Portlandtown: A Tale of the Oregon Wyldes

Written by Rob DeBorde

Narrated by Scott Sowers

Welcome to Portlandtown, where no secret is safe---not even those buried beneath six feet of Oregon mud. Joseph Wylde isn't afraid of the past, but he knows some truths are better left unspoken. When his father-in-law's grave-digging awakens more than just ghosts, Joseph invites him into their home hoping that a booming metropolis and two curious grandtwins will be enough to keep the former marshal out of trouble. Unfortunately, the old man's past soon follows, unleashing a terrible storm on a city already knee deep in floodwaters. As the dead mysteriously begin to rise, the Wyldes must find the truth before an unspeakable evil can spread across the West and beyond. Rob DeBorde's Portlandtown is a supernatural western, a fantastic blend of horror, magic, and zombies sure to excite even the most demanding genre fan.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Recorded Books, Inc.
• Release date: Nov 30, 2012
• ISBN: 9781470327941

Reviews for Portlandtown

[c5ibarra · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I was intrigued by this book simply because of the inclusion of zombies. Unfortunately, I found the premise and differing point of views confusing. It made it difficult to connect and really get a feel for each character because I was too busy trying to keep who was who straight. Maybe I just wasn't the target audience for this novel. I truly wanted to enjoy this. Western + zombies? Who wouldn't, but it was a big 'ol miss with this reader.

[booktwirps · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

When I first heard of this book I knew I had to get my hands on it as it not only had zombies in it, but it takes place in Portland, OR, one of my favorite cities in the US. I wasn’t sure what to expect when I started it, and even now, it’s tough to categorize. It’s part western, part history, part horror and part paranormal.The basic gist of the story is that a powerful criminal known as The Hanged Man is tracked down and brought down by Joseph Wylde and his U.S. Marshall father-in-law. The Hanged Man was very dangerous as he dealt in dark magic and possessed a supernatural revolver and a book of magic that aided him in his reign of terror. A few years later, someone gets their hands on the revolver and the book and resurrects the Hanged Man who comes back to life seeking revenge on Wylde and his family.Despite a clunky opening, the book really grabbed me. It had elements of a good old fashioned western, and the addition of the paranormal made it fresh, though I never felt like I was able to buy into it 100%. Maybe it was because I’m not a huge fan of westerns. There is plenty of action, and the writing flows pretty well. The zombies here aren’t born of a virus, and exist through dark magic (necromancy). For some reason these types of zombies don’t freak me out as much as the virus-caused, flesh-eating types, so this dampened the feeling of terror for me a bit.My biggest complaint was that I never felt like I really connected with any of the characters (and there are a lot of them). There were also quite a few loose threads that I felt were left hanging, though if this is a planned series, there is definitely room to explore these open points more. Still, it’s a fun read, and definitely one I would recommend to readers looking for a different sort of zombie and/or western novel.

[cmwilson101 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Portlandtown: A Tale of the Oregon Wyldes by Rob DeBorde kicks off with a mystery: a sheriff is compelled to dig up graves, and he doesn't know why. Fearing for his sanity, his family collects him from Astoria and brings him to wild-west turn-of-the-century Portlandtown, or Portland, Oregon. This slightly bemused legendary lawman sets the stage for the novel, as he and his family try to unravel the mystery of his compulsion. This is a dense story, a wild, crazy mystery, full of twists and turns and amazing encounters, all set against a detailed, authentic Portland. It's hard to categorize, but immensely entertaining: wild west with a dash of supernatural, historical drama with a splash of zombies, and horror story with a pinch of humor. I loved it, and hope the author writes more. And more. And more.

[dulcibelle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I'm not sure exactly how I feel about this one. The world building is good; Portlandtown was described in detail and was an interesting (if wet) location. Character development is also good; I loved the Wyldes (Kate, Joseph, and the twins) and the "Big Bads" truly were big and bad. But . . . it seemed like the story took a while to get started, and I just couldn't get really invested in it until the last third of the book. But that last third came on like gangbusters! If DeBorde writes more about the Wyldes, I'll probably check it out - just to see what happens.

