Frontier Partisans

The Adventurers, Rangers and Scouts Who Fought the Battles of Empire

Into The Timbers Of Fennario With A Frontier Storyteller

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Pulpy goodness news.

Joe Ledger looks to be coming to TV — at long last. I can think of no more suitable a story series for adaptation into a TV series. From Deadline:

Chad Stahelski, director of the John Wick franchise, has acquired rights to bestselling author Jonathan Maberry’s Joe Ledger book series through his 87Eleven Entertainment production company to develop for television.

Published by St. Martin’s Griffin, a Macmillan imprint, the Joe Ledger thriller series consist of 10 novels and various offshoots. Its protagonist, Joe Ledger, is a psychologically fractured Baltimore detective secretly recruited by the government to lead a new task force called the Department of Military Sciences to face off against terrorists using bleeding-edge science weapons. Along with his combat dog Ghost, his team of tier-one special operators, and the resources of the mysterious Mr. Church, Joe faces off against the threats no other team is able to stop.

I really enjoy these over-the-top stories of black ops and weird science — especially in audio, where they are read by Ray Porter, the same guy who voices Jack Carr’s thrillers. Maberry is the editor of Weird Tales Magazine, and he recalls that the first book he bought with his own money as a kid was Conan the Wanderer from the Lancer Books series. So… his pulp sensibilities run deep.

Joe Ledger has all of the elements of the classic frontier gunman/hero. He’s dark and flawed — actually pretty severely damaged — but ultimately a hero and on the side of protecting innocents from the worst a fallen world can bring to bear against them. Not for nothing does he go by “Western” combat call signs — originally Cowboy, and now Outlaw.

The most recent yarn — Cave 13 — is a good ’un:

After years of searching, a new cave filled with Dead Sea Scrolls is found, and among them are bizarre books of actual magic. Terrorist groups and multinational corporations scramble to acquire these treasures in the hopes that magic is the true WMD of the 21st Century. But everyone who goes near those scrolls goes insane. The fabric of reality is shredding. Is this the result of ancient magic, or is it a new bioweapon that fractures the mind of anyone exposed?

Cave 13 pits Joe Ledger against warring factions of ideological terrorism, corporate greed, and massive international crime syndicates in what might well become a new Age of Miracles.

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So you’re beckoning me to venture into the timbers of Fennario where the wolves are runnin’ ’round?
Dig the caper:
In 1922, David Lawrence, a veteran of the Great War in France, and a Deputy Inspector in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police is assigned to a remote outpost in northern Alberta. The quiet posting he had been expecting turns out to be anything but. The small rag-tag unit he commands is actually a top secret sub-agency whose mission is to kill werewolves and prevent them from spreading south to prey on larger settlements and population centers.
Creator Larry Hama says:
“Mounties vs Werewolves is DEADWOOD meets THE HOWLING with a dash of SASKATCHEWAN, and a soupçon of X-FILES,” explains Larry. “It’s gonna be KILLER.”
OK, I’m in.
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The Hanging Tree is turning out to be a most compelling novel. The interweaving of a 1990s paleontological  dig in Kenya with J.H. Patterson’s dark safari into the same region 80 years earlier is quite fascinating, with intimations of a strange connectivity — Continuity & Persistence of a potentially supernatural nature. It’s hard to describe without making it sound contrived, and it’s not.
Doom-laden, erotic, some very fine writing. And a Westley Richards double rifle just made an appearance.
*
So, this happened…
Brent ten Pas, did a nice job on a profile of the keeper of the FP campfire. There’s a bit about newspapering and music, but he really honed in on the frontier history stuff, which pleases me. It’s a little weird being on the other end of the interview equation, but what the hell… it’s nice to get a little recognition, right?
*
Made the most of a fine Indian Summer Saturday — emphasis on “summer.” After an unseasonable spell of chilly weather in mid-August, we hit 96 degrees, and look to be hot for the next couple of weeks.
Got in an early FP Biathlon and gave the CZ 600 .223 a good workout. I’m where I want to be with that rifle now.
Then, off to the river for a cooldown…
And the first turning of the colors…
Some dude came bounding downriver. Now that looks like a blast…

Comments

  1. Chuck says

    The float in the river looks nice. Wife and I are selling our home in Phoenix and are headed to the Boise area by the end of the month. Looking forward to more river & mountain time after the move. Will probably pick up a bolt gun later and get back into hunting. Hopefully we will take a long weekend and explore over toward Bend and Sisters. Thanks for all you do sir!

    Reply

  2. Quixotic Mainer says

    Cool to see you getting recognition! Well deserved I say. Running the 600 and the river is a fitting reward. I just re ran gunfighter challenge with my J frame, I was very happy with the results.

    Mounties versus werewolves reminds me of the live action Dudley Dooright, where he gears up with a Thompson to fend off theoretical vampires lurking in the woods.

    Reply

    • JimC says

      Congrats on the gunfighter run. Rullman and I had a pretty good training session this morning, trying to meet McPhee standards on a stitch-em-up drill. We did, but not consistently.

      Just to be clear, that wasn’t me in the kayak — just some random guy having a blast. I did get IN the river though…

      Reply

  3. Matthew says

    It’s interesting that you call Joe Ledger the frontier gunman since he’s from Boston. (At least I think he was from Boston.) I’m not saying you are wrong though. I think he gets in the same way the Punisher does.

    Reply

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