The Six-Gun Tarot [Dramatized Adaptation]

Written by R. S. Belcher

Narrated by A Full Cast, Terence Aselford, David Jourdan and 43 more

Nevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker's wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone's business, may know more about the town's true origins than he's letting on.

A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn…and so will all of Creation.

R.S. Belcher's The Six-Gun Tarot is "an astonishing blend of first-rate steampunk fantasy and Western adventure." (Library Journal, Starred Review)

• Language: English
• Publisher: GraphicAudio
• Release date: Jun 4, 2020
• ISBN: 9781648813283

R. S. Belcher

R.S. BELCHER won the Grand Prize in the Strange New Worlds SF-writing contest. He runs Cosmic Castle, a comic book shop in Roanoke, Virginia, and is the author of The Six-Gun Tarot.

Reviews for The Six-Gun Tarot [Dramatized Adaptation]

[kateprice88 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have this bad habit of starting a series right in the middle. Sometimes it’s an accident. I don’t bother looking at the small line under the title that says ‘Book 45 of Awesome Series You Need to Read’. Other times it’s deliberate because, for whatever reason, the library just doesn’t have books one and two.I was actually more intrigued by The Shotgun Arcana by R. S. Belcher than I was by the synopsis of The Six Gun Tarot . But I was good this time and started at the very beginning of the Golgotha series instead of with book two like I normally would.And I am very happy I did.The Six Gun Tarot is the debut novel of R. S. Belcher, and it is one hell of a wild ride through the Weird West. The book is gritty, filled with myth, cults, fantasy, horror, and characters that stick with you long after the last page. If you want to know what Weird Westerns are, this is a prime example and a great place to delve into the genre for the first time.The plot is centered around Golgotha, a small town in the Midwest during the late 1800s. It was a mining town once, but now the silver’s mostly been dug out and gone, a fact the new owners of the mine seem to be ignoring. The only thing that prevents the town from emptying out and turning into one of the many ghost towns peppering the west is its location. They sit on the very edge of the 40-Mile, a long stretch of inhospitable desert that’s claimed many a man, with Golgotha being the last stop for water and food. Golgotha’s a strange place, though, attracting the lost, the forsaken, and the not quite human. So when Jim Negry shows up just outside of town, half dead, with a mysterious jade eye in his pocket carved with symbols he can’t read, everyone knows he’s just found home. But there are other things in Golgotha, too. Things that should never have woken. Things that threaten not only the town, but the universe itself.There is a lot held within these 361 pages. The story is told in the third person, the viewpoint switching to many, if not most, of the towns inhabitants at one point or another. If you don’t like omniscient or semi-omniscient point of view, be warned.The cast is a very varied, rather all-inclusive one. Jim is a boy on the run, having committed a crime back home in West Virginia. Mutt, the deputy, is half-human. The sheriff himself is a man who can’t die; he has the scars to prove it, too. The mayor, one of the most prominent citizens in town and a respected elder of the Mormon community, is very much in love with Ringo, the man who plays the piano down at one of the bars. Maude is part of the Cult of Lilith, a long line of women who were pirates and warriors, now settled down with a banker and a daughter of her own. And that’s only the beginning.While I honestly loved all of the characters, there were times where it felt as if there were too many competing points of view. Some of the characters never quite crossed paths, their stories never really overlapping in any significant way and had little to do with the majority of the real plot. There were times where I wished the plot would go back to other things – the main plot of the town being consumed by an evil darkness and the thing hidden away in the old silver mine, and what happened to make Jim run from home. Still, the tales involving characters like Gillian and Auggie, were wonderful. They added depth to the town, made it fuller, more alive, and showed what sort of a place Golgotha really is and the sort of people who stumble their way there and call it home.Though the plot is interesting and exciting, The Six-Gun Tarot can feel very slow. We are bombarded with flashbacks quite often. For the most part, they do a wonderful job of providing the insight and knowledge we need. Every character is interesting, and every background fleshed out, or at least fleshed out enough to make their actions feel real and believable. However, flashbacks are plentiful, and sometimes go one for pages and pages at a time. I found myself snapped out of the action rather abruptly several times. Most distracting was the flashback in the middle of the story’s climax. Being taken out of the action and then dropped back into the middle of it so abruptly was jarring to the extreme.Despite this, every scene is very deliberate. The actions of characters, their small movements as they speak add great depth to these scenes. The book is written in a very captivating manner. I wanted to linger on the page, really soak it in, before moving on. The places where characters who, though living in the same small town, never seem to meet are usually very, very good. So much so that I am very willing to forgive most of the issues I had with pacing. The scene between Jim and Ringo isn't very long and its the only time they meet in the book. Neither really knows the other to any extent, but Ringo is willing to listen and give advice even as the whole world is falling apart. We learn a lot about both characters in a short amount of time.Do be warned that this book is dark. Things start out a bit raw and gritty. The setting and characters are all about what you’d expect at the beginning of the story. As the tale progresses the stakes rise to the point where the universe as we know it is in danger. At the same time the story grows exponentially darker both literally (as Golgotha is shrouded in starless, perpetual night) and in a more metaphorical sense. There is a very real sense of horror here, and I think fans of that genre would find a lot to like in this book.The Six-Gun Tarot is an incredible first novel that has me clamoring for more. Despite any issues I had with it, I found myself really enjoying the book, fully invested in the characters, and surprised at every turn. I already have the second book in the series, The Shotgun Arcana, sitting on my shelf, and definitely plan on reading it. If you like Weird Westerns or dark fantasy this is a book you need to read. If you don’t like slower pacing or dark, sometimes graphic imagery, this one may not be for you.

[hadden_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is an odd but entertaining book. Overwhelming in scope, it encompasses many characters in a small town in Nevada called "Golgotha", which is a whirlpool of occult activity, including displaced angels, Native American, Christian, Mormon, and voodoo style magic. This one is hard to keep track of the many characters and backstories, and the events playing out in the novel can be bewildering. However, this is the first book of a promised series, and it looks like it will be a good one.Each chapter opens with a name of a Tarot card, and this card indicates the action of the chapter. For example, the Five of Cups, usually associated with loss and bereavement, recounts the journey of an Indian to the homesite where he and his mother lived before his death, and a visit to a tribal village that had kicked him and his mother away 20 years before. He also meets his father at a campfire, Old Man Coyote, who recounts the origin of the world. An odd chapter, but one of loss and bereavement, and sadness. Other chapters have other cards, but rather than point the way of the action to the present, deal mostly with the past or the present only.Technology has a way of being useful in this book in a steampunk sort of way. Dated to 1869, science and technology seem to wander the gambit of all the 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as understanding of chemicals, mining and "six shooter" hardware. The occult sciences wander in and out and weave themselves into the story, from a decapitated head in a large jar filled with small wheels and gears, that wakes up and converses with her husband and friends, to a magic jade glass eye from China that allows people to speak to the recently dead.The author requires the reader to balance on a teeter-board as the action and point of view of the characters constantly change and evolve. This demands that the reader become part of the story because the ending is never in view and the plot is never really defined. To those readers who like to passively read books with little effort, simply following the words and sentences without engagement, this is not the book for you. This book is more like a pinball game, where when the reader strikes the ball with a flapper, they are never really sure where the character or action will end after bouncing around. In short, this book is more intellectually fun, even if much of the book is about depressing people who have depressing things happen to them. That is why I gave Six Gun Tarot five stars.

[black2lilly · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The story by itself is nothing new, yet it is an amusant read which entertained me from the first to the last page.Good characters and good writing style.

[bgknighton · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Golgotha is an old western town with a paranormal twist. The land, the cemetery, the people all have back stories. They will all have to come together to stop the end of the world. Love the characters and back stories.

[jammies_4 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It never occurred to me that you could make some really interesting fiction from Mormon mythology!

[ragwaine · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This was strange. I think the idea was pretty cool but the writing seemed sloppy/rushed at times and the execution didn't always work for me. Some of the "side plots" seemed to be a bit extraneous and I thought the ending was pretty lame.I think I would have enjoyed it if it would have been darker. It had the potential and there were definitely some dark ideas but instead turned into a kind fun disneyesque romp. So if you're into really dark, serious fantasy like I am I probably wouldn't recommend it but if you want a fun summer blockbuster give it a try. It's definitely not boring or trite.

[slothman_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This novel feels like it was distilled from an epic campaign from a role-playing game where the game master let the players come up with the mythological backgrounds for their characters and then had to weave a world around them. It’s clearly stitched together, and the seams show in places, but it’s done with great creativity that makes it well worth the read. Some of the exposition is a little lumpy, and the bang from the various Chekhov guns isn’t always as spectacular as the buildup demands, but I expect Belcher’s craft will improve with more novels.The only appearance of the tarot is in the chapter headings; if you’re explicitly looking for the tarot as a plot element, try Tim Powers’ Last Call.

[staticblaq-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Probably more a 3.5 rating for me.

This book is quite dense in the sense that it follows a number of characters and smashes a number of genres. There's gritty spirit-touched Western; a dash of Frankenstein; zombie apocalypse; battling angels and some kind of superhero ninja woman. How effective this story is will ultimately come down to how well the genre mash sits with you.

[lavaturtle · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

There is a LOT going on in this book. It takes a while to really come together, but by the end it's a compelling story. Maude Stapleton is my favorite character, and I wish there was more of her story here. The mishmash of a bunch of weird supernatural things mostly works, although the Lovecraftian cult is a bit gruesome for my taste.My biggest reservation about recommending this book is the bizzare treatment of the Chinese community. They're constantly mentioned (using archaic, now-racist terminology), but never quite treated as actual people, and have little interaction with any of the plot. I wish the writer had either included a Chinese viewpoint character, or skipped the orientalism entirely.

[renbedell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book. It starts off weird but gets incredibly interesting and you get sucked into this world R. S. Belcher made. All the characters are diverse and play an important part in the story. You are kept hooked on what every character is doing, and not just centered on one. The story is exciting and really does feel like a Buffy episode (in a good way). I am looking forward to the next one.

[bookishtexpat · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this book and can't wait to read the next one! I love the characters and the backdrop of Golgotha, and R.S. Belcher's storytelling is fantastic. I didn't love the angel plot line (it was just a little too disconnected for me in the larger scheme of things) and the switch between first names, last names, first names all within one section got really confusing at times. Overall, however, I was sucked in and look forward to reading more from R.S. Belcher!