[ft_ball_fn · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Let me start by saying I don't read westerns.. that even though I'm a huge Stephen King fan I haven't read the gunslinger series... only a couple short stories. So--this book was out of the 'norm' for me on that count.Having said that--I enjoyed this book. It was very well written (save the first few pages.. where it jumps into the story and I had trouble telling who was who or what was going on). However that confusion was quickly cleared up on subsequent pages.The main characters are immediately likeable and interesting... and very well 'fleshed out'. The story is easy to follow without being predictable. The author has a well polished style of story telling--which provides both great illustration but also keeps the story going without pages of Hawthorne like description.I enjoyed the main characters so much that I almost disliked the addition of secondary characters to the story (as weird as that might sound). Not that the secondary characters were not interesting too... but the main characters were to me unique and therefore I wanted to follow them more closely.While the 'villian' in the story is as dark and evil as they come.. the book itself is not wraught with darkness and foreboding (as "the Road" was, or the Gunslinger series).This was a very fast read.. anyone how enjoys supernatural/paranormal stories... and/or fantasy westerns should really enjoy this book.

[m4marya · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

As a Pacific Northwesterner, I am partial to books that give me a different way to look at my world. I loved all of this book, the setting, the characters, the camp fire ghost story feel to the tale.

[nodosaurus · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

This is a book about voodoo, a hanged man, a magic gun, and zombies. On the cover, the author is compared favorably to Stephen King, and to top it off, the story takes place in Oregon, in Astoria and Portland. It sounds like it could be fun.The back cover was probably the best part. The characters are all fairly shallow and single-minded. They don’t have any hang-ups or flaws. Then the minor characters seem to be in place to help move the plot along, at times providing much more information and help than seems reasonable for their characters. Not quite half-way through the book, the author decided to provide some background information on the characters. The stories were very terse, provided new skills, didn’t fit the characters, and weren’t substantiated. For instance, the marshall’s son-in-law who owns a bookstore and runs a special investigation service started out as a horse thief. The marshall turns out to be a Nez Perce indian with special abilities not mentioned previously. When the zombies did arrive, the author didn’t build suspense or intrigue. He didn’t even have the token character there to be overwhelmed or scared off. They just appeared. The author did have some good ideas, he just doesn’t have the skill to tell the story. This is one of very few books that I won’t finish.

[thehistorychic · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Won from Library Thing Early ReviewersOverall Rating: 3.25Story Rating: 3.50Character Rating: 3.00First thought when finished: This was a fun mix of gritty historical western with a huge side of horror and thriller elements! Really hard to categorize!What I thought of the story: I thought the story was great! The thing I found most compelling was it was a unique spin of the "paying for the sins of your father (ancestors)" type of story. The paranormal element added that "umph" to making it literal. I was never quite sure where Portlandtown was heading and that happens to be my FAVORITE way to read a horror/thriller/mystery type of book. Portlandtown was so dead-on creepy that I seriously can't wait till the next book. That is the one caveat I will give you: this book does not tie everything up so I have to assume it is part of a series.What I thought of the characters: Here is where I thought the book was a bit of a let down. The multiple POVs, while I normally love that, were a bit choppy. More than once during the first few chapters, I had to check to see whose POV I was looking at a scene through. I think this also lead to me not feeling very connected to most of the characters. I did love Joseph and his family but there are so many more rich, interesting characters I wish we got to know better. This may have been because it was an advanced copy but it did hinder my reading experience a bit.Final thought: This was a solidly creepy read that has me hoping for a book 2! I want to know what happens and want to spend more time in Portlandtown.

[highvoltagegrrl · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoy my zombies and I keep hoping for a mix of zombies and wild west that hits the nail on the head. The beginning started out well enough – I particularly love the interactions with the Wylde family. The twins are amusing and have a connection that we hear a hint of but never truly get to explore. Actually all of the Wyldes have a little something extra and while Joseph’s is mentioned a bit, it still seemed like his whole story wasn’t being told..It felt as if one story was written – the zombie portion – and then the storm and the flooding problem were written later as an after thought and to give the town the Wyldes lived in some depth. It wasn’t seamless which left a lot of disconnect for me.There was also a lot that happened behind the scenes that the reader didn’t get to see, but was talked about afterwards. I would have liked to see more of the zombie rising than simply be told about it.

[sunnysd_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Hanged Man wasn't supposed to be dead and buried. He was supposed to be dead and ash blowing in the wind. As the town of Portland prepares for its annual rain festival the worst worry is continued sun. Zombies, an unkillable dead man, a gun that never requires loading, and a semi-sentient book of curses probably never crossed their minds... ignorance is definitely not bliss, at least not for long!Well written, although the constant changes of perspective make it difficult to get attached to any of the characters. If zombies are your cup of tea, you could do far worse.

