Fuoco nella polvere

Ned the Seal #1

by Joe R. Lansdale, Maurizio Nati (Translator)

Che ci fa Buffalo Bill (o meglio, la sua testa) a bordo di uno Zeppelin diretto verso il Giappone? Ovvio, porta in tournée il suo spettacolo viaggiante, il Wild West Show. Ma che fine ha fatto il resto del suo corpo? E soprattutto, la sua è una missione così innocua come sembra? O nasconde qualcosa?
Solo Joe R. Lansdale poteva scrivere un romanzo tanto imprevedibile e bizzarro, mescolando i generi come nessun altro sa fare. Solo lui poteva mettere insieme tanti personaggi eterogenei usciti dalla penna dei grandi scrittori popolari. Solo lui poteva gestire questo rutilante carosello di avventure nel quale non c’è mai limite alla fantasia. E se pensate che l’Uomo di Latta di Frank Baum o il Capitano Nemo di Verne non possano più riservare sorprese, vi sbagliate. Leggere per credere.

Un nuovo viaggio nella selvaggia immaginazione di Joe R. Lansdale, una delle opere più istrioniche dello scrittore texano, irriverente e imprevedibile rivisitazione delle leggende del vecchio West.

Genres: Steampunk, Fantasy, Science Fiction, Fiction, Westerns, Alternate History, Adventure

182 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2001

About the author

Champion Mojo Storyteller Joe R. Lansdale is the author of over forty novels and numerous short stories. His work has appeared in national anthologies, magazines, and collections, as well as numerous foreign publications. He has written for comics, television, film, newspapers, and Internet sites. His work has been collected in more than two dozen short-story collections, and he has edited or co-edited over a dozen anthologies. He has received the Edgar Award, eight Bram Stoker Awards, the Horror Writers Association Lifetime Achievement Award, the British Fantasy Award, the Grinzani Cavour Prize for Literature, the Herodotus Historical Fiction Award, the Inkpot Award for Contributions to Science Fiction and Fantasy, and many others. His novella Bubba Ho-Tep was adapted to film by Don Coscarelli, starring Bruce Campbell and Ossie Davis. His story "Incident On and Off a Mountain Road" was adapted to film for Showtime's "Masters of Horror," and he adapted his short story "Christmas with the Dead" to film hisownself. The film adaptation of his novel Cold in July was nominated for the Grand Jury Prize at the Sundance Film Festival, and the Sundance Channel has adapted his Hap & Leonard novels for television.

He is currently co-producing several films, among them The Bottoms, based on his Edgar Award-winning novel, with Bill Paxton and Brad Wyman, and The Drive-In, with Greg Nicotero. He is Writer In Residence at Stephen F. Austin State University, and is the founder of the martial arts system Shen Chuan: Martial Science and its affiliate, Shen Chuan Family System. He is a member of both the United States and International Martial Arts Halls of Fame. He lives in Nacogdoches, Texas with his wife, dog, and two cats.

Reviews

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

I finished this in a day, and it's one of the craziest, funniest, most entertaining books I've read in awhile and I have no idea how I'm going to complete this review. This is steampunk mad hattery at its finest. Starring: Annie Oakley, Wild Bill Hickok, Sitting Bull, Buffalo Bill's Head (Futurama style), Ned Buntline, Captain Nemo (here rendered as "Captain Bebo," and a zombie controlled by a bulb installed in his brain), the Tin Man, Frankenstein's Monster (who prefers to be called "Bert" and has lots of wild sex with the Tin Man), a caricature of Dr. Moreau re-sketched as "Dr. Momo," and a brief appearance by Vlad Tepes. All this under two hundred pages, including some great illustrations.

[Ajeje Brazov · Rating 5 out of 5]

Un'avventura incredibile, spassosa, divertente a livelli esagerati, con personaggi come Buffalo Bill, Toro Seduto e tantissimi altri che fanno e dicono cose fuori dal comune, impensabili e poi c'è Ned, una foca lettrice, fan delle avventure di Buffalo Bill.
180 pagine all'insegna della comicità più estrema, che solo una mente come quella di Lansdale poteva tirare fuori.
Straordinario!