[katyas_26 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Book Info: Genre: Weird WesternReading Level: Adult (although one of the main characters, Jim, is 15 and his coming-of-age is part of the story, I still think it's more of an adult story)Recommended for: Fans of Lovecraftian literature, Weird Westerns, urban FantasyTrigger Warnings: murder, domestic violence against wife and daughter, slavery (during the part set prior to the civil war)Animals Injured: Horse injures leg badly, had to push on through desert with no water for days (she's okay); two coyotes killed after they attackMy Thoughts: While at DragonCon 2013, I spent a good bit of time in the dealers' rooms looking at books and talking to authors. One of the books I noticed was The Six-Gun Tarot, a steampunk-influenced Weird Western with strong Lovecraftian ties. As it turned out, the author—R.S. Belcher—was there at the time and took a few moments to talk to me about the book. While I didn't buy a copy right then (as I've been spending profligately enough and my bag was full to bursting), I did note it and put it onto my wishlist as soon as I came home that night. Finally I picked it up this winter with some of the many gift certificates various friends sent me to help cheer me up after my cancer diagnosis.Some of the imagery in this is pretty amazing (especially the Lovecraftian bits), like this rant from a madman:“You don't know what they do up there on that mountain, do you, Sheriff? It's tossing and turning. It eats the heart of the world, like a worm burrowing an apple! Maybe the preacher's right and my faith is just shivering, weak—is it wrong for me to try to keep them from hollowing me out from inside? I should just blow all of you stupid bastards back to Kingdom Come, while it's still there! Before they burn down Heaven and feast on the corpse. Maybe we should all die now, better that way!”Then we have Gran Bonny, whose ideas are blasphemous and often extremely funny, like this one:“Guns are like men—only useful for a little while. They can go off at a moment's notice when you don't want them to and they make a lot of damn fool noise doing it.”The blasphemous part comes here:“The tyrant-father of Heaven, the one who created, hated and drove out the first woman, yoked men with a horrible curse, far worse than any imagined to have been handed down to Eve. Men were told they were masters of this world, of their mates, of the beasts and fish, of the land and sea and sky. How ridiculous! That's like telling a little boy he's in charge of the house when his da is gone. It's silly!"And like that little boy, men have tried to live up to the unreasonable demands of their mute, wayward, celestial father. They have enslaved and dominated, conquered and killed, all in the name of shepherding, of protecting, of ruling the world. They spend their lives trying to do what they think is right, what their father on high would want of them. The bastard.”I really like the use of Lilith in the history of this world, and the idea of the Load. I wish we had spent more time with Gran Bonny, heard more of her stories. That would actually be a pretty cool spin-off series—give us Gran Bonny's life story! But I digress...As I said, I really liked how Lilith is presented in this book, and the handing down of Her secret purpose (the Load) over the generations as protectors of the Earth and the Mother. “I am the Mother's blade, the Mother's wrath... You have poisoned her, raped her and her children. Left her to die. Now you will suffer, you will die.” Really hardcore stuff, you know?This is set in Nevada shortly after the Civil War. There is (of course) a lot of strife with the Native American peoples, and the Mormon/Latter Day Saints were a fairly new religion. Most of the more wealthy people who live in Golgotha in the book are Mormons, and I was startled by how much and how often most of the ones we spend any time with in the story drank. The only character who paid any respect to the rules was Sarah, who offered Harry coffee, even though it was a sin. My understanding is that Mormons are not supposed to drink alcohol or caffeine, or smoke, or otherwise pollute their bodies with drugs of any kind. That doesn't necessarily mean that is what happens, of course, but a lot of the drinking was being done by fairly high-ranking and prominent individuals and it surprised me that they didn't at least try to hide it. While this is the first book in the series, events from the past are frequently referred to (and I hope someday the author will write some of these prequels). It is also obvious that people who live in Golgotha are aware of the weirdness and danger in the area, especially the sheriff. Check out his armory:“He [Jon] cleaned and oiled the collection of rifles, scatterguns and pistols that were caged in iron bars behind his desk. He also made sure the other objects locked in the gun cage—wooden stakes, silver bullets, various Indian and Chinese charms and amulets, a crucifix and several vials of holy water, blessed by the Holy Father himself all the way from Rome—were all in equally good condition.As you can see, Jon is ready for just about anything the town can throw at him, and I for one would love to know some of the stories of how and why. For those readers who are familiar with the tarot, each chapter heading is a card's name, and either refers to a person or event in that chapter. I think it would be cool if a tarot deck was created to match this universe. As it is, those familiar with the cards and their meanings can have some fun by working out how the specific card applies to any given chapter.Fans of Lovecraftian stories, Weird Westerns, and urban fantasies should enjoy this book. I really enjoyed reading it; it held me engrossed right to the end, and I highly recommend it to anyone who might be interested.Series Information: Golgotha SeriesBook 1: The Six-Gun TarotBook 2: The Shotgun Arcana, expected publication October 7, 2014 by TorDisclosure: I bought this book for myself after seeing it and talking to the author about it at DragonCon last fall. All opinions are my own.Synopsis: Buffy meets Deadwood in a dark, wildly imaginative historical fantasyNevada, 1869: Beyond the pitiless 40-Mile Desert lies Golgotha, a cattle town that hides more than its share of unnatural secrets. The sheriff bears the mark of the noose around his neck; some say he is a dead man whose time has not yet come. His half-human deputy is kin to coyotes. The mayor guards a hoard of mythical treasures. A banker’s wife belongs to a secret order of assassins. And a shady saloon owner, whose fingers are in everyone’s business, may know more about the town’s true origins than he’s letting on.A haven for the blessed and the damned, Golgotha has known many strange events, but nothing like the primordial darkness stirring in the abandoned silver mine overlooking the town. Bleeding midnight, an ancient evil is spilling into the world, and unless the sheriff and his posse can saddle up in time, Golgotha will have seen its last dawn… and so will all of Creation.

