

It's an interesting trio of protagonists. Jett Gallantin is fleeing the devastation of the South in the wake of losing the Civil War and hunting for her brother while White Fox is a man straddling two worlds acting in the role of a protecter. Honoria Gibbons is a scientist using her father's susceptibili...more

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Aug 02, 2012 Monica! rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, tastes-like-children-i-mean-chicken, a-damn-dim-candle, click-click-boom, fetch-me-my-goggles, genres-are-so-last-week, git-along-little-dogies, robots-and-rockets-and-scifi-oh-my, this-book-exists, ust-ftw, you-go-girl

I was pretty sure that I wasn’t in the mood to read Dead Reckoning, friends, when after a dozen or so pages I was all, “Meh, this book is a failed experiment in the cross-dressing steampunk western romance zombie genre and I will not waste my time any further.”

I know, right? When would those words EVER come out of my mouth?

So I put the book down, went and read some more crappy Fruits Basket volumes, and a week later picked it up again.

This time it was like, “Holy shit! This book! This is a victo...more

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Jun 11, 2012 TheBookSmugglers rated it 3 of 5 stars

Originally Reviewed on The Book Smugglers

Cardsharp. Gunslinger. Outlaw. Decked out in black and studded with silver from head to toe, Jett Gallatin cuts a stunning figure. With his fine black stallion and well worn slick pistols, Jett looks like the kind of young man that boys want to emulate, and girls want to sweep them off their feet. What most folk don't realize, though, is that everything about Jett - from the slightly flamboyant wardrobe to the tightly and slightly higher holstered double...more

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Aug 16, 2012 Miriam rated it 3 of 5 stars

Mercedes Lackey writing a Western? With zombies? I had two simultaneous reactions: "This I gotta see" and "I doubt that'll be good."

It wasn't terrible. It was okay. Mildly entertaining, easy to read, no thought or familiarity with zombie or western traditions required, even though the three main characters do seem to have stepped out of different genres.

Jett, the first and to me most sympathetic character, is the historical romance protagonist girl-inadequately-disguised-as-a-boy-to-search-for-...more

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May 23, 2012 Kathy Martin rated it 4 of 5 stars

Jett Gallatin is a young woman dressed as a man and living as a gambler and gunfighter as she explores the West looking for her Twin brother. She hasn't seen him since he went off to the Civil War as a drummer boy with his father and brothers. She knows her father and other brothers are dead and she knows that her home was destroyed and mother is dead too because of the Yankees. She feels she would know if her brother was dead because they are twins. She also feels that the West is the only plac...more

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Jun 11, 2012 heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed

Here is a test for whether you will like this book:
1) Are you a young woman under 16?
2) If you are over 16, did you like the Wild Wild West movie with Will Smith?
3) Do you know or care about anything in the post-civil war American West?

If you answered yes to the first two, carry on. This book should amuse you. If you answered yes to the third question, well, proceed with caution.

In this Reconstruction west, three very different people fetch up in a small town at the same time. Jett is a woman in...more

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Jun 09, 2012 Cassi aka Snow White Haggard rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-in-2012, galleys

Dead Reckoning was a fun little read. As soon as we met Jett, a girl dressed up as a gunslinging cowboy searching for her lost brother, I knew this was going to be entertaining. I'm a sucker for a girl dressing as a boy to make her way in the world.

This book wasn't great. But it is a steampunk zombie Western that's fairly good and I'm okay with that. Jett Gallatin, gunslinger, confederate sympathizer, and a girl (who misses pretty dresses!) is my type of heroine. She's not ridiculously intellig...more Dead Reckoning was a fun little read. As soon as we met Jett, a girl dressed up as a gunslinging cowboy searching for her lost brother, I knew this was going to be entertaining. I'm a sucker for a girl dressing as a boy to make her way in the world.

