He’s the man with the metal arm, fixin’ to bring justice, peace, and honor back to Texas. He’s the lawman, the bounty hunter, the criminal. At the end of the day, he’s the man still holding the gun. The man still standing.
A fast-paced cyberpunk western in the wastes of a Texas ruined by technology and neglect.
J.D. wants only to make things right by the residents of Dead Oak, but nothing’s simple when tech gets involved. Gangs scour the skies on flying motorcycles, men warp their own minds with implants, and nothing–not one damn thing–is ever what it seems. Try as he might, J.D. doesn’t always know how to put this broken world back together. Maybe he never will.
The Metal and Men boxed set comes with the complete trilogy:
✓Justice in an Age of Metal and Men
✓ Peace in an Age of Metal and Men
✓ Honor in an Age of Metal and Men
✓ Bonus Short Story: The Guardian of Old Texas
Targeted Age Group:: Adult
What Inspired You to Write Your Book?
Westerns are stories taking place at the edge of an expanding civilization, and cyberpunk tells stories at the edge of civilization in decline. When I decided to combine the two, it surprised me how well they fit. The themes of justice, peace, and honor came together organically out of both genres, and J.D. was the perfect character to wrestle with those concepts in the ruined wastelands of a future Texas ruined by tech.
How is writing Science Fiction different from other genres?
When I write sci-fi I'm always thinking about our current times. I look at what the prevalent values are, what their consequences might be, and how they might play out into the future. Technology is actually the simple part–figuring out the people is what gets complex. How do values change over the years? How does that change provoke a reaction? These are all interesting things boiling in the back of my brain whenever I write about the future.
How Did You Come up With Your Characters?
Sheriff J.D. Crow was a classic Western hero placed in a cyberpunk world. He might be partly metal and entirely dependent upon tech, but he also hates it with a fiery passion. That kind of internal conflict drives his character and makes all of his relationships interesting.
Book Sample
We walked down the middle of a wide road, the moon a silver smudge across the still-hazy sky. The ashen wind let us be, only returning for the occasional tug at our backs. Even in the relatively bright moonlight from the clearing sky, it was too much of a risk to walk Muffin through the uneven trails. The road might be harder on the old horse’s knees, but it was preferable to twisting an ankle on the uneven earth of the burned forest. Behind her, Francis’ coffin drifted in silence like a big, white ghost.
I flexed my right hand, which still ached something fierce after slugging Johnny. Rebandaging it had hurt like hell, and the wound hadn’t closed up as nicely as I would have liked. We’d walked hours without speaking, and I’d just started to kindle some hope that it could stay that way.
“Won’t they come after us?”
I considered it. “I give it about fifty-fifty.”
“You could have killed them. They attacked us.”
“They did.”
“So, if you’d killed them, we’d be safe right now.”
I shook my head. “You weren’t so eager to kill that bear.”
“That’s different. The bear wouldn’t track us down and knife us in our sleep.”
“Fifty-fifty isn’t bad odds.”
Quin looked at me, horrified expression on her face. “How are you even so old?”
I took out a cigarette, stuck it between my lips, and lit it. “Rugged charm.”
She made a disgusted noise.
“Look, kid, I made a promise a long time ago. Said I wouldn’t kill anyone if I could help it. Promises are important.”
“Important enough to get both of us killed?”
“A fair bit more important than that.” I turned to regard her. “A person’s honor is bigger than them. It’s the thing that holds everything together, even when the law breaks down way out here in the wild. Give that up and you’re as good as dead anyway.”
After that, she didn’t talk for a long while.
Links to Purchase Print Books
Link to Buy Metal and Men: The Boxed Set Print Edition at Amazon
Links to Purchase eBooks
Link To Buy On Amazon
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About the Author:
Anthony W. Eichenlaub's stories have appeared in numerous anthologies, including A Punk Rock Future, Fell Beasts and Fair, and The Community of Magic Pens. His novels are a furious mix of cyberpunk and western, taking place in a future Texas ruined by tech. In his spare time he loves gardening, woodworking, and taking long walks with his lazy dog. He can be found at https://anthonyeichenlaub.com or on twitter as @AWEichenlaub
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