The Red Avengers

E. W. Farnsworth's westerns continue the unique vision of his earlier stories, only with expanded scope and characters.  Forgotten historical tales are resurrected here. often with the assistance of memory figures who put their own spin on what they relate.  The frontier Arizona Territory, with its shifting population and lawlessness, contains the remnants of the failed Confederate succession's leadership in "The Thirteen Apostles" while "The Black Bear of Payson" tells of a gritty frontier woman's heroism against tribulations fighting the largest black bear ever.  "Metamorphoses" suggests the mythic transmogrification of individuals as they are absorbed into the western landscape.  Fanciful adaptations of current nineteenth-century events form stories like, "Arizona Exposition of 1855" and "The Bloodless Dodge City War," and fictional battles in critical passes are central to "Pass to Lemmon Mountain" and "Fighting Through Apache Pass" wherein Farnsworth recounts the bloody difficulties of the so-called Indian Wars.  Farnsworth tells ghost stories of the old west in "Ghost Rider" and "Ghost of the Vulture Mine," also known as "The Varmint Man."  Myths are blended into "The Woman Who Became a Triceratops" and "Fastest Gun in the Games," both of which play subtle games with history.  Throughout this eminently readable collection, Farnsworth's wit and allusiveness sport with intelligent readers' minds inviting their participation in his recreations of cowhand reality.