[paper0r0ss0 · Rating 3 out of 5]

Equilibrio assai precario dei piatti della bilancia: da una parte un super cult, dall'altra una boiata pazzesca. Chi ha ragione? Io un'idea me la sono fatta: tre stelle solo perche' per mettere assieme cosi' tante cazzate ci vuole comunque coraggio.

[Matteo Vincenti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Commento a caldo: che cavolicchio ho letto? Signori qui siamo di fronte al genio di Lansdale, probabilmente strafatto di qualcosa di buono sicuramente. Come puoi immaginare la testa di Buffalo Bill tenuta in vita dentro ad una boccia in stile Futurama che porta in giro per il mondo il suo spettacolo West?! Come puoi far precipitare tutti sull'isola del dottor Moreau...ops Momo, infilarci il Naughty Lass di Bemo (me lo ricordavo diverso) e metterci pure una foca che sa leggere e scrivere?!
Concludo dicendo: mi sono divertito come un matto!!

[M.E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

A quirky, fun read that mixes some steam punk with Buffalo Bill Cody’s head in a jar, The Wild West Show’s more famous members, with characters from The Island of Dr. Moreau, 20,000 Leagues Beneath the Sea, Dracula, Frankenstein and even a character from the Wizard of Oz. It’s a little silly at times, often crude, often graphic and violent. I enjoyed it.

[Rick · Rating 4 out of 5]

Zeppelins West harkens back to a time when science fiction was just a whole hell of a lot of fun. Reminiscent of the best of Philip Jose Farmer, Edgar Rice Burroughs, and Howard Waldrop, Zeppelins West is from one of my favorite sub-genres, the alternate literary history. (For the uneducated, an alternate literary history is an alternate history story using literary characters and references. Prime examples include Kim Newman’s Anno Dracula , Alan Moore’s League of Extraordinary Gentleman , and Brian Stableford’s Werewolves of London .)

Bear with me for a second as I relate the unbelievable to you. Imagine a world where Buffalo Bill Cody (or rather just his head) and his Wild Zeppelin Show venture to Japan on a diplomatic mission after the disastrous slaughter of Americans and Japanese at Little Bighorn. While in Japan, Cody and his allies Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, and Sitting Bull rescue the kidnapped Frankenstein’s Monster! During the daring escape, their zeppelin is shot down by Japanese Zeros over the Pacific Ocean. Luckily our heroes are rescued by Captain Bemo (a thinly disguised Captain Nemo) and his nuclear sub. Somehow this motley crew ends up on the island of Dr. Momo (a thinly disguised Dr. Moreau). And then things get weird! Other guest stars include The Tin Man (from the Wizard of Oz), a talking seal, man-beasts galore, and a quick appearance by the most famous monster of them all (I won’t mention any names. That would be telling.).

It’s a testament to the power of Lansdale’s skills that he makes the whole thing work. Through several unsettling scenes (include one really, really bizarre sex scene. It might be one of the strangest couplings in all of fiction.) and unexpected deaths galore, he keeps the reader riveted. The death scenes shouldn’t shock longtime Lansdale readers. We all know that he will kill anyone at anytime. This book is a fast read not because it’s short but rather it’s unputdownable. There are no chapters and no real breaks. This is one wild ride.

Zeppelins West is far from a perfect novel. Lansdale’s refusal to actually use Moreau and Nemo comes across as lazy. I’m not sure if it was done for legal or other reasons, but it felt like he didn’t want to the research to make the characters work. Lansdale, also, belabors the obvious especially with the Ned Buntline and Ned the seal connection. He needs to have more faith in his readers.

Lansdale originally intended this to be a much shorter piece for inclusion in Al Sarrantonio’s Red Shift anthology, but the story took on a life of it’s own and became this short novel. The fact that he can accidentally produce such a splendid romp is proof that Joe R. Lansdale is firing on all cylinders. This is a writer at the peak of his skills.

This is by no means the best Joe R. Lansdale has to offer, but it is exactly as advertised. Zeppelins West is a fun alternate history and no more. Read it for what it is and receive a fantastic thrill.