This book wasn't great. But it is a steampunk zombie Western that's fairly good and I'm okay with that. Jett Gallatin, gunslinger, confederate sympathizer, and a girl (who misses pretty dresses!) is my type of heroine. She's not ridiculously intelligent or good looking. Instead, she's determined and brave. She's looking for her twin brother who went missing after the Civil War. She would do anything to find and protect him. That's why she's dressed as a man. It's not because she hats being a girl, though she's not such a fan of corsets anymore, but that she loves her brother. Jett is the heart of this book.

This book has some pretty big flaws. The worst is it's tendency to tell rather than show which frustrated me. Give your readers some credit. They can make connections without the characters explaining them. Also this book is told in 3rd person, jumping between Jett, Gibbons and White Fox's point of views. Honestly this felt like a mistake. Probably 80% of the book follows Jett's POV. Her's is the most fleshed out and compelling. Jumping to Gibbon's and White Fox's felt a little lazy. With a little more effort the book could've stayed with Jett. The problem with telling, rather than showing, was also more prevalent in the other point of views.

At the end, the book left some threads hanging and Gibbon's blatantly said she thought the characters would see each other again (really telling and not showing, again. Her character is the worst for it). I might like the idea of this book more than the execution. Nonetheless I want to read the sequel mainly because I want to find out what happened to Jett's brother, a mystery the story leaves dangling. If you see this book and you're in the mood for a steampunk zombie western, I'd give it a try.(less)

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May 14, 2012 Shiloh (SnarkyWriter) rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: netgalley, fantasy

Bloomsbury provided a free copy of this book for review purposes.

Jett Gallatin, a girl disguised as a gunslinging boy, is searching for her brother, who went missing after the Civil War. When the town she's visiting is invaded by zombies, she barely makes it out alive. Joined by a scientist, Honoria Gibbons, and an army scout, White Fox, investigating a series of mysterious disappearances, Jett returns to Alton to discover the truth about the zombies, their creator, and their purpose.

With strong...more

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Aug 17, 2012 Diana rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: steampunk, fantasy, young-adult

Two strong young women are traveling through the dangerous Wild West of the late 1800s. Jett came from a wealthy New Orleans family, whose wealth and home were destroyed during the Civil War, so she hates Yankees. She doesn’t believe her twin brother Philip is dead, and is traveling the West by horseback to find him. In order to be safe she dresses like a male gunslinger, and earns her way by gambling, though she longs to return to her old life.

Honoria Verity Providentia Gibbons is a genius, ra...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Natalie (Mindful Musings) rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: zombies, young-adult, steampunk, kindle, historical-fantasy

In a Sentence: In spite of Dead Reckoning's charming moments, for me, it was lacking in depth and not a particularly memorable read.

My Thoughts

My reason for agreeing to be a stop on the Dead Reckoning blog tour was primarily because of two things: my love of historical fiction and my fondness for zombies. With the synopsis of Dead Reckoning advertising itself as a mash-up of the two, I was sold. I HAD to check out this book and see if zombies paired with nineteenth century Texas was as cool as...more In a Sentence: In spite of Dead Reckoning's charming moments, for me, it was lacking in depth and not a particularly memorable read.

My Thoughts

My reason for agreeing to be a stop on the Dead Reckoning blog tour was primarily because of two things: my love of historical fiction and my fondness for zombies. With the synopsis of Dead Reckoning advertising itself as a mash-up of the two, I was sold. I HAD to check out this book and see if zombies paired with nineteenth century Texas was as cool as it sounded. By the time I finished Dead Reckoning, I have to admit that I was a little disappointed, but it was still an entertaining read that I used to pass the time while riding around in the car with family on my trip to St. Louis.

I was warned about this before starting Dead Reckoning, but just to give you all a heads up if you're planning on reading it...the zombies in DR aren't really your stereotypical George Romero zombies. In fact, while they were definitely deadly and smelly and all that good stuff, these zombies didn't seem to have much interest in actually eating your brains. Killing and maiming they were game for, but they seemed to mostly keep their cravings for human flesh on the downlow. If you're wondering what to expect, think more along the lines of the legendary Haitian voodoo zombies, which to me, were still interesting, but I have to admit...I still prefer my zombies to be of the brain-eating variety.

