Official Review: Dry-Gulched In Space by Trek Journeyman

[Brittster]

[Following is the official OnlineBookClub.org review of "Dry-Gulched In Space" by Trek Journeyman.]

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3 out of 4 stars

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“Space: The Final Frontier” is not only a great catch phrase for Star Trek, but also for the short stories written by Trek Journeyman in Dry-Gulched in Space. This book is a collection of short stories about various types of space heroes and their adventures through the galaxies. All of the stories take place in the intergalactic realm. They are full of civilizations, species, and even various organizations up in space. These short stories will identify with any fan of the science fiction genre.

In the first story, we find ourselves alongside brothers Cris and Mikey Buck as we jump into this almost western style tale. The brothers are nothing short of audacious and courageous gun slingers. They always look for and seem to easily locate trouble. At the start of our adventure they come upon some other spaceships pirating a Rocket Express delivery in progress. To understand what the Rocket Express is, think pony express in the sky. This was a neat concept to experience especially given the many parallels to a western. Unfortunately, the Buck brothers arrive just in time to watch the thieves fly away. In their wake they leave the Rocket pilot dead, and missing cargo. Given the nature of the Buck’s, they waste no time in chasing after the thieves and diving into a full investigation. The remainder of the story follows their quest to seek justice and retrieve the stolen antimatter.

The second story, Always Take the Long Way, takes a slight turn in our main character. We now find ourselves with a Robin Hood type character, only in that he is technically a criminal but you find yourself hoping that he will succeed in his endeavors. He comes to a point where he is tired of disturbances and is trying to find a way to escape from constant confrontations with various parties. The author does not go into too much detail about these confrontations, but is setting us up to understand his mindset. It is not uncommon for him to be running from the law or to take other criminals’ lives. He comes across an escape pod during his travels and decides to assist the bedraggled occupants. Throughout the rest of the story he takes care of these people and ends up in an old fashion space (or western) shoot out with their assailants.

I really enjoyed this book as a couple short stories that help you delve into the space realm. I most liked how the author does a great job of making a sense a community and creating a world that we can relate to, while still making it in a more exotic environment. There are certain details he mentions that really remind you of something you might have in your own hometown. One example is the planet that is referred to by locals as the Rainbow Ring. I love the sense of community that it implies and it makes us, as readers, feel a part of the inside secret. In the diner that is a common setting in the story, they even have a burger, the Big Bad Wolf Burger, where if you can eat a platter of three of these burgers in 45 minutes you get your meal free! I think only my brother-in-law could eat three burgers with bacon, pork, ham, and beef on them.

There were only a few things I found disappointing. I found a very minimal number of grammar errors, I would say less than five. Also, I am not sure what caused this, but every word that had a double “l” in it was missing the second “l”. For example, “all” would be “al” and “eventually” would be “eventual y”. I never realized how many double “l” words occur in our language. I will say, there were two times toward the end of the book where there were two l’s in a row and I got unnecessarily excited. I was slightly disappointed that the main characters in both stories never really had any difficulties. There were many opportunities, but even in their final showdowns, it was pretty straight forward and without any real twists. Probably the most disappointing thing I noticed was that there was mention of Martians and aliens but no detailed description of their appearance. It would have been nice to have an image in my mind of what the author was depicting.

All that being said, I would give Dry-Gulched in Space 3 out of 4 stars. I feel that this was a great collection of short stories. The author mentions in his bio that he tried to merge two things he loves, science fiction and the western feel of adventure. I think he did a great job accomplishing that goal. Even some of the issues I had with the lack of twists or difficulties for the main characters were not that bad when considering this is meant to be a short story, not a novel. The one star removed I would say is specifically for the lack of l’s and lack of some descriptions. Overall, great science fiction episodes!

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Dry-Gulched In Space
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Like Brittster's review? Post a comment saying so!

[Shelle]

Great review!
A western is space? I'm intrigued.
I wonder if the 'l' issue was a formatting or kindle thing? I would imagine it would be very, very distracting.

[Brittster]

Great review!
A western is space? I'm intrigued.
I wonder if the 'l' issue was a formatting or kindle thing? I would imagine it would be very, very distracting.

Thank you so much! Yes, it was quite distracting. I almost had to do a double take when I first realized it to make sure I wasn't imagining it.

[kimmyschemy06]

I'm so intrigued about how the author pulled off the western in space theme. Good job on the review.

[Brittster]

I'm so intrigued about how the author pulled off the western in space theme. Good job on the review.

Intriguing is such a good word to describe it. It is a very unique idea.

Thank you for your kind words!