High Noon on Proxima B (Baen, February 7, 2023). Cover by Dominic Harman

Nobody out there is doing anthologies like David Boop.

He started in 2017 with the Weird Western Straight Outta Tombstone (2017), which proved popular enough that he followed up with two more, Straight Outta Deadwood (2019) and Straight Outta Dodge City (2020). Last year he packed up his six-shooters and headed into outer space with Gunfight on Europa Station, the first…. uh… Weird Science Fiction Western anthology? I dunno, but I like it.

It’s a new year, and I’m delighted to see a new Boop anthology headed our way. High Noon on Proxima B contains brand new stories by Walter Jon Williams, Susan R. Matthews, Brenda Cooper, Milton Davis, and many others. It arrives in trade paperback from Baen next week.

[Click the images to enlarge, pardner.]

Straight Outta Tombstone, Straight Outta Deadwood, Straight Outta Dodge City,
and Gunfight on Europa Station (Baen, 2017-2022). Covers by Dominic Harman

Here’s the rousing copy for High Noon on Proxima B.

It’s always high noon on Proxima Centauri b. Original stories about the final frontier.

YOU TELL ’EM THE SPACE COWPOKES A’COMIN’ AND HELL IS COMIN’ WITH ’EM!

Adventure! Danger! Revenge! And a mail-order robot gunslinger in a wedding dress? Only in the wildest parts of space could this happen. It’s time again to get in your ramshackle rocket ship and journey to the universe’s western territories with this follow-up to Gunfight on Europa Station.

Meet the employees of a space bordello as they’re drawn together to pull a con on a con. Or the crew filming a Western on a colony ship only to fight gravity and each other. Or a soldier on a backwater planet hiding from her past when it—and the military—finally tracks her down. Each voyage invokes the type of Western yarns you’ve loved before, but with a science fiction upgrade you’ll get to enjoy anew.

Taking you on this ride are another set of astounding space opera authors such as Walter Jon Williams (Hardwired), Susan R. Matthews (Under Jurisdiction), Dayton Ward and Kevin Dilmore (Star Trek), Brenda Cooper (Project Earth), Milton Davis (Changa’s Safari), John E. Stith (Naught for Hire), and Peter J. Wacks (Caller of Lightning).

Ten tales of the West… not as it was, but as it might be!

And here’s the complete Table of Contents.

Introduction by David Boop
“Justice and Prosperity” by Milton J. Davis
“Five Mules for Madam Calypso” by Thea Hutcheson
“Past Sins” by Dayton Ward & Kevin Dilmore
“The Last Round” by Susan Matthews
“High Noon on Proxima Centauri B” by Cliff Winnig
“Black Box” by Peter J. Wacks
“The Planet and the Pig” by Brenda Cooper
“Harley Takes a Wife “by Ken Scholes
“Warlock Rules “by Hank Schwaeble
“West. World.” by Walter Jon Williams
Biographies

Our previous coverage of this series includes:

Straight Outta Tombstone (2017)
Straight Outta Deadwood (2019)
Straight Outta Dodge City (2020)
Gunfight on Europa Station (2022)

High Noon on Proxima B will be published by Baen Books on January 25, 2022. It is 272 pages, priced at $16 in trade paperback and $8.899 in digital formats. The cover is by by Dominic Harman. Enjoy a generous sample (including the intro and first story, by Milton Davis) at the Baen website.

See all our coverage of the best upcoming SF and fantasy here.