[LaCitty · Rating 3 out of 5]

È un romanzo completamente fuori di testa (nel senso migliore del termine) in cui i cowboy del Wild West Show di Buffalo Bill si trasferiscono in Giappone per salvare il mostro di Frankenstein (che si scoprirà si chiama Bert...) da un malvagio shogun per poi finire sull'isola del dott. Momo (presumo riferimento al dott. Moreau), incontrare l'uomo di Latta che racconta una versione cyberpunk di Il mago di Oz e Dracula.
E questi sono solo i primi riferimenti che mi vengono in mente e che ho colto. Romanzo ricchissimo di cultura pop, ma che perde qualcosa nel finale.

[Philip · Rating 2 out of 5]

Friend on mine recommended Lansdale, so thought I'd give him a try. Turns out, however, this is NOT the place to start.

The story got off to an interesting, if gonzo, beginning - Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show is flying to Japan aboard a fleet of zeppelins, ostensibly to entertain the Shōgun but in reality planning to kidnap Frankenstein's monster. Oh, and Buffalo Bill's decapitated but still-lucid head is floating in a Mason jar, à la Richard Nixon in "Futurama." So, yup.

But it's a fine line between clever/absurd and stupid, and Lansdale crosses it almost immediately. Other than the initial Japan set piece, there's no particular plot per se - and what little there is, Lansdale lifts straight from The Island of Doctor Moreau. Otherwise, it's just a series of minor adventures giving Lansdale the chance to throw in basically any additional literary or historical characters he feels like - the Red Baron, Captain Nemo, Charles Darwin, the Tin Man, Dracula, etc, etc.

So a fun first 20 pages, but other than that the best thing I can say about it is that it's short. Afraid I have to once again quote (and give credit to) author Angela Oliver when reviewing the equally disappointing The Hundred-Year-Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Disappeared: "first it was funny, then it was tedious, then it was just annoying" - couldn't have said it better myself.

I may yet give Lansdale another try, since he writes across a wide range of genres and my friend really does swear by him. But I think I'll stick to something more traditional, probably one of his "Hap and Leonard" detective stories.

[Robert Beveridge · Rating 4 out of 5]

Joe R. Lansdale, Zeppelins West (Subterranean Press, 2001)

The word very quickly became aware of, and enamored with, Joe R. Lansdale's particular subgenre of "take famous personages and put them into very strange situations" almost overnight thanks to Don Coscarelli's film version of Lansdale's story "Bubba Ho-Tep" a couple of years ago. Well, folks, let me tell you, "Bubba Ho-Tep" was only the tip of the iceberg. Zeppelins West plumbs the depths, and what marvelous depths they be.

Okay, imagine the following. Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show is going to Japan (via zeppelin, naturally) to perform. Among the cast are Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, and Bill biographer Ned Buntline. All well and good, except that Bill is a head in a jar of pig urine. His body is being kept alive by scientists, and it is Bill's greatest dream to one day be reunited with his body. During their adventures, thanks to a series of odd missteps, they meet up with Captain Nemo, Frankenstein's Monster, the Tin Man (from the Wizard of Oz), and Dracula, and it all takes place on the Island of Dr. Moreau. Weird enough for you yet? If not, or even if it is, you owe it to yourself to pick this up. (The book's most interesting feature: the notable lack of the standard "all persons are fictional" disclaimer. I'm waiting for the lawsuits.)

The book, like most of Lansdale's recent work, slips back and forth between the hysterically funny and the oddly touching, but unlike most of his recent work, there's no real mystery to be found here, aside from the surface question of how everyone's going to get off the island when Moreau (known here as Dr. Momo) doesn't want them to leave. The mystery's not the thing, though. Lansdale is too busy delighting in the complete and utter demystification (and remystification) of various legendary and mythological personages of our acquaintance, and gleefully drawing us along for the ride. The result is less disjointed than one might expect; this is probably because there are no chapter breaks or the like. The whole thing is told in one sweeping motion (rather like Doris' Lessing's Canopus in Argos books, but this isn't nearly as deep or meaningful).

