Section 1: Urban Fantasy Books Similar to The Six-gun Tarot
In The Six-gun Tarot, many subplots are going on that help further establish key characters. Comparatively, Ordinary Monsters has fewer subplots, although the direction of the main plot twists and turns a few times. Both stories certainly keep you curious about character motives and alliances, which adds to the ongoing tension. If character-driven stories are your jam, these two will get you excited.
Section 2: Most Powerful Themes Represented in The Six-gun Tarot
A derogatory phrase gets thrown around throughout the narrative: "Going native."
During the era, this phrase reflected the disdain Caucasians felt for other Caucasians who became “too friendly” with Native Americans. It could also be the perspective of East Coast city dwellers looking down at people who had been on the wild frontier for too long.
As you read the story, you definitely feel this racial and socioeconomic prejudice, but then you start to notice that some characters and character groups use "going native" a little differently. After all, this is an urban fantasy, and “going native” could imply supernatural beings acting too much like or sympathizing too much with ordinary mortals.
***Spoiler Alert***
Two supernatural beings in the story receive this level of racism: Malachi and Mutt. Malachi is an angel God cast down to earth as punishment. Malachi must observe the world and its inhabitants for eternity. Mutt’s mother was a Native American, but his father was Coyote, the trickster deity, making Mutt half-human and half-shifter.
As other angels visit Malachi, they see his connection to humanity and cannot relate to it because of their disconnection with mortals. Angels live in the heavens and do not witness time the same, so they see humans as things made from dust that will return to dust. Malachi doesn't have that perspective and instead becomes invested in what the humans do.
Mutt has always lived an odd life. His tribe disowned him and his mother because of her choice to make a child with Coyote. Few white men trust Mutt because they see him as either a Native American or as a "halfbreed." After being abandoned by so many groups, it is no surprise that Mutt chooses his allies carefully and commits to them completely.
Angels and shifters confront Malachi and Mutt, and each group accuses Malachi and Mutt of being too sympathetic to humans and forgetting who they are as supernatural beings. They're "going native" by thinking humans are their equals.
The angels and shifters judge Malachi and Mutt for not conforming to their “true purpose.” As they see it, angels and shifters are above humans and thus should show them no love or sympathy. This prejudice combined with the “going native” dialogue, adds so much drama to the storylines of these two characters.
As you watch Malachi and Mutt run through their plotlines, it’s fascinating to see how each finally realizes that they are in control of their destiny and do possess free will. For Malachi, this goes against dogma and pushes the question of whether humanity is something you’re born with or discover. If it is something you discover in yourself, does free will come with it? For Mutt, he is both human and deity, but only when he accepts both sides of himself can he give himself access to the free will that has always been there.
Section 3: What I Did Not Like About The Six-gun Tarot
To be fair, Belcher created an enormous cast of characters. His method of handling simultaneous action and character development does help the pacing, as he uses individual chapters to section off each character/character group’s progress. He also does a pretty good job at using time markers of events or other situations that help keep track of the action.
Sadly, Belcher’s dialogue often bogs down the pacing.
As different characters or groups converged, there were long discussions explaining key story elements. These lengthy conversations that sometimes took place between adversaries felt way too close to monologuing. Several other conversations seemed to be spoon-feeding the plot as if you hadn’t followed along the entire time.
True, this book hosts a large cast with many simultaneous subplots. Clarifying everyone’s objective and perspective of each other makes sense when done well. But it wasn’t always well done in this book. If anything, the author neglected to set up the proper clues throughout the story, leading to these out-of-place long conversations to explain and cover up any plot holes. In my opinion, these long conversations dragged down the scenes and took me out of the narrative action.
Section 4: Who Will Love and Hate The Six-gun TaroT
Those who prefer more active feats of magic, smaller casts, fewer archetypal characters, and a more in-depth range of female characters may not enjoy reading this book.
Section 5: L. Rigdon’s Star Rating of The Six-gun Tarot
I applaud the author’s ability to include such a diverse cast of human and supernatural entities. The fact that each main character had such tragic and unique backstories is also fabulous and proof of Belcher’s talent. All the different historical elements created a fantastic backdrop for the magic and mayhem of this tale.
That said, some issues failed to impress me.
Too many Westerns over-focus on the purely male experience. There were plenty of women in the West historically, and to deny that further pushes the toxic masculinity of the cowboy or the loan gunmen. Yes, the story did have female characters, but out of the 20+/- main characters, 14 were men. Of the main female characters, only one, Maude Stapleton, has any depth to her character, and that’s only because she’s not entirely human. She’s a witch in hiding.
Another issue that bothered me was the inclusion of tarot without really doing it justice. Each chapter has a tarot card name, but those chapters don’t resonate with the meaning behind those cards. Similarly, the only time you see tarot cards used is when Malachi (an angel in disguise) is dealing himself tarot cards. Hightower, the sheriff, mocks him for playing "gypsy" again. As a reader, you don't get to know the cards dealt, which is odd. You only know whether the cards dealt are good or bad based on Malachi's reaction, and even that is convoluted. I just expected the narrative to intermingle the mysticism and secret knowledge associated with tarot, and that simply didn’t happen.