Dr. Potter’s Medicine Show by Eric Scott Fischl is the kind of story you should read while chugging cheap whiskey straight from the bottle and cussing up a storm. It’s an intense ride full of alchemy, death, and violence.
Sometimes it’s nice to read a book with villains who are easy to hate. This book fills the need and then some. With truly evil-but-in-interesting-ways antagonists and deeply flawed protagonists, it tends to get a touch dark, but don’t worry! Just when you think it’s dark, it’ll go SO MUCH DARKER.
The book moves fast, though. It’s hard not to feel for these poor, cold people trying to make their way through a seemingly hopeless life. I found myself pulled into the story and reading WAY too late at night.
So yeah, if you can take a little violence and, like me, love a little weird in your western, this is a good book for you. I think readers of my Metal and Men series would probably enjoy it, even though it doesn’t have any robots.
I read a free copy of this from Netgalley. My review is an honest one, though, and if you ever catch me lying to you about a book you can have my original collection of Groo the Wanderer, which I’ve kept in mint condition for the past 30 years. Dr. Potter’s Medicine Show comes out 2/7/2017.