H. Duke Author - writer of fantasy, horror, and more

Review of “Billie the Kid” by Paul Summerhayes

by HDukeAuthor

Book: Billie the Kid by Paul Summerhayes

Genre: fantasy, science fiction, weird west

Available in Kindle Unlimited?: Yes (at time of writing)

Available Formats: Kindle ebook

First glance assessment: This is another one I first noticed while doing research for Jeremiah Jones Cowboy Sorcerer. The cover is awesome, and the tag line is “The Magnificent 7 meets the X-men.” I LOVE the X-men. I knew I had to read this book.

Summary:  Wilhemina “Billie” Bonney lives in a town bordering the “Waste Land,” an inhospitable desert-scape filled with man-eating mutants. When Billie’s step-father is killed and her mother injured by a group of these mutants, Billie and her brother must team up with the local sheriff and a group of superpowered marshals to ride into the waste land to find a cure.

Story: As a lover of X-men and an enthusiast of all things weird west, I knew I would enjoy this story. I liked the characters and the world building. As a reader, I like my fantasy books to have a basis in our world (no high fantasy for me, thanks), and Billie the Kid falls squarely in that category.

There were a few events and scenes that felt overly dramatic, but it didn’t stop me from finishing the book. I also felt that the main character, Billie, who is supposed to be sixteen, felt more like a twelve-year-old.

Writing: The writing is serviceable overall, but certain sections could have used another revision. The POV character switches a lot, and there were several scenes where it wasn’t immediately clear who’s perspective we were in.

Editing: Unfortunately, there were a lot of typos in this book. Not enough to make it completely unreadable, but they were noticeable and caused me to stumble several times. There were also a lot of echo words, as well. I suspect that this book was self-edited.

Overall rating: Overall, I’d rate this book a solid 3 out of 5 stars—it would have been 4 if the editing had been better. The concept is awesome and the characters are good. I can see this story going some interesting places. I look forward to reading the next one when it comes out, though I wouldn’t rearrange my TBR pile to get to it any sooner.

If you’ve read Billie the Kid, let me know what you thought about it in the comments!

Find Billie the Kid on Amazon

And if you’re a fan of the weird west genre, check out Jeremiah Jones Cowboy Sorcerer: The Complete First Season, now available on Amazon!