The three main characters in Dead Reckoning are Honoria Gibbons, an eccentric but intelligent feminist; Jett Gallatin, a Southern girl masquerading as a rough and rowdy gunslinger; and White Fox, an orphan raised by Native Americans and working as a consultant for the US Army. As far as these characters go, I mostly enjoyed getting to know more about them, but I also felt that most of the characterization in Dead Reckoning existed only on the surface level. I can't exactly put my finger on it, but either there was too much going on in the plot or not enough pages in the book to give these characters the development I wanted to see.

The character that I thought stood out the most in Dead Reckoning was definitely Gibbons. As an inventor and scientist with no mother to enforce the ideals of proper nineteenth century femininity, Gibbons is extremely independent and progressive, given her sex, age, and the time period. However, at the same time, Gibbons occasionally got on my nerves, mainly because she could be pretty obnoxious at times. While I appreciated her intelligence, she could also be somewhat of a condescending know-it-all.

As far as the writing style is concerned, I have to admit that I found it to be a little confusing and disorienting at times. I think the attempt to equally characterize three main characters without dividing their points of views into chapters or page breaks resulted in a stream-0f-consciousness feel that I have experience with as a literature student, but I honestly wasn't expecting to encounter in Dead Reckoning.

Finally, I had a little trouble with the believability of how the zombies were created. The authors tried to explain it scientifically, and while I'm not exactly a science nerd, I know enough about the field and the human body that I found the explanation to be kind of ludicrous. Maybe if all of Gibbons' experimental questions were answered during the course of the novel, instead of leaving some of them up in the air, I would have been more convinced, but as it was, I found myself feeling rather skeptical towards this particular plot aspect.

I think there's a good chance that younger readers might better enjoy Dead Reckoning. It is, after all, an interesting adventure tale with zombies in it. I'm not going to say that I didn't enjoy this book at all, but there were too many plot holes and not enough characterization for it to really meet my expectations.
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May 04, 2012 Lillie rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: arc-galley, book-or-blog-tour, for-review, bloomsbury, review-copy

See the full review at: Read My Mind

My Review:
When steampunk is mentioned, most people think of a Victorian setting, but DEAD RECKONING integrates the steam sensibility into a western setting, and does it well. I've only read Mercedes Lackey's high fantasy books, and though I enjoyed every single one that I read, I was really happy to see her branching off into a new genre, especially in the YA category.

DEAD RECKONING tells the tale of a disparate group of young people that find themselves embr...more

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Sep 03, 2012 Phoebe rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: ya, western, zombies, fantasy

When Jett Gallatin rides into Alsop and hits the saloon, she is a little worried as always that her disguise as a flamboyant gunslinger will fail and everyone will know she is a 17-year-old girl. But as she drinks her beer and prepares to ask for accommodation for the night, horror descends upon the little frontier town. Neither guns, axes, fire, nor any other kind of violence have any effect on the zombie army that decimates Alsop, and all Jett can do is run as fast as she can away. She seeks h...more

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Dec 20, 2012 Elizabeth rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: borrowed

CONTAINS SPOILERS:

This book was not at all what I was expecting. It lacked significantly in zombie encounters, and those encounters that were described were weak, fleeting and badly described. The story was more about the inventor, Gibbons, experimenting and trying to figure out how Brother Shepherd "made" the zombies. The main character, who tried to play herself off as a tough boy in disguise, really was just the damsel in distress at the end.

