Never Summer
A Samurai Western, by Tim Blaine
Hollywood Book Festival and New England Book Festival Honorable Mention
A nineteenth-century drifter returns from Japan to learn that his tuberculosis has left him “weeks, months, but not years.” He embarks on a philosophical inquiry of death as he journeys on the historic overland route from New York to the Rocky Mountains. A devilish samurai mask, a cursed revolver, and his ‘romantic disease’ propel him on a Herculean adventure into the Wild West, where he hopes to subdue his fate. But the lessons he learns turn his struggles inside out when he realizes a life without end would become as desolate as a place with no summer.
Read an excerpt of Never Summer in the Pennmen Review
Never Summer
by Tim Blaine
Release date: May 18, 2017
Genre: Coming of Age, Samurai Western, Suspense
Price: $22.95
ISBN: 978-1-941861-35-6
Praise for Never Summer
“Categorized as a Samurai Western, Never Summer is packed with action, suspense, danger and intrigue. The thing that sets this book apart from other Westerns (that, at least, this reviewer is aware of) is the vivd and almost poetic style of the writing. This is a book where we search the soul of the main character, who himself asks a lot of philosophical questions. There are moments where you think you might be reading a parable; one featuring six-shooters, painted ladies and more than one epic showdown…. Never Summer is well-written and well-edited, and kept me interested from beginning to end…. This is a book that takes an (albeit unknowing) student of The Book of Five Rings and sets them on the Oregon Trail, and that alone should make this worth a look. Fans of westerns and samurai literature will be most at-home here, but this book will likely appeal to an even wider audience. 5 stars.”
“In the mid-19th century, the itinerant Vlad D’Agostino arrives in New York City after a long stay in Japan, bringing with him a samurai mask and a terminal case of tuberculosis. In Manhattan, he learns of an innovative doctor who claims to have found a treatment for the disease using ‘alpine air,’ but Vlad will have to travel to the physician’s clinic in the Rocky Mountains, in a place known as Never Summer…. On his quest to save himself and prolong his life, he inadvertently makes discoveries about his traumatic past—and about how to live more fully in the present…. Vlad is a thoughtful hero, and Blaine seems just as interested in evoking Herman Melville’s work as he is Zane Grey’s. Adventure fans of all stripes will find something compelling in the tragic, mysterious protagonist. An original, philosophically minded Western adventure.”
“Never Summer... not only blends a Japanese theme with the story of a wanderer through the wild West, but it is replete with evocative metaphors and images not usually seen in Western writings…. the refreshing, sparkling prose simply shines; as does the life of Vlad, who is anything but your typical Western wanderer. The result is a compelling literary piece about a nineteenth-century drifter who returns from Japan to traverse a landscape as foreign to him as the concept of his own impending demise. Readers who appreciate genre-busting, thought-provoking reads – especially those familiar with and holding an affinity for Western settings – will relish the tone and characters of Never Summer.”
—Midwest Book Review
“Never Summer is a samurai western (how cool is that?!)”
—Am Reading
About the author
An alumnus of Drury University in Springfield, MO, Tim Blaine is a member of the Springfield Writers Guild. Never Summer is his debut novel. Check out Tim’s web site!