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Jonathan Eaton
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The Prairie Martian Kindle Edition

by Jonathan Eaton (Author) Format: Kindle Edition
4.1 out of 5 stars 33 ratings
New Halchita is surrounded by enemies. The Scavenger Hordes claim the land the town sits on as their own. Giant, mutated ticks await the unwary—one careless step could mean a slow, delightful death wrapped in their sticky palps. And in the skies above, artificially intelligent killing machines look down upon the survivors of the Great Inadvertent War, ready to obliterate any settlement they judge guilty of inappropriate technological advancement.

But Sheriff Frank Westfall’s biggest concern is the beautiful and mysterious stranger in the lockup. “Nancy” claims to be a visitor from Mars, a descendant of an experimental colony abandoned by Earth when the war broke out. When Frank discovers that Nancy is not what she appears to be, his duty is clear—the problem is, he’s never had to kill anything with such a pretty face before.
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  1. Print length
    300 pages
  2. Language
    English
  3. Accessibility
    Learn more
  4. Publication date
    August 31, 2016
  5. File size
    712 KB
  6. Page Flip
    Enabled
  7. Word Wise
    Enabled
  8. Enhanced typesetting
    Enabled
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Product details

  • ASIN ‏ : ‎ B01LBXL4L8
  • Accessibility ‏ : ‎ Learn more
  • Publication date ‏ : ‎ August 31, 2016
  • Edition ‏ : ‎ 1st
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • File size ‏ : ‎ 712 KB
  • Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
  • Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
  • Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
  • Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Print length ‏ : ‎ 300 pages
  • Page Flip ‏ : ‎ Enabled
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.1 out of 5 stars 33 ratings

About the author

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Jonathan Eaton

Jonathan Eaton

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Jonathan Eaton grew up in Texas in the 20th century and moved to Oregon in the 21st century, where he writes about Texas and the southwest in the 19th and 25th centuries. He is married to percussionist Cyndi Lewis and has a cat named Sherman. You can contact Jonathan (email) here:

shermanswrangler@gmail.com

Customer reviews

4.1 out of 5 stars
33 global ratings

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Customers say

Customers enjoy the book's page-turning plot with many twists and appreciate its well-paced narrative. The writing style is deft and droll, and customers find the characters interesting, with one review highlighting the terrific under-stated hero. They find the book entertaining and humorous, with one customer noting its sly commentary on human foibles.

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PlotEntertainment valueWriting styleCharacter developmentHumorPacing
18 customers mention "Plot"14 positive4 negative

Customers enjoy the plot of the book, praising its ingenious twists and page-turning nature, with one customer noting its detailed world-building.

"...I hope Mr. Eaton gives us a sequel. This is a rich setting he has established, with a terrific under-stated hero...." Read more

"...The story is engaging, even thrilling at times, the world-building convincing, and the characters memorable. I give it a very enthusiastic thumbs-up." Read more

"...There’s romance, many twists, dry humour and some overly long, but good descriptions of human-like machinery and scenes, all ending in what I felt..." Read more

"...So buy this book if you like a good mystery, if you like stories to unfold where all of the pieces come together, and if you like science fiction..." Read more

14 customers mention "Entertainment value"14 positive0 negative

Customers find the book entertaining, with one describing it as a delightful romp and another noting how the story-telling sets a leisurely pace.

"...They are no comic dullards, easily fooled by snake-oil salesmen. Nor are they cowering townsfolk depending on a few gunslingers to save them...." Read more

"...The adventure and interplay was entertaining, but I can't say I ever took a liking to any character in particular...." Read more

"...The story is engaging, even thrilling at times, the world-building convincing, and the characters memorable. I give it a very enthusiastic thumbs-up." Read more

"...The well-constructed story soon captured and held my attention...." Read more

12 customers mention "Writing style"9 positive3 negative

Customers appreciate the writing style of the book, describing it as deft and droll, with one customer noting its easy-reading nature.

"...Author Eaton draws us in with his lean, understated prose...." Read more

"...There were, instead, in-depth explanations like the “art”of milking juice from ticks for medicinal purposes, a practice involving considerable skill..." Read more

"...I felt that the ending (although very imaginative, intelligent, and potentially poetic)..." Read more

"...Truth is, Jonathan Eaton writes well, has penned a wildly imaginative ‘what if’, and peopled it with your neighbors...." Read more

9 customers mention "Character development"9 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the characters in the book, with one noting the terrific under-stated hero and another mentioning the oversized wacky characters.

