Walking Wolf: A Weird Western

by Nancy A. Collins

Collins' latest is a variation on the western werewolf premise and an extension of themes she has been developing since her debut.

Narrator Billy Skillet is the 150-year-old shapeshifter offspring of a human mother and vargr(werewolf) father. The first half of Billy's tale is a picaresque romp in which the competing demands of his human and feral sides drive him from the west-Texas Comanches among whom he's raised in the mid-19th century into the white man's world, where he works as a saloon attendant, a drummer for a traveling medicine show and a sidekick for a vampire gunslinger.

Genres: Horror, Werewolves, Westerns, Fantasy, Supernatural, Shapeshifters, Paranormal

181 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1995

About the author

Nancy A. Collins (born 10 September 1959) is a United States horror fiction writer best known for her series of vampire novels featuring her character Sonja Blue. Collins has also written for comic books, including the Swamp Thing series, Jason Vs. Leatherface, Predator: Hell Come A Walkin and her own one-shot Dhampire: Stillborn.

Collins was born in McGehee, Arkansas, United States. She lived in New Orleans, Louisiana in the 1980s; after time in New York City and Atlanta, Georgia she settled in Wilmington, North Carolina in the late 2000s.

Collins has written twenty novels since 1989, many of which refer to and directly include races of creatures the author calls Pretenders, monsters from myth and legend passing as human to better hunt their prey.

Collins has also written a number of highly acclaimed Southern Gothic short stories and novellas, most of which are set in Seven Devils, Arkansas, a highly fictionalized version of her hometown.

Most recently, she has focused her attention onto the Golgotham urban fantasy series,published by Penguin. Golgotham is the 'supernatural' ghetto of New York City, where creatures from myth and folklore--including witches,shapeshifters,leprechauns and centaurs--live and work in uneasy alliance with mankind.

Reviews

[Aaron · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is like Candide by way of Little Big Man with plenty of appearances from historical figures and gruesome werewolf violence sprinkled throughout. Subverts the "magical indian" trope as our werewolf is the son of a white settler who is adopted into the Comanche Nation as a child, but Collins does frequently misuse the word "skinwalker" so it's a wash. Especially loved the bit where Walking Wolf buggers Custer's corpse.

[Rebekah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Heavy on the Western, light on the weird. It was a great Western, but I wanted less gore and more weird.

[Burt · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this in one sitting one summer while on vacation with my cousins. It's a fantastic book that covers the story of a very, very old werewolf, who after a long life filled with startling highs and lows, decides to recount his tale to a passing stranger before he finally dies. It's a tale which intersperses history with the fantastic, and covers what it's like to carry the burden of the Vagrr.

It's not for the feint of heart however. It is rife with death, gore, madness, and rape. Being Vargr is difficult and it is as much a curse as it is a boon. It's hard to find on its own these days, but Nancy Collins did include it in a recent compilation of weird west tales, in a book called Dead Man's Hand.

[Charlie Montney · Rating 4 out of 5]

What's not to like about a Native American werewolf story set in the 19th century American West? Well, I did like it some. The hero, Billy Skillet, is likeable and pretty well drawn. The horror elements are not too graphic yet still a bit out-there. There's a lot of quirky humor in the book. On the other hand, the book should have been about 50 pages longer. It seems short, and I wanted more detail on some of the other characters and a little more suspense in the conflict between Billy and the hunter who is after him. There's also one stretch where the author describes some of the historical detail leading up to the Wounded Knee massacre in 1890, and the novel's voice shifts from folksy to more academic. That was a bit jarring. The text could have used a little more editing, because there were a few typos that never should have seen the light of day. Overall, I enjoyed the book with some reservations. Readers who like alternative takes on the werewolf theme may well like Walking Wolf.

[Lesley Potts · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've been in a Yellowstone frame of mind for the last three months. Apart from the fact that, as far as I know, there are no werewolves on the ranch or reservation Walking Wolf's story is part of the history of the West. Then there's the werewolf aspect which was quite fascinating. I wish his story hadn't just stopped like it did. I could have read about every one of his adventures.

[Brian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting read. Its really a short story overlaid on a history of the Indian Wars of the late 1800's. Either would have been good. Together they seem less than the sum of the 2 parts. Still a worthwhile read, just not a significant work by Collins, who can be much better.

[Arran · Rating 5 out of 5]

i read wild blood years ago, another Vargr novel, i enjoyed it immensely but my reading habits changed and i moved away from the genre. having stumbled onto this book ive thoroughly enjoyed stepping back into the authors universe.

[Serenity · Rating 5 out of 5]

Really good!

[Carol · Rating 4 out of 5]

It started slowly but was worth persevering.