Cowboys & Aliens (Paperback)

~ Fred Van Lente (Author), Andrew Foley (Author), Luciano Lima (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

In the Old West, settlers and Native Americans wage a bloody battle for control of the land. But when the Earth is threatened by conquerors from the stars, these sworn enemies must work together to save all humanity.

Product Details

• Paperback: 112 pages
• Publisher: Image Comics (December 20, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 158240724X
• ISBN-13: 978-1934220016
• Product Dimensions: 10.1 x 6.5 x 0.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 9.9 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #1,326,870 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Cowboys & Aliens, March 11, 2007

By	sleeping sheepsnake "Seth" (Ontario, Canada) - See all my reviews

Howdy. Welcome to Silver City, Arizona--the time is a few minutes to alien invasion, 1873. That's right...alien invasion. And the cavalry won't be coming; the garrison at Fort Larrabie has already been obliterated by a small army of huge, armored, scaly, horned marauding extraterrestrials packin' heat like the Old West has never seen. Commander Dar of the House of Dar has crash-landed on Earth, and never one to let an opportunity slip by, he's decided to turn the crash-landing into a first-strike on a planet ripe for the picking.

What these aliens don't count on is an ad-hoc cavalry of sorts forming to stop them from signaling an entire armada of House Of Dar warships to come sunder and plunder (=Bad. Humans not slaughtered would obviously become slaves to the invaders since they already have slaves of conquered races helping them). The story is all action as a group of cowboys, led by partners in adventure Zeke and Miss Verity, make an uncomfortable alliance with some Apaches, most notably War Hawk and plucky young No-Name. Well, not all action. There's romance too, as Zeke starts to fall for an emerald-skinned viper-eyed female alien named Kai, former slave of mighty Dar who decides to defect to Earth and aid Zeke and co.s hopeless-seeming resistance. And War Hawk soon has a bit of a thing for Verity, verily, and I plum reckon she's of a mind to reciprocate.

The humans pull some really cool tricks to throw off Dar's plans to summon immanent subjugation of all things Terrestrial, including using some of the aliens' advanced technology against them--although that's not a weapon Zeke keeps trying to use, it's actually a repair tool. But hey, whatever works in a clinch. And can you think of a better action scene than angry Apaches attacking over-confident aliens?

But Zeke's clever plan to claim Silver City back from the otherworldly marauders begins to fall apart when a weaselly little scoundrel of a human decides to switch sides to save his own skin, and tip Commander Dar off.

I enjoyed this SF/Western mishmash, though the art veers from eye-catching to flat throughout. The denouement involving cowboys and Apaches talking about future cooperation doesn't exactly remind me of the real world, but other than that this was a bit of a hoot--believable dialogue, likeable heroes, villains you just want to kick off the planet, and some lively action scenes that got me cheering for the guys in the white hats and the feathers.

Very entertaining.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Entertaining - light-weight, but well told, April 17, 2009

By	Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

It's a story told a million times - primitive "savages" facing annihilation at the hands of a more advanced civilization that wants what they have. But, this time it's different, right? While Apaches and settlers fight over who owns a choice bit of land, both sides are shocked when a giant...thing falls out of the sky. The Caste has discovered the Earth, and they are determined to take its resources - natural and human! The only chance humanity has is to stand together, but that's a hard thing to imagine in 1873!

I must say that I found this to be an entertaining book. The illustration work is very good, but the story is somewhat light-weight, the book apparently being too short to give the story the depth it deserves. But, that said, it is an interesting story, well told in such a short space. I also found the illustration work to be very good. So, overall, I must say that I really enjoyed this book and recommend it to you.