"...This is a rich setting he has established, with a terrific under-stated hero...." Read more

"...even thrilling at times, the world-building convincing, and the characters memorable. I give it a very enthusiastic thumbs-up." Read more

"...Several other characters are also well developed and interesting...." Read more

"...I enjoyed it all—the world-building, the plotline, and the characters, and especially the narrator’s ‘voice’...." Read more

8 customers mention "Humor"8 positive0 negative

Customers enjoy the book's humor, with one noting it's packed with dry wit, while another appreciates its sly commentary on human foibles.

"...There’s romance, many twists, dry humour and some overly long, but good descriptions of human-like machinery and scenes, all ending in what I felt..." Read more

"...and in- between beasties both metallic and biological, and sly chuckle-out-loud humor, in a post-apocalyptic setting...." Read more

"...Jonathan Eaton has an easy-reading style packed with dry wit. The plot unfolds at a leisurely pace...." Read more

"The Prairie Martian by Jonathan Eaton is an entertaining, often whimsical, yarn about Earth in a distant future when Martians, descendants of long..." Read more

4 customers mention "Pacing"4 positive0 negative

Customers find the pacing of the book well-paced, with one customer noting that the plot unfolds at a leisurely pace.

"...But when the moody narration of the book set into its groove, time began to fly by, and before I knew it I had consumed a third of the tale...." Read more

"...The plot unfolds at a leisurely pace...." Read more

"Well-written, polished, good characters, some original ideas, well-paced, and very entertaining. I liked it a lot...." Read more

"...Witty, and with an adequate pacing. The plot was quite original and clever while the world building was detailed and coherent." Read more

Top reviews from the United States

  • raymond St. Elmo
    5.0 out of 5 stars Somewhere weird and west of the Pecos
    Reviewed in the United States on August 14, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    "The Prairie Martian" is primarily a western. A small self-sufficient community in the badlands (Scablands) with a steampunk level of tech. Civilization ends at the town limits. At least ‘Civvie’ civilization. Out beyond are nomadic tribes of scavengers. The ‘Scabbies’ have their own norms, granted. It’s the year 2472; some 300 years after the Apocalypse. Just reminds you of 1830’s west of the Pecos. Pity horses are extinct.

    The town of New Halchita is no dystopia, no troglodyte clan worshipping the last TV. They are a literate folk working to keep the walls of civilization secure, to run to stations when the alarm bell rings. They are no comic dullards, easily fooled by snake-oil salesmen. Nor are they cowering townsfolk depending on a few gunslingers to save them. No doubt that follows the truth of the real ‘Old West’ beyond our cowboy movies. Real Old West communities didn’t wait for Clint and Shane to come to the rescue.

    Not that there are no special heroes in 2473. We have Sheriff Frank Westfall, rather too tall. A taciturn ex-scout who is a bit weary, a bit lonely. Dutiful, and no one’s fool. Not the kind to catch the ladies’ eye, but he will, soon or late, catch the perpetrator.

    There; that’s the book report to give you the stage setting. But ‘Prairie Martian’ is flat out no gunslinger tale with a touch of sci-fi. It’s ven diagrammed to a genre called ‘weird western’, at home on the shelf with ‘Cowboys and Aliens’ or the works of Mike Resnick. Perhaps next to ‘A Canticle for Leibowitz’; for that ‘post-civilization’ feel is always in the background. The folk of New Halchita are survivors, holding on to a flame of literature, law and tech they are shielding from the dark; and the threatening sky.

    Chiefly, this is a character-driven story. We have an undramatic, lonely hero determined to do his best; a sly rogue of a villain who is masterful at manipulating civvie and scabbie minds alike; a sassy lady-doc who has made her choices. Add to that a pretty Martian schoolmarm with robotic mien and, possibly, a secret agenda.

    Character-driven novels usually come at the cost of long scenes, backstory chapters and complex conversations that convey this attitude, that misunderstanding. Readers endure this while waiting for the exciting stuff. I was immediately struck that Mr. Eaton did not need to pay that price. For all we cared chiefly who saw through who, or who stood by who, each chapter ends with some event of adrenaline excitement or emotional satisfaction or shocked surprise.

    Given that, it seems almost secondary to say the narrative quality is excellent, dialogue is first-rate. No one is delivering easy punches or easy lines; no cowboy cliché tobacco spitting. Not a single barroom fight.

    I hope Mr. Eaton gives us a sequel. This is a rich setting he has established, with a terrific under-stated hero. I want to find out the truth of the GID war, and what is beyond the Scablands. If no sequel, then dammit, Eaton, do it again.
    One person found this helpful
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  • Robert M McCarroll
    4.0 out of 5 stars A Postapocalyptