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Medicine for the Dead
(Children of the Drought #2)
by
Two years ago, the crow-god Marhuk sent his grandson to Sixes.
Two nights ago, a stranger picked up his gun and shot him.
Two hours ago, the funeral party set out for the holy city of Atali'Krah, braving the wastelands to bring home the body of Dulei Marhuk.
Out in the wastes, one more corpse should hardly make a difference. But the blighted landscape has been ravaged by ...more
Two nights ago, a stranger picked up his gun and shot him.
Two hours ago, the funeral party set out for the holy city of Atali'Krah, braving the wastelands to bring home the body of Dulei Marhuk.
Out in the wastes, one more corpse should hardly make a difference. But the blighted landscape has been ravaged by ...more
Paperback, 480 pages
Published
April 9th 2015
by Solaris
(first published March 24th 2015)
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The first book of the series, One Night in Sixes, was good. It was a dark western with a hard fantasy twist, set in a unique world. This second book is even better. Even though it's been months since I read One Night, I found this very easy to get into... which says something, since the first book overwhelmed me at times with its broad cast.
The situation is dire all around, as Elim's night in Sixes has caused many ripples through the community and surrounding desert. He's callously hauled throug ...more
The situation is dire all around, as Elim's night in Sixes has caused many ripples through the community and surrounding desert. He's callously hauled throug ...more

Medicine for the Dead is, in short, a series of separate journeys where the excrement hits the fan for everyone all in the last part of the book. It continues where Sixes left off to tell us what happens to Elim, Weisei, and Vuchak, as well as several other of the inhabitants of Sixes. Although, thankfully, none of this happens in Sixes so we're not burdened by all the tertiary characters.
To be honest, Sixes had me lost at parts because things were not clear (to me). While Tex's beautiful wordsm ...more
To be honest, Sixes had me lost at parts because things were not clear (to me). While Tex's beautiful wordsm ...more

This book was so great. I loved the first one, and this built on everything from One Night In Sixes and left me desperate for the end of the trilogy, which isn't even out until the end of the year.
The absolute coolest thing about this book was the way I immediately wanted to reread Sixes when I finished it. Tex doles out the information about her world in just-right dollops, and I learned so much about the characters and the peoples of the setting that I wanted to go back with all the new info I
...more
Loved it! All my doubts from the first book in the series have been completely swept away. I could barely put this down and when I did, I'd find myself having imaginary conversations with the characters!
It's going to be a LONG wait for the next part! ...more
It's going to be a LONG wait for the next part! ...more

Arianne "Tex" Thompson serves up another treacherous adventure for Appaloosa Elim as he along with the rest of Dulei Marhuk's funeral party trek across the wastelands and confront all kinds of unpleasantness with the goal of returning the body of the slain prince of the a'Krah home.
...more

I hesitated to pick this book up because I struggled so much with the cultural and language references in the first. That was a huge mistake--I enjoyed Medicine For The Dead much much more.
For one thing, all the characters have been introduced, but now there are fewer people so there is plenty more time to settle in and really get to know folks, and this is where Tex shines. Through moments and peeks and confusion, she highlights the differences between cultures, people, and expectations, the na ...more
For one thing, all the characters have been introduced, but now there are fewer people so there is plenty more time to settle in and really get to know folks, and this is where Tex shines. Through moments and peeks and confusion, she highlights the differences between cultures, people, and expectations, the na ...more

4 1/2 stars - This was a rich and meaty read and it was well-paced and continued to delve into the many layers of the world Tex Thompson has built, in addition to bringing the characters much more to life than in the first novel. It does build on characters and information from One Night in Sixes, and I'd say you really need to have read that book to enjoy this one to the fullest. I did not want to put this book down, and it was annoying that real life made me do so at times! It's still got enou
...more

I enjoyed this so much more than the first book. Since the character details are fairly established before starting this book, I felt familiar enough with the world to enjoy a more comfortable read. As with the first book, Thompson's descriptions and writing really drew me in. I love the twists with the languages and cultures; there is this familiar ring to them yet they are so foreign to our world. So, if I loved this so much, why only four stars? The ending. I know that this is a series and th
...more

Having fallen in love with the first book in this series, "One Night In Sixes", with its well-drawn characters, its compact plot, and with Thompson's evocative writing style, I was naturally anxious to see what would happen when "Medicine for the Dead" was released. How would it stack up against its predecessor?
Well, as it happens, it is every bit as brilliant. Thompson continues to build on and expand her wonderful and varied world and its clashing of cultures. Her series thus far is really a m ...more
Well, as it happens, it is every bit as brilliant. Thompson continues to build on and expand her wonderful and varied world and its clashing of cultures. Her series thus far is really a m ...more

I'll skip doing a review for book one (One Night in Sixes) of this series because while it was good, it wasn't great. It threw you into the deep end of what is clearly a well-established world in the mind of the author, a sort of otherworldly Old West filled with all the trappings of the genre, but with weird, almost alien tribes in place of the Native Americans that normally populate Westerns. All told, the ultimately quite straightforward story of a man accidentally killing another was complic
...more

This won't be one of my typical reviews. In fact, it won't be much of a review as these things are now commonly known. The internet is full of critics and writers so I'll leave all the prose and plot structure and whatever other 5 dollar words to that growing horde. But here's what matters: this is a damn fine book. It does what fantasy should do - create a world that makes you want to know more. That makes you want to visit. A world that is so breathtakingly detailed you feel like you can step
...more

Excellent follow-up to "One Night in Sixes" ... Tex Thompson has really built a world with depth and weight. There is a lot going on here but it doesn't feel ponderous, just the sense that the characters are proceeding through a real environment, with believable motivation. Great stuff.
...more
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Goodreads Librari...: Need author name corrected, series added | 3 | 19 | Sep 02, 2014 11:47PM |
Arianne "Tex" Thompson is home-grown Texas success story. After earning a bachelor’s degree in history and a master’s in literature, she channeled her passion for exciting, innovative, and inclusive fiction into the Children of the Drought – an internationally-published epic fantasy Western series from Solaris.
Now a professional speaker and creative writing instructor at Southern Methodist Univer ...more
Now a professional speaker and creative writing instructor at Southern Methodist Univer ...more
Other books in the series
Children of the Drought
(3 books)
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