[girlmisanthrope · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Enjoyed this paranormal western. I live in Seattle and visit Portland regularly so I enjoyed meeting this version of Portland. And the Wyldes, Joseph and Kate, own and run a bookstore with rare texts. (A precursor to Powell's??)The Wyldes, including twins Maddie and Kick, have heightened cognitive abilities, able to sense danger, foreseeing some events, etc. The mayor has tapped them to help with paranormal investigations. All of the characters are linked by The Hanged Man, an evil man/corpse/zombie who "died" 11 years earlier. But his evil has touched the Wylde family, Kate's father, and eventually touches lots of innocent people. The novel moves at a great pace. It does suffer from some of the kitchen-sink-syndrome of first in series as the author throws in a myriad of characters and plants mysteries for upcoming books. The Hanged Man will surely return in a later book as is his nature. An enchanted totem pole (will really cool powers that I won't spoil here) will probably crop up again later.I am looking forward to subsequent stories of Portlandtown.

[thedivineoomba · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This book has a bit everything - from Zombies to magical books. Its fun and crosses genres. It has elements of steampunk, horror, and traditional magic. Unfortunately, there it could use a good editor. A couple parts of it could be completely excised and the would be a much better read.Its a good book. I enjoyed reading and I liked that it was different than most other fantasy books being published today.

[ladycato · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I received this Advanced Reading Copy through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program.Portlandtown in many ways feels like a dark urban fantasy novel dropped in pioneer Oregon. The Wylde family possesses some particular magic abilities, and has become known as a local resource for handling paranormal matters. The vibe here is quite dark, and it works very well with the subject matter: the rising dead, evil magic, and a mysterious bad guy known as the Hanged Man. I was a bit thrown off by the floating viewpoints of the novel, and at first the infrequent flashbacks in italics threw me off. However, after a few chapters I was able to keep track of who was who. I really enjoyed the Wylde family: Joseph, physically blind but with keen senses; Kate, his smart wife with an ability to walk in shadows; and their twins, who I was worried at first would be devices to cause stupid trouble, but instead were intelligent and powerful in their own ways.However, there were other characters I wanted to know more. Andre and Naira, in particular, were quite fascinating. Whole books could be written on their adventures. In a way, perhaps, they were too powerful, and too convenient when they meet the Wyldes right at the end. The Hanged Man is an excellent bad guy but in a way seemed too awful--there's no nuance to him; I suspect sequels will explore his mysterious past and how he became such a powerful undead figure with a cursed gun. The gun did feel a bit like Tolkein's ring--compelling users to keep it and shoot it--but it works well in a western setting.Portland itself is a great setting. I'm not a local, but I'm familiar enough with the city to recognize a lot of genuine history was utilized for the novel. It made the place feel like a character as well, which is something I really enjoyed.In all, it's a good book. Not extraordinary, but a solid read. I might read onward in the series, depending on where they go and what characters are involved.

[cissa_5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

An Occult WesternNecromancy! Magical guns! Zombies (of course; ALL books these days must have zombies)! Voodoo (sort of)! Supernatural talents! Mystical Native American totems! And just a hint of steampunk, what with the "firestone".All this within a novel that seems to also be based fairly solidly in the early years of Portland, OR, so it's maybe alternative history.I found it a really compelling read. The supernatural elements were not cliched; they were interesting and original, and drove the plot well. The plot was well-crafted and kept up the pace, accelerating to a pretty satisfying climax. Definitely a page turner!And- at some points it's REALLY creepy, which is fun.The writing quality was a bit rough, I thought, though it worked fine. The copy-editing could have used some work to change wrong homonyms to the correct ones; "plaintiff" and "plaintive" are very different from each other, for example, and there were several instances of these that were disconcerting to me and pulled me out of the story. The characterization was cursory; even after spending time in various character's POV, I didn't feel like I knew them at all, or had any inkling of how they'd react in the next situation; but that's not necessarily a serious flaw in a noivel that is mainly plot-driven, like this one is.I will warn that several threads don't get resolved; it looks like it's the start of a series, or at least a trilogy. Still, the climax and ending are pretty satisfying, and it doesn't end on a cliff-hanger- just with a hook.I look forward to the next volume in this trilogy/series- whichever it ends up being- but this is also a good, exciting read all on its own.Note: I got an ARC of this via LibraryThing.