Fantastic beach reading. Highly recommended. ****

[Allen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Um... Fuck yeah? No, FUCK YEAH! This book is ridiculous and absurd and oddly sweet. A great homage to comics, pulps, westerns, nerdrotica (I think i just invented a word!). I read this series out of order (having read Flaming London first) yet still I thoroughly enjoyed it. Wow. Great snack book in tradition of, well, no one. Well done Mr. Lansdale, my hat is off to you. I only wish I had shaken your hand when I had the chance a few years back.

[Shawn Thornton · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bat shit crazy. Great fun.

[aithusa · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pazzo, a tratti anche divertente, senza senso... Un miscuglio di personaggi letterari e reali da Buffalo Bill, Toro Seduto, il mostro di Frankenstein, Dracula, l'Uomo di Latta da il mago di Oz e tanti tanti altri personaggi surreali (come Ned la foca che legge romanzi ed è grande fan di Buffalo Bill!) che si ritrovano a vivere, sull'isola del dr. Momo, le più grandi avventure e le più assurde situazioni.
Il libro è scorrevole, scritto bene ma dal finale troppo affrettato.

[Anthony Emmel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lansdale weave an entertaining steampunk story filled with literary and historical figures from the late 19th c. He is profane as usual but always entertaining. Bert is the best.

[Craig Childs · Rating 3 out of 5]

Joe R. Lansdale is one of America’s most underrated novelists, probably because he writes in many different genres, never stopping in one place long enough to build a large following. This is the Whimsical Lansdale genre, and it goes alongside many of his shorter works like DRIVE-IN: BUS TOUR, “Dread Island”, and “The Steam Man of the Prairie and the Dark Rider Get Down”.

ZEPPELINS WEST is a mash-up novel written in what would be called Steampunk today (I’m not sure this genre even had a name in 2001 when this was written). Historical and fictional 19th century characters intermingle in a world that has a level of technology equivalent to what you might find in a Jules Verne or H.G. Wells adventure. Annie Oakley, Bill Hickock, Sitting Bull, and Buffalo Bill Cody’s dismembered head--which is being kept alive in a Mason jar--travel to Japan, rescue Frankenstein’s monster who is being slowly ground up to be used as an aphrodisiac, then eventually have to escape from Dr. Momo (aka Doctor Moreau) and Captain Bemo (aka Captain Nemo from 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea). The Tin Man from Oz and even Dracula make appearances.

It’s all very slapdash and slapstick, of course. It reads like a short story that got carried away and went on a tad too long. Fortunately, it is brimming with imagination and humor throughout.

[April · Rating 3 out of 5]

ummmmm.....this is definitely the silliest book i have ever read. by leaps and bounds. the wild west show goes to japan where they rescue frankenstein. then their zeppelin get shot down and they are rescued by captain bemo in his naughty lass. captain bemo is a zombie controlled by doctor momo. he takes them all to doctor momo's island where they meet the tin man from the wizard of oz. who then falls in love with frankenstein. also dracula is in there somewhere. read it just so you believe me.

[David Monroe · Rating 4 out of 5]

Just silly fun. I really enjoyed this book.

[Clay Davis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Would have been better without the gross material.

[Kibbin · Rating 4 out of 5]

There is a section of this book where the disembodied head of Buffalo Bill is telling a story to his new friend, Ned the Seal who can talk via the notepad hanging around his neck and the additional thumb on his flipper. The story is pure hokum anyway but Bill has so many hokum stories that he can’t keep them straight and his adoring fan just sits there an accepts it only politely trying to correct him when the events of the story don’t line up with themselves. One lines he’s fighting the Sioux and the next line it’s the Cheyenne. One paragraph he’s on his trust steed Jake and the next he’s riding atop Will. The reason I bring this up is because it’s a fairly good approximation for how reading this book feels. One second we’re fleeing Japan with Frankenstein’s Monster and the next we’re 20,000 league below the sea. And that’s in the first half of this rather short book. My copy only came to 136 pages and yet afterwards I felt like I needed to go for a lie down, have a stiff drink, or maybe just have a really satisfying smoke.

