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** spoiler alert ** I originally bought this book because it was a weird western based on a very interesting concept. I expected great characters and an exciting experience. What I got was a subpar story that spread out over almost 300 pages. It includes a zombie, giant bats, robot prostitutes, and advanced machinery that can in no way be considered steampunk, despite the summary on the book itself.

The story is set in and around the legendary Old-West town of Tombstone and features some big-name characters such as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Thomas Edison. The story follows Doc Holliday and his frequent companion, Wyatt Earp. Earp is with two of his brothers, who barely do anything in the story and could be removed entirely without consequence. The same could be said about a few other characters, too. None of the characters even undergo a character arc or show any real signs of a personality.

The general plot follows Holliday, recruited by Wyatt to protect Edison. The setup was decent, but it becomes apparent pretty quickly that nothing will happen in the story.

Shortly after arrival, Holliday and another character named Bat Masterson visit Geronimo. There, Masterson is cursed to become a giant vampire bat each night. A short while after that, an undead gunslinger arrives in town and threatens to kill Holliday without any apparent means of being killed himself.

With two threats such as these, you'd expect the story to be quite action packed. Truth be told, though, there's very little action in this book. Just before being cursed, Masterson wrangles with one of Geronimo's men. Later in the book, Holliday attacks an enemy. Both skirmishes last between a sentence and a brief paragraph.

What about the giant bat? Much of the time, it just flies off without a hint of a threat to anyone besides someone else's cattle elsewhere. There's even a moment of tension regarding the bat that causes some alarm for the characters, but the situation is defused with barely any effort. Masterson is never a threat to anyone except when he becomes a vampire late in the book, and even then, he barely threatens anyone. He's friendly with everyone, except for the one person he kills on Holliday's command, and even that's just talked about after the fact without being shown.

As for the undead gunslinger, the book spends a quarter of its time alluding to an epic showdown between the undead threat (Johnny Ringo) and Holliday, and the rest of the book shows Holliday and Ringo being best friends, hanging out in the bar discussing literature without hostility. Any and all tension that could have been is wasted while the alleged rivals just sit around and talk. There's barely even a hint that the showdown is even a serious concern. Holliday is so convinced of his superior skill that he hardly even cares. That friendship continues up until the last chapter or two when suddenly Ringo realizes he's supposed to be menacing and starts acting tough. Then the often-referenced showdown comes, and it's over in an instant without a single bullet even being fired.

The only real action scene in the whole book is the gunfight at the OK Corral, but even then, it's presented so dispassionately that it doesn't feel exciting.

The story lacks tension and has scant action. It reads like a group of near-identical friends hanging out and wasting time instead of taking action. And there were plenty of opportunities for action: fighting off a giant bat, clashing against a rival gang including an undead gunslinger, killing an enemy medicine man (which was the original condition for Masterson's curse to be lifted), and other potential plot points. The author laid the groundwork for potential exciting, tense subplots and squandered them all just so his characters can relax as if there was barely any danger at all.

What are the story's good points? Honestly, I feel as if the best that this story had to offer lay entirely in its concept. A setting where the United States occupied only the land east of the Mississippi River because its progress is blocked by powerful magic. And that magic is wielded by powerful medicine men that head their own nations. That's a concept with a great deal of potential. The book's ending even hints at an even greater story. It's a shame very little was done with this idea. It could have been a great series.

What's the final message? If you want an exciting and fun story set in the Wild West, this book has nothing to offer you. It has an amazing concept marred by subpar execution. Maybe Resnick will rewrite the story in the future to make it something truly epic.