[montzaleew · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Six-Gun TarotGolgotha, Book 1By: R. S. BelcherNarrated by: Fleet CooperThis is one amazing and creepy paranormal western book! There is a town in the desert that attracts the odd, the magical, the otherworldly, and often they don't know they are being attracted to the town. Every one here in the town of Golgotha has secrets, everone.... And when someone tries to open the old silver mine, certain secrets cause a chain reaction. Lots of creepy but great stuff! Terrific imagination! I can't wait to get enough money to but book two!The narrator was super awesome! He has a slightly western sounding gruff voice, and had the voices perfect! (Of course he made the ladies sound like ladies! He was quite talented!) Great with emotions and accents. A must read/listen for fantasy lovers.

[ellejennison · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My first thought was that the book was a little bit busy. There were too many main characters, too many religions/mythologies, and too much action all at once towards the end. But then when I really thought about it, I felt that somehow it all seems to balance out. Each person involved represents one of the ideologies. Each area of town also seems to have its own belief system. And as for the fight scenes, fights do happen all at once and not so much in a linear fashion. As such, I thought that R.S. Belcher handled the fight scenes well after reflection.You meet the main characters at a slow enough pace and with enough background to make them memorable and well developed. Some are so memorable, like Maude, that I would love to see more of them in future books. And some of them there is so little, that I would like to learn more about them in future books, such as Deputy Mutt and Sheriff Jon Highfather.When trouble begins, Maude's neighbor asks her when Maude returns home muddied from an incident in town, "Is it regular trouble or Golgotha trouble?" The townspeople have experience with this sort of weirdness, so it's not surprising when they work together to battle the evil that is threatening to end all existence. I do wonder if H.P. Lovecraft is one of the authors that influenced R.S. Belcher. The monster itself is reminiscent of Lovecraftian horrors. The book is aptly called a "weird western" by Mike Resnick. I think it's weird in a good way - part western, part steampunk, part coming of age story, part horror. The characters are interesting and well written. The world is built well and will stand up to repeat visits. I hope that R.S. Belcher visits Golgotha again.

[Harrison Tescher · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Fun and thrilling. A good example of a multi arc book

[kgodey_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The Six-Gun Tarot is a pretty mind-blowing book. It incorporates a million different ideas and tropes (for instance, the Christian creation myth, Native American myth, Chinese myth, horror, ghosts, angels, an order of assassins, the American Civil War, early Mormonism, the plight of women and gay people in the 1800s, romances), all within a small Nevada town (with all the trappings of a proper Western). It chronicles the inception and rise of ancient evil and the forces arrayed against it. It also introduces a ragtag band of heroes, each with their own complex backstories - even minor characters are three dimensional. And it does all this in under 400 pages, and it works!Golgotha is a town in the middle of the Nevada desert, next to an abandoned silver mine. Somehow, Jim Negrey, a fifteen year old boy who's running from his past with his father's fake eye in his pocket, ends up here. He soon discovers that Golgotha is no ordinary town - things that are normal in Golgotha would be exceptionally strange anywhere else. And then there are the people - the seemingly immortal sheriff Jon Highfather, his half-Indian, half-coyote deputy Mutt, the banker's wife Maude, who seems like a proper lady, but isn't, the upstanding Mormon mayor who has more than his fair share of secrets, the local inventor Clay, who has a strange obsession with death... the list goes on.The depth of the characters is astounding. Belcher can flesh out a character and make you sympathise with them in just a few sentences - I'm not sure how he does it. He also manages to write both good women and good gay characters. Each person has their own secrets, their own motivations and dreams and internal conflicts, and their own growth and character arc and it all flows completely naturally. It's not just individuals, either - the interactions between the people of Golgotha show genuine chemistry, especially the romances. I especially loved the relationships between Harry Pratt and his wife Holly, Maude and Mutt, and the sheriff Highfather and the notorious salon owner Bick (it reminded me a lot of the amazing chemistry between Sheriff Bullock and Al Swearengen on the HBO show Deadwood.)The story takes place via many different viewpoints, but also alternates between time periods. One would think that this would be very confusing, but it works very well. As the threat in Golgotha unfolds, we learn more about how the threat came to exist. I really enjoyed the in-universe creation mythos, especially the portrayal of the Christian God. However, the "everything is true" mindset did get a little frustrating at times, since I didn't really know what the "rules" were, and stories where absolutely anything is possible grate on me a little.The Six-Gun Tarot definitely has some problems - some very cheesy rituals of the Dark Side, a few too many characters, so even with Belcher's magic character depth powers, some still come off as bland. The magic system was confusing to me - I would have liked some explanation there. However, my biggest problem was that I can't imagine where the story goes from here. The mythos established here is so vast and complex - I would love to see more novels set in Golgotha, but this book tackled such a huge story that anything that comes after it runs a huge risk of being insignificant (or making the events of this book seem unimportant). Some Golgotha short stories would be awesome, though.All in all, a great genre-bending book! Read it!---If you enjoyed this review, I have more at Just a World Away