This book is mad from start to finish in the best possible way. Now I should say that this won’t be everyone’s cup of tea and I can really understand that. For some context Joe R Landsdale is possibly better known for writing comics or the short story Bubba Ho-Tep where Elvis has to fight an ancient Mummy in a retirement home along with his friend the black man John F Kennedy. That might give you some idea of the kind of author you are dealing with here. Another way to think of it is that if anyone were going to adapt this it might be Adult Swim.

The characters are a very strange collection but you definitely get a sense for their personalities over the course of this adventure. Now I will say that some are a bit more period than others but I’d say the book is such good fun, crazy, and good natured that you’d be hard to be really offended by some of it. Yeah Wild Bill Hickock might use some choice language that would get Jeremy Clarkson a slap on the wrist were he still on the Beeb but even he has grown enough to realise that maybe slaughtering all those Native Americans might not have been the right thing to do. He even is fairly okay for the love that blossoms under his nose later on in the book which is pretty good for someone born in the 1830’s.

Now considering the short nature of the book, the humorous tone it is going for, and the amount of ground covered I’m not going to say that the cast is exactly fleshed out to the nines. This isn’t trying to be the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen where they take these characters and try to explore them in a context and from a new angle. This is a whistle stop comedy book that explains how Annie Oakley got that gun powder burn on her upper thigh.

Now one thing that did confuse me, and this could be in my version and not all others, but there is a mixture in who gets named. We name drop Charles Darwin and hinge our plot on Frankenstein’s monster. But when captain Nemo appears he is instead Captain Bemo. Doctor Moreau is named as such on the back of my book but inside is replaced by Doctor Momo. I had thought it was because these character’s differ so much more from their originals but then I heard Bert* talk about how he killed his creator and realised that wasn’t it. If I had to guess all were originally named until at the last minute Joe found out that some characters who should, by now, be in the public domain aren’t and he thus did a sloppy job with the find and replace function in protest.

This really isn’t for everyone but I would suggest you give it a go if you find a copy about. Imagine if Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy had been made for MTV in the 90’s instead of the BBC in the 70’s.

*The Monster opts to take on the name Bert for some reason even though he was already christened Adam. I’m not sure why

See more reviews at https://kibbinscodex.wordpress.com/

[Nadia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Cosa ci fanno Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oackley, Toro Seduto e la testa (ancora viva) di Buffalo Bill Cody su uno Zeppelin diretto in Giappone? È soltanto l'inizio di un romanzo ucronico, folle e divertentissimo, che soltanto Lansdale avrebbe potuto scrivere. È vero, all'inizio sono rimasta un po' spiazzata, perché davvero non è semplice mescolare generi così diversi come il western e la fantascienza, ma già dopo poche pagine ero completamente catturata. In Fuoco nella polvere Lansdale gioca con alcuni tra i più famosi romanzi classici dell'Ottocento e li mescola con i personaggi del vecchio west, dando vita a qualcosa di assurdo e fuori di testa, ma allo stesso tempo geniale ed esilarante. Avete mai pensato a che cosa sarebbe successo se il mostro di Frankenstein (lui preferisce essere chiamato Bert, grazie) avesse incontrato l'uomo di latta? O se Dracula avesse fatto naufragio su un'isola popolata da uomini bestia? E il capitano Bemo (no, non Nemo, proprio Bemo) salverà Hickok e i suoi amici o li metterà ancora più nei guai? Lo so, sembra tutto senza senso e completamente delirante e per un certo verso lo è, ma allo stesso tempo è tutto perfettamente sensato. Lansdale si diverte con i mostri (in tutti i sensi) sacri della letteratura e crea un romanzo originalissimo, che prima spiazza e poi conquista, ma su cui non posso parlare oltre senza spoilerare o rovinarvi il divertimento. Posso solo dirvi che, a meno che non siate molto schizzinosi o troppo sensibili, dovete dargli una possibilità. Riderete un sacco e scoprirete un autore geniale, che ha scritto anche roba "normale", state tranquilli!