There were a few moments of suspense which quickly...more

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Aug 10, 2012 Rebecca rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: supernatural-paranormal, steampunk, western, baya-review-books

This genre-blending collaboration between fantasy author Mercedes Lackey and fantasy and sci-fi writer Rosemary Edghill tells the story of three adventurous young people in the postbellum southwest who cross paths and join forces to defeat a zealous religious leader with a vision of world dominance and his army of zombies. Former southern belle Jett Gallatin poses as a male gunslinger as she flees her home in devastated Louisiana in search of her missing twin brother; Honoria Gibbons follows the...more This genre-blending collaboration between fantasy author Mercedes Lackey and fantasy and sci-fi writer Rosemary Edghill tells the story of three adventurous young people in the postbellum southwest who cross paths and join forces to defeat a zealous religious leader with a vision of world dominance and his army of zombies. Former southern belle Jett Gallatin poses as a male gunslinger as she flees her home in devastated Louisiana in search of her missing twin brother; Honoria Gibbons follows the path of westward expansion seeking adventures in scientific exploration and spreading the message of enlightenment and equality for women; White Fox, a Caucasian raised by a native tribe, is on a mission scouting for the army. Although all three characters are presented as protagonists, the two female characters dominate the action and the narrative, and the character of White Fox, who could play a pivotal role in the presumed love triangle, is overshadowed by Jett’s inner conflicts and misgivings over the war and Honoria’s relentless enthusiasm for intellectual pursuits.

Riding the gritty wave of zombie westerns, this book falls flat in the attempt to deliver a western-zombie-steampunk-romance for teens. It tries to achieve too much, and fails to deliver a satisfying example of any genre. Judging the book by its cover, and also by the assumed age of the three central characters, it is hard to say with certainty that the intended audience is even the teen market. Jett, Honoria, and White Fox all seem to be in their early twenties; the recommendation of this book for teens is based on the cleanliness of the content – there is only the slightest hint of a brewing romance and no sexual content; zombie mayhem is minimal – these zombies seem more interested in plundering than devouring; and the language is decidedly mild and appropriate for a younger audience.

Fans of steampunk may take an interest in the inventions and forms of locomotion described, but the appeal fizzles, just as the promise of romance or zombie horror. The few action scenes are interlaced with long lulls of meandering, pretentious debate between Jett and Honoria on strategies to outwit their enemy. Jett’s original mission to find her brother is left dangling, and White Fox’s role as scout seems to be completely unnecessary to the plot line. There is a suggestion of a sequel, although the zombies and their creator are defeated and there is little compelling reason to follow the series (assuming a series is in the works).

To be fair, there are moments of humor and the foundation of an exciting genre-blending romp through the zombie-ransacked west on a wondrous steam-powered “auto-tachypode” but the title is recommended with reservations as a moderately enjoyable light read for young teens who can identify with an older protagonist or adults who like genre mash-ups.
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May 31, 2012 Angelc rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: already-own-read, keepers

4.5 Stars

I really loved this book! There were so many aspects that I loved, it's hard to mention them all. I knew the book was about zombies, but really the zombies weren't totally the focus of the book. Instead of focusing on the typical, gory zombie attacks, the authors really hone in on how the characters solve the mystery and use their brains to outsmart the zombies.

The story has a steampunk feel, especially with Honoria's steam-powered travelling contraption. But again, the steampunk aspect...more

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May 27, 2012 Heidi rated it 3 of 5 stars

2.5 Stars.

Original review posted here.

Jett has seen them—the walking dead. She was there the night they attacked Alsop, and only escaped with her life through the dedication of her faithful steed. When after fleeing she comes upon Gibbons and White Fox, who are both investigating mysterious disappearances, they are hard pressed to believe her tale. However, they’ll learn soon enough that things are like good ol’ Sherlock said and “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, howeve...more 2.5 Stars.

Original review posted here.

Jett has seen them—the walking dead. She was there the night they attacked Alsop, and only escaped with her life through the dedication of her faithful steed. When after fleeing she comes upon Gibbons and White Fox, who are both investigating mysterious disappearances, they are hard pressed to believe her tale. However, they’ll learn soon enough that things are like good ol’ Sherlock said and “when you have eliminated the impossible, whatever remains, however improbable, must be the truth” (Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, The Sing of the Four).

Deep in the heart of Texas three young souls, each on their own mission, band together to battle (you guessed it) zombies. Jett Gallatin is a young woman passing as a man, gambler, and sharpshooter as she scours the west looking for her twin brother who disappeared at the end of the war. Honoria Gibbons is a headstrong woman with a scientific mind set out to investigate mysterious disturbances and whether or not they can be credited to the invisible air ships someone is attempting to sell her father. White Fox (who for some reason isn’t even mentioned in the publisher’s blurb, he is a main character, see him there on the cover behind Jett and much more visible than Gibbons?) is a white man raised by natives, working as a civilian scout for the US Army set out to investigate what has happened to a soldier’s family.

Is anyone else extremely turned off when books are pitched as ‘perfect for fans of _________’? This almost always assures I won’t pick up a book. I feel like I’m constantly thinking ‘oh, this is another dystopian that wants to be the next Hunger Games? No, thank you.’ And Dead Reckoning fell into that pile for me when I read the lines “perfect for fans of Cowboys vs. Aliens and Pride & Prejudice & Zombies.”, particularly since I have negative interest in either of those. But still, I haven’t read any Mercedes Lackey yet this year, which is kind of a *gasp* moment for me since she’s one of my all-time favorite authors and I read through the Queens Own and Mage Winds trilogies on a frequent loop. I’m not a huge fan of most of co-authored stuff, but I’d never read any of Lackey’s non-fantasy work, and since girls dressed as boys is a surefire trigger for my book sense, I had to give Dead Reckoning a go.

Needless to say, Dead Reckoning did not disappoint, but it didn’t impress either. The story of a zombie army being raised and controlled in the old west of Texas was interesting. I really liked that because Jett was from New Orleans she was familiar with the notions of hoodoo, and found the notion quite hair raising, but that Gibbons insisted on a more scientific base for the creatures’ existence as well. A crazed cult leader gone over the edge, spoiling his ingenious mind with notions of grandeur made me just uncomfortable enough to be on the edge of my seat through portions of our story.

Each of our three main characters had an interesting foundation. Jett is a highborn lady of New Orleans whose family has been destroyed by the Yankees after they conquered the south in the Civil War. She refuses to believe her brother, Philip, is dead, and sets out to find him. Jett doesn’t put on her masquerade because she despises girly things, in fact, she longs to return to the days of petticoats and luxury. Unfortunately, she knows that her disguise is the only thing that has kept her safe and alive in the west for the past two years. Gibbons is a scientific mind, raised by a father with such tunnel vision into his scholarly pursuits that he hardly noticed she was a girl. She is logical, intelligent, and bent on having an explanation for everything. She refuses to be belittled because she is a woman, and is at times the envy of Jett who lives in hiding. White Fox was raised from the time he was quite young by natives who took him in after his wagon train was destroyed and he was the only survivor. Part of me wished he would have just been a native himself, but part of me also loves this storyline. I was obsessed with Strawberry Girl by Lois Lenski and other stories of white children raised by native tribes as a child, so needless to say, I took a liking to White Fox.

Now, notice I said ‘good foundation’ back there. On the surface, these characters and the story had a lot of potential, but in the end it all sort of fell flat for me. I constantly felt as if I was being told the story, rather than shown it, and it was neither strong enough in plot or character development to make up for a lack of the other. I just kept wishing for more depth. I wanted to feel the developing friendships between Gibbons, Jett, and White Fox, I wanted to care about their pasts and potential futures. I wanted to be afraid of the zombies, and feel chills across the back of my neck when the air got cold. But I didn’t. In fact, Dead Reckoning did so little to quench my gore craving, I wasn’t sure I cared if the things did destroy Texas.

The same lack of oomph goes to the whole steampunk element of this book. I’ll be honest, I’m not really sure why it was there when it seemed unnecessary. Other than the brief mention of air ships (which as far as we know, did not actually exist), and Gibbon’s auto, there wasn’t really anything steampunk here. I’m not sure why a book can’t be set in the Victorian time period, have scientifically minded characters, and not be an attempt at steampunk, when in fact this time period was full of scientific pursuits and progress. For example, I would have love to have seen more focus on the railroads or telegraph! I feel like steampunk writers need to go big or go home, and in this case it needed to be ramped up quite a bit. I did like that it was steampunk in the wild west, which was a fantastic and fresh idea, I just wasn’t digging the application.

All things considered, Dead Reckoning was a quick read with a new take on some old tropes. There’s no romance, smart and strong women, zombies, and a bit of a cult. If all these things appeal to you, I’d say it’s worth a shot! (less)

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Apr 17, 2012 Pixie rated it 2 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012-releases, arc, netgalley, not-a-fan

I almost didn’t write a review for this one. It’s one of those books that just left me at a bit of a loss of words and I still don’t know what all quite to say to it. For me, everything was just…meh.

As a huge zombie fan (hurry up and come back Walking Dead!), and sometimes even into the western thing, I thought for sure I’d love this mash-up of zombies meeting the wild west, but there really wasn’t anything that spectacular about Dead Reckoning. It didn’t wow me and I was left in the end feelin...more

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Jul 14, 2012 Danielle rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

an interesting take on the zombie craze.
take the wild west, a southern belle masquerading as a gunslinger, a suffragist female scientist, and a native american add a zombie mystery, and you've got dead reckoning.
some parts were predictable, some were weird, but all were enjoyable. I really liked the different take on zombies. sometimes the bleak future zombie novels get to be a bit much, so seeing a historic take was really interesting. it felt a little world war z to me- the mysteries in the p...more

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Jul 01, 2012 Rene' Lorencen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: young-adult

I never read Zombie books. Ever. The only reason this one ended up on my shelf was because the library listed it as a new teen read from Mercedes Lackey. I reserved it because I have enjoyed her teen directed books. Then I saw the word "Zombie" on the book jacket. I almost didn't take it home with me, but decided I'd give it my usual 40 pages. So glad I did. This is a well written, thoroughly interesting book that has a historically accurate setting with interesting, fleshed-out (no pun intended...more

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Jun 05, 2012 Jessica at Book Sake rated it 3 of 5 stars

This was definitely a western and definitely a zombie read. What I didn’t expect was the religious aspect of the story. While it wasn’t intrusive to the idea of the zombies, it was something that caught me off guard – I just didn’t think that would be the direction the story would take. Jett is a pretty cool character, as is Honoria, so seeing those two girls make it on their own in a man’s world was fun and interesting.

I felt that the “how” of the story was brushed over and so far fetched (for...more

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Jun 04, 2012 Kai rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: first-reads

Dead Reckoning is a dark YA book. The story starts off with Jett (aka Philippa) who is masquerading as a boy and is looking for her twin brother who disappeared after the Civil War. She came upon a town Alsop to inquire the where about of her brother but found herself in a town being invaded by zombies. Jett was able to escape with the help from her horse Nightingale. While she was fleeing Alsop, Jett ran into Honoria Gibbons' camp.

A few moment before Jett arrived at Gibbons' camp, White Fox ar...more Dead Reckoning is a dark YA book. The story starts off with Jett (aka Philippa) who is masquerading as a boy and is looking for her twin brother who disappeared after the Civil War. She came upon a town Alsop to inquire the where about of her brother but found herself in a town being invaded by zombies. Jett was able to escape with the help from her horse Nightingale. While she was fleeing Alsop, Jett ran into Honoria Gibbons' camp.

A few moment before Jett arrived at Gibbons' camp, White Fox arrived there while he has following some leads of the disappearance of ranchers, cattle, and homesteaders. Gibbons refused to believe that zombies exist. Gibbons believed that everything has a scientific explanation. All three young adults went back to Alsop to search if there are any survivors and to investigate the abandon town.

Jett and White Fox followed the track to a religious cult the Fellowship of the Blessed Resurrection. Jett went into the church and found the church to be suspicious. White Fox was outside of the church compound and found one of the building locked.

Both were on their way back to Alsop when the stench odor of the decomposing zombies attacked them. They hurried back to town to warn Gibbons. Gibbons with her scientific approach, refused to believe until she saw the zombies from their hiding place. This made Gibbons more interested in trying to figure out what makes the zombie ticked and what could stop them.