[longdogmom · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

So much happens in this book and it's so different and creative, I couldn't put it down! Well written with fascinating characters like a sheriff that can't seem to be killed, and a deputy that is part human and part coyote, the Six-Gun Tarot is not your average fantasy-western-horror. I love the atmosphere Belcher's writing creates, and the unspoken and mysterious hints of things still to be revealed. Highly recommended!

[roses7184_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Six-Gun Tarot Something sinister is headed to the town of Golgotha, and every inhabitant can feel it. From the very first page, The Six Gun Tarot has an ominous aura about it. Add to this a population that contains everything from assassins to shape shifters, and you have a book with any extremely promising premise.

That being said, I was anxious to see where R.S. Belcher took this idea. The first half of the book was a little slow for me, but I kept in mind that it was building an extremely intricate backstory. Each character, and there are many, has something to contribute to the darkness that is steadily rolling in. The one downside to this is that all the little asides make it difficult to keep with the main story line. The POV often switches, which can be confusing.

I kept reading though and, as I neared the middle of The Six Gun Tarot, things really picked up. I found myself much more immersed during the second half of this story. Golgotha goes from being an odd town with interesting inhabitants, to a town trapped in the middle of a horror story. No spoilers here, but it is absolutely stunning even while being dark. I definitely felt like the slow beginning was worth it to get to this portion of the book.

Days later I still can't seem to classify The Six Gun Tarot. There are elements of mythology and horror, all tied up with historical events. This was a very different kind of read and, while it won't make my favorites shelf, I admire the ambition that R.S. Belcher shows. A vast story, with an equally large cast of characters, it was admittedly an intriguing read. Give this one a shot.

[slavenrm · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Per the usual required preamble, I received this book via a GoodReads giveaway. Despite that kind consideration from GoodReads and the publisher, Tor, I give my frank assessment below.It's been a long, long time since I've read a book that incorporated so many different aspects of so many different genres. Very seldom do you find a novel that includes zombies, angels, demons, heads in jars, ancient religious artifacts, Chinese folklore and gunfights all in one tidy package. "A book that has something for everyone" is an oft-used cliche but this book pretty literally lives up to that. Since there's so MUCH going on, Belcher's novel defies any early unraveling. So many books telegraph their endings by the 100th page but Six-Gun doesn't so suffer. The reader can't make an early call since there's no telling when the genre might totally shift and there's a whole new story line to keep track of.Unfortunately, this variety does tend to work against the author in some ways. With so many individual threads, it was sometimes difficult for one to keep track of who was doing what. The book was entertaining but at times hard to keep up with and I regretted at times that I failed to take some notes about who was who and their history.In summary, Belcher's Six-Gun is a uniquely individual and rich world. Unfortunately, it's almost tiresome in its variety. Once drawn in it was easy to rattle off 100 pages but if you put it away for even a day it can be hard to catch up with all the dangling ends. Best read in one long and delightful sitting.