[Andrea Zanotti · Rating 4 out of 5]

Oramai lo sapete, Joe Lansdale è uno dei miei autori preferiti e anche in questa occasione non tradisce, nonostante il romanzo sia del tutto particolare.
Sto parlando di Fuoco nella polvere, opera bizzarra e multiforme. Difficile classificarla se non attribuendole la generica etichetta di “fantastico”.
In effetti qui c’è un po’ di tutto. Un distillato di weird per eccellenza. Dalla testa parlante sotto spirito di Bufalo Bill al Conte Vampiro, dal mostro partorito da Viktor Frankestein, all’uomo di latta del mago di Oz, e fra i due nasce una tenera storia d’amore… insomma, preparatevi a varcare i portali della mente multicolore e sfavillante di un grande della scrittura.
Cosa adoro in Lansdale? Beh, tutto ovviamente, ma principalmente i dialoghi.
Irresistibili.
Sufficienti da soli a dar vita a un grande lavoro, bilanciando una trama molto leggera e lineare, senza particolari artifici e orpelli inutili. Qui c’è da divertirsi, in modo sano e semplice. Recensione completa: https://www.scrittorindipendenti.com/...

[Joel Werley · Rating 4 out of 5]

A synopsis of Zeppelins West, a typical tale from master storyteller Joe R. Lansdale:

"The Wild West Show travels by Zeppelin to perform before a Shogun, soon to be emperor of Japan, only to discover the Frankenstein monster is being whittled down slowly and ground into aphrodisiacs by the would-be ruler. Buffalo Bill, who, due to a recent accident, exists only as a battery powered head in a jar of liquid manufactured from the best that modern science and pig urine has to offer, along with Wild Bill Hickok, Annie Oakley, Sitting Bull, and a cast of historical as well as literary characters, rescue the monster, only to be shot down over the Pacific, where they are saved from sharks by Captain Nemo and his intellectual seal, Ned.

And then things get weird."

Yeah, like I wasn't going to devour this one. Top that Dickens!

[Alessandro Pontorno · Rating 2 out of 5]

Dato che ormai mi resta solo un libro di H&L da leggere, tento - da buon Lansdale-dipendente - di procrastinare il momento di piacere assaggiando qualche altro scritto dell'autore texano.
Si ride per la follia dei personaggi, per le battute scurrili, per lo splatter gratuito, per le vicende surreali (ma in fondo non sono gli stessi ingredienti che mi hanno fatto amare H&L?), eppure ciò che resta sono una manciata di ore passate divertendosi. Non è poco, ma in questo Fuoco nella polvere non c'è nulla di memorabile.

[Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

A mash-ups on myths of the American West, Baum, Stoker, Verne, and Wells that is a quick read, much in the vein of the time store novels it is gloriously paying homage to. Some of the humor is downright juvenile (lots of dick/fart jokes) and simultaneously makes you laugh and cringe (the latter because of its steadfast un-PC-ness in light of the present socio-political climate of the day).
Still, Lansdale knows how to spin a yarn that had me wiling away the day reading it from cover to cover in one sitting.

[Mario Medina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually read this book off a pirated, not very accurate EPUB copy. I came to this book from the Hap and Leonard tv series. Now, this book is a haphazard mix of literary and real life characters in a steampunk novella mixing so many literary references I still don't know what to think of it. I didn't like the ending, though, I would have preferred for most characters to keep on living so I could read about their new rollicking adventures in the Zeppelin universe.

[Andrea Branko · Rating 5 out of 5]

Una storia al limite dell'assurdo ma divertentissima! Un misto di western-horror con un nutrito gruppo di personaggi variegati, ispirati ai celebri protagonisti di numerose storie di paura e non solo. Tra i pochi libri che ho letto dell'autore, questo rimarrà sicuramente nella mia top 3!

[Lillian · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was just weird. I randomly selected this from the library in the we Stevens section. It probably should have been in science fiction or fantasy, seeing as it was a steam punk story. Just weird.

[Lilli Tokay · Rating 4 out of 5]

Un concentrato di tante storie che ho amato in salsa... WTF?!

[Justin · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ripping yarns!

[Charl]

Too weird for me. Lily Langtry getting lumped into the story just pushed it too far into la-la land for me to enjoy.

[Valeria P. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Uh!! delirante... ;) divertente, folle, inaspettato. Grande Landsdale, è veramente avanti! :D