The villain in the story is quite obvious. The motive is quite obvious to anyone who has a history background in the wild west. The author's approach to writing this story is to lay out the information. The story does not have the scary or the mystery effect since it is geared to the young adult audience. There is just a little bit of steampunk element to the story which is the Auto-Tachypode vehicle. The only suspense is the question of being caught and if they are caught, how do they get out of the situation. I found the story to be quite entertaining.(less)

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Jul 04, 2012 The Lost Lola rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: 1800s, 2012, historical, steampunk, texas, zombies, young-adult

Title: Dead Reckoning
Release Date: June 5, 2012
Publisher: Bloomsbury Books for Young Readers
Format: Hardcover, 324 pages (9781599906843)
Source: Purchased from Barnes & Noble

The year is 1867, and Jett Gallatin is traveling the western frontier in search of her twin brother. Disguised as a boy and feared as a lawbreaker, her journey has taken her to Alsop, Texas, where a bar fight turns into a fight for survival after the town is overrun with the reanimated corpses of the recently deceased. Ba...more

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May 20, 2012 Book Twirps rated it 3 of 5 stars

I was really excited about this book. Zombies in the Old West? Yes, please. It sounded very unique and like something I would love. The fact that it was suggested to fans of The Forest of Hands and Teeth really excited me.

Jett is a teen girl looking for her twin brother who went missing during the civil war. Since the old west is a dangerous place for a young girl traveling alone, Jett has disguised herself as a boy. At the top of the book, Jett finds herself in a dark, quiet town that is soon o...more

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Jun 27, 2012 Molli (at Once Upon a Prologue) added it

Shelves: read-in-2012, young-adult

Find more of my reviews at Once Upon a Prologue!

When I started Dead Reckoning, I was at once captivated by the premise: a formerly proper young woman, disguised as a nomadic male drifter. Jett - once Phillipa - is searching for her missing twin brother when she enters a small, Western town. She expects a fight with the local trouble makers; instead, they're set upon by zombies in a spine-tingling beginning that catapults the reader into a rather eccentric novel of the Wild West and the walking...more Find more of my reviews at Once Upon a Prologue!

When I started Dead Reckoning, I was at once captivated by the premise: a formerly proper young woman, disguised as a nomadic male drifter. Jett - once Phillipa - is searching for her missing twin brother when she enters a small, Western town. She expects a fight with the local trouble makers; instead, they're set upon by zombies in a spine-tingling beginning that catapults the reader into a rather eccentric novel of the Wild West and the walking dead.

Mercedes Lackey and contributor Rosemary Edghill present readers with several intriguing characters, starting with Jett, and continuing into the supporting cast. There's Honoria Gibbons (or Gibbons, as she prefers to be called), an inventor's daughter, sent out West by her father to explore the more outlandish claims he receives, in order to prove them fact or faked. Joining them is White Fox, a scout and tracker who in investigating the numerous disappearances in towns - and in this case, OF towns. This motley band of comrades was unexpected, yet rather enjoyable. They each added their own spark to Dead Reckoning and I loved their interactions.

However, that's where Lackey's novel went awry for me. Despite the creepily fascinating premise and the great cast of characters, something just felt off. There were several big revelations, but the pacing crept along like, well, a zombie. To me, far too much time drifted by before the characters came to any decisions or really DID anything. They just sort of drug their feet. There was very little character development to go along with the lack of action - if Lackey and Edghill had pumped some life into Dead Reckoning in any way, this would have been a far more rewarding story. Instead, the characters sort of meandered toward the end and somehow it all felt rather...flat to me. I think I wanted MORE, period.

Overall, Dead Reckoning was not a satisfying read. That's not to say it didn't have moments of hilarity or interest. I think there was a lot of potential that - for me - felt like the authors just didn't follow through on it. I finished it feeling rather nonplussed, largely because of one key plot point that was never resolved. There's room for a sequel, though I don't think I would read it. Though as always...please read and decide for yourself! (less)

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