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The First Shot
Out for blood…
The Circle Bar used to be a thriving business for the Willard family.
Six years on and Rex Willard’s brother is missing, his father has become a useless drunk and the ranch is all but finished.
Ruthless cattle barons are circling, desperate for their part of the failing ranch.
To make matters worse, Daren, the deadly foreman of the Flying W Ranch, is out for his blood.
With enemies at every turn, can Rex hold on to his inheritance and what’s left of his family?
Whatever the outcome, death will claim its victim.
But who will take The First Shot ?
'A thrilling read.' - Robert Foster , acclaimed author of The Lunar Code .
Edwin Charles Tubb was a British writer of western novels, science fiction and fantasy. The author of over 140 novels and 230 short stores and novellas, Tubb used 58 different pen names over five decades. He passed away in 2010, but his legacy lives on.
The Circle Bar used to be a thriving business for the Willard family.
Six years on and Rex Willard’s brother is missing, his father has become a useless drunk and the ranch is all but finished.
Ruthless cattle barons are circling, desperate for their part of the failing ranch.
To make matters worse, Daren, the deadly foreman of the Flying W Ranch, is out for his blood.
With enemies at every turn, can Rex hold on to his inheritance and what’s left of his family?
Whatever the outcome, death will claim its victim.
But who will take The First Shot ?
'A thrilling read.' - Robert Foster , acclaimed author of The Lunar Code .
Edwin Charles Tubb was a British writer of western novels, science fiction and fantasy. The author of over 140 novels and 230 short stores and novellas, Tubb used 58 different pen names over five decades. He passed away in 2010, but his legacy lives on.
- GenresWesterns
210 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1957
About the author
E.C. Tubb
383 books85 followersEdwin Charles Tubb was a writer of science fiction, fantasy and western novels. He published over 140 novels and 230 short stories and novellas, and is best known for The Dumarest Saga (US collective title: Dumarest of Terra) an epic science-fiction saga set in the far future.
Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.
An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.
Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.
His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.
In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.
Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.
Much of Tubb's work has been written under pseudonyms including Gregory Kern, Carl Maddox, Alan Guthrie, Eric Storm and George Holt. He has used 58 pen names over five decades of writing although some of these were publishers' house names also used by other writers: Volsted Gridban (along with John Russell Fearn), Gill Hunt (with John Brunner and Dennis Hughes), King Lang (with George Hay and John W Jennison), Roy Sheldon (with H. J. Campbell) and Brian Shaw. Tubb's Charles Grey alias was solely his own and acquired a big following in the early 1950s.
An avid reader of pulp science-fiction and fantasy in his youth, Tubb found that he had a particular talent as a writer of stories in that genre when his short story 'No Short Cuts' was published in New Worlds magazine in 1951. He opted for a full-time career as a writer and soon became renowned for the speed and diversity of his output.
Tubb contributed to many of the science fiction magazines of the 1950s including Futuristic Science Stories, Science Fantasy, Nebula and Galaxy Science Fiction. He contributed heavily to Authentic Science Fiction editing the magazine for nearly two years, from February 1956 until it folded in October 1957. During this time, he found it so difficult to find good writers to contribute to the magazine, that he often wrote most of the stories himself under a variety of pseudonyms: one issue of Authentic was written entirely by Tubb, including the letters column.
His main work in the science fiction genre, the Dumarest series, appeared from 1967 to 1985, with two final volumes in 1997 and 2008. His second major series, the Cap Kennedy series, was written from 1973 to 1983.
In recent years Tubb updated many of his 1950s science fiction novels for 21st century readers.
Tubb was one of the co-founders of the British Science Fiction Association.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
March 25, 2020
An ECT. West Texas and New Mexico Western Action Adventure (TFS)
ECT. has penned a West Texas and New Mexico western action adventure, which takes place at the base if the Apache Mountains where the Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers meet. An ex Confederate prisoner of war heads home and is waylaid by another ranchers hired killers and other riders. The man recuperates to find that his brother had abandoned his fathers ranch and his wife. After investigation by a close friend it is determined that his brother had won over $10 thousand in gold and has been murdered. The investigation led to the real culprits. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS
ECT. has penned a West Texas and New Mexico western action adventure, which takes place at the base if the Apache Mountains where the Pecos and Rio Grande Rivers meet. An ex Confederate prisoner of war heads home and is waylaid by another ranchers hired killers and other riders. The man recuperates to find that his brother had abandoned his fathers ranch and his wife. After investigation by a close friend it is determined that his brother had won over $10 thousand in gold and has been murdered. The investigation led to the real culprits. This is an excellent read for the genre.....DEHS
April 2, 2021
This was a great little read. It was more of a novella than a full-scale fictional novel. And, that was a great respite from some of the very lengthy stories that I have been reading lately. I found the characters likable and believable. It would have been tempting to make this into a "shoot 'em up" range war story. Instead, you got more of a character-based story and a plot that was believable.
May 9, 2017
Not a long book but enjoyable all the same. Follows a very traditional western storyline which is much to my liking.
September 6, 2020
Enjoyed the pace of this story.
I read this as a change of pace and enjoyed the storyline. I would read another story by this author.
I read this as a change of pace and enjoyed the storyline. I would read another story by this author.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews