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Hong on the Range
In this science fiction satire of westerns, after the American West was destroyed in a series of biological disasters, rebuilding it is a lot like building it in the first place, but there are crucial differences. For example, new, partly mechanical cattle with computer brains are called steerites. They speak and sing a lot more than the original steers.
Most of the cowboys, outlaws, and lawmen are partly mechanical, too, except for those few humans called control-naturals. That group has to keep all their original equipment, just like the original cowboys. Louie Hong is one of those control-naturals, and life isn't easy for him. Most folks look down on a man who doesn't have at least one bionic hand.
Yet Louie Hong is determined to make his way in the new Wild West.
All Hong has to do is explain to the bounty hunters who are after him for robbing a bank, and the outlaw gang that is after him for stealing the loot, that he hadn't done any of it.
With a little bit of luck, and the help of Chuck, his steerite companion, Hong hopes to find a home on the range that nobody can take away—not outlaws, not bounty hunters, not cyborgs, not even singing steerites.
In Hong on the Range, William F. Wu has returned to the high-tech Wild West world of his Hugo and Nebula Award finalist short story, "Hong's Bluff," and written a rousing, funny science fiction saga complete with cyborg cowboys and outlaws. It is an exciting and witty subgenre of science fiction: The cyber western.
This novel was chosen by the American Library Association, Booklist, and the Library Journal for their recommended and best of the year lists.
~ Excerpt ~
First I could only see that something large was displacing the tall buffalo grass ahead. Then I reached the spot and found a steerite lying down with his steel legs neatly folded underneath him. They gleamed silver in the sun and his hinged metal tail swished back and forth, its brush swatting the flies that buzzed around the natural hide of his meaty, biological middle. As I pulled my battered hat off by the brim and squinted at the steerite, he turned his steel bovine head toward me, short horns and all.
"Hi, there," I said.
"Hello," he answered pleasantly. He had been programmed with excellent enunciation and a trace of a Boston accent. "Good day to you. Where are you bound?"
I untied my red bandana and wiped off my forehead with it. "I'm going to Femur to look for a job. Pardon my asking, but ... have you lost your herd? What are you doing here?"
"I am merely waiting. Have I lost my herd? More accurately, my herd has been rustled."
"Rustled?"
"I dutifully escaped. None of my comrades succeeded in this endeavor. Since our trail crew ran off, I have no trail boss to whom I must report. Nor am I honor bound to join the herd after it has been rustled."
I nodded toward the mark stamped onto the shining metal base of his tail, where it extended from his natural hindquarters. "Waiting for what? You still have your serial number."
"Oh, yes. I am fully programmed and ready to report to any authority who can restore me to my legal owner."
"Who's that?"
"I don't know. We get basic programming for herding, pasturing, and speech, but little precise data. Of course, we can accumulate information as we go, but no one ever told me the owner's name or where to locate him."
"I guess the trail crew was supposed to get you there?”
"Indeed they were, those cowardly louts.
Most of the cowboys, outlaws, and lawmen are partly mechanical, too, except for those few humans called control-naturals. That group has to keep all their original equipment, just like the original cowboys. Louie Hong is one of those control-naturals, and life isn't easy for him. Most folks look down on a man who doesn't have at least one bionic hand.
Yet Louie Hong is determined to make his way in the new Wild West.
All Hong has to do is explain to the bounty hunters who are after him for robbing a bank, and the outlaw gang that is after him for stealing the loot, that he hadn't done any of it.
With a little bit of luck, and the help of Chuck, his steerite companion, Hong hopes to find a home on the range that nobody can take away—not outlaws, not bounty hunters, not cyborgs, not even singing steerites.
In Hong on the Range, William F. Wu has returned to the high-tech Wild West world of his Hugo and Nebula Award finalist short story, "Hong's Bluff," and written a rousing, funny science fiction saga complete with cyborg cowboys and outlaws. It is an exciting and witty subgenre of science fiction: The cyber western.
This novel was chosen by the American Library Association, Booklist, and the Library Journal for their recommended and best of the year lists.
~ Excerpt ~
First I could only see that something large was displacing the tall buffalo grass ahead. Then I reached the spot and found a steerite lying down with his steel legs neatly folded underneath him. They gleamed silver in the sun and his hinged metal tail swished back and forth, its brush swatting the flies that buzzed around the natural hide of his meaty, biological middle. As I pulled my battered hat off by the brim and squinted at the steerite, he turned his steel bovine head toward me, short horns and all.
"Hi, there," I said.
"Hello," he answered pleasantly. He had been programmed with excellent enunciation and a trace of a Boston accent. "Good day to you. Where are you bound?"
I untied my red bandana and wiped off my forehead with it. "I'm going to Femur to look for a job. Pardon my asking, but ... have you lost your herd? What are you doing here?"
"I am merely waiting. Have I lost my herd? More accurately, my herd has been rustled."
"Rustled?"
"I dutifully escaped. None of my comrades succeeded in this endeavor. Since our trail crew ran off, I have no trail boss to whom I must report. Nor am I honor bound to join the herd after it has been rustled."
I nodded toward the mark stamped onto the shining metal base of his tail, where it extended from his natural hindquarters. "Waiting for what? You still have your serial number."
"Oh, yes. I am fully programmed and ready to report to any authority who can restore me to my legal owner."
"Who's that?"
"I don't know. We get basic programming for herding, pasturing, and speech, but little precise data. Of course, we can accumulate information as we go, but no one ever told me the owner's name or where to locate him."
"I guess the trail crew was supposed to get you there?”
"Indeed they were, those cowardly louts.
318 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1989
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 27, 2025
Dec 27 ~~ This was a great way for me to finish the year. Loved it just as much as the last time. Nothing to add to the review, but I did bump the rating from four to five. Moo one last time.
Dec 15, 2025 ~~ Time for a reread. I need some goofiness to finish this rough year. Will update review when I am finished. Moo.
~~~~~~~~ Original review, July 2015 ~~~~~~~~
This is a science fiction western, set in the American West years after unnamed biological disasters have destroyed most of the area. People are rebuilding now, and Louie Hong is on his way to make a new life for himself in the new wild West.
But Louie is one of those bumbling heroes that have things happen to them mostly by accident, misunderstandings, and his own naivete. On the way into the town of Femur, he comes across a rustled steerite named Chuck, who becomes a true friend. And what is a steerite? It is a mixture of biological steer and robotic parts: the legs, head, and tail are metal, the rest is regular cow. Steerites can apparently be butchered for their meat repeatedly, but the regenerating process is never explained. I wish it had been, I became very curious about it after the third or fourth time poor Chuck was reduced to a metal skeleton.
Cattle are not the only enhanced characters here. Horsites are pretty much the same as steerites, but with no ability to speak. They also cannot think for themselves, they must be directed like a regular horse. People are also enhanced, except that our hero Louie is what is known as a control-natural, denied by law from having such gadgets as Model C-5 Abilene Accordion ankles or any of the other weird and wonderful toys most of the other characters have as part of their bodies.
I needed the giggles this book provided. Some of the names of the outlaws began to get a little beyond silly (Sniffin' Griffin and Smellin' Llewellyn each with ultra sensitive noses to name just two) but actually the goofiness fit right in.
Louie develops into almost a regular hero as the story progresses. I liked him a lot, and I liked Chuck too. He was a proper gentleman steerite, and was supposed to speak with a Boston accent. I couldn't manage that bit mentally, but when he began to sing (and later taught an entire herd his favorite song) it was branded into my brain and I will never be able to hear the song Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie without thinking of good old Chuck. But I will spare you the aural loop....just imagine a young steerite instead of a cowboy and you will get the picture. Moo.
Oh, and just a bit of trivia. I have an extremely distant connection with the author: my doctor is his cousin. But I have never met or been in contact with Mr. Wu and the opinions in this review are my own. Moo again.
Dec 15, 2025 ~~ Time for a reread. I need some goofiness to finish this rough year. Will update review when I am finished. Moo.
~~~~~~~~ Original review, July 2015 ~~~~~~~~
This is a science fiction western, set in the American West years after unnamed biological disasters have destroyed most of the area. People are rebuilding now, and Louie Hong is on his way to make a new life for himself in the new wild West.
But Louie is one of those bumbling heroes that have things happen to them mostly by accident, misunderstandings, and his own naivete. On the way into the town of Femur, he comes across a rustled steerite named Chuck, who becomes a true friend. And what is a steerite? It is a mixture of biological steer and robotic parts: the legs, head, and tail are metal, the rest is regular cow. Steerites can apparently be butchered for their meat repeatedly, but the regenerating process is never explained. I wish it had been, I became very curious about it after the third or fourth time poor Chuck was reduced to a metal skeleton.
Cattle are not the only enhanced characters here. Horsites are pretty much the same as steerites, but with no ability to speak. They also cannot think for themselves, they must be directed like a regular horse. People are also enhanced, except that our hero Louie is what is known as a control-natural, denied by law from having such gadgets as Model C-5 Abilene Accordion ankles or any of the other weird and wonderful toys most of the other characters have as part of their bodies.
I needed the giggles this book provided. Some of the names of the outlaws began to get a little beyond silly (Sniffin' Griffin and Smellin' Llewellyn each with ultra sensitive noses to name just two) but actually the goofiness fit right in.
Louie develops into almost a regular hero as the story progresses. I liked him a lot, and I liked Chuck too. He was a proper gentleman steerite, and was supposed to speak with a Boston accent. I couldn't manage that bit mentally, but when he began to sing (and later taught an entire herd his favorite song) it was branded into my brain and I will never be able to hear the song Bury Me Not On The Lone Prairie without thinking of good old Chuck. But I will spare you the aural loop....just imagine a young steerite instead of a cowboy and you will get the picture. Moo.
Oh, and just a bit of trivia. I have an extremely distant connection with the author: my doctor is his cousin. But I have never met or been in contact with Mr. Wu and the opinions in this review are my own. Moo again.
March 25, 2011
Louie Hong is a young man looking to find his fortune by heading into the West. The American West that remains after a biological attack of some kind has wiped out the population. Cities have fallen in to disrepair and humans are scattered into small settlements that hug the still being built railway. Louie also has one more thing going against him. He is a "control-natural", someone who is not allowed by law to have a cyborg enhancement. The rest of the population have bought whatever enhancements they can afford and that can improve their lives. This means they have arms that have built in whips or eyes that can see in the infrared spectrum. And they tend to shun people like Louie.
In this world, Louie gets caught up with a gang of bank-robbing, cattle rustling outlaws and is on the run from the law. He also ends up on the run from the outlaws when they think he has stolen the loot. Can Louie survive long enough to make his fortune?
In this world, Louie gets caught up with a gang of bank-robbing, cattle rustling outlaws and is on the run from the law. He also ends up on the run from the outlaws when they think he has stolen the loot. Can Louie survive long enough to make his fortune?
April 13, 2009
I read The Omnivore's Dilemma recently and that reminded me of the mechanical cows in this book.
Wouldn't that be nice, if you could get meat from ruminants without killing them. And if the cows could talk and tell you that they don't mind, as long as you are gentle. And they could regenerate the meat after a few months of grazing.
Wouldn't that be nice, if you could get meat from ruminants without killing them. And if the cows could talk and tell you that they don't mind, as long as you are gentle. And they could regenerate the meat after a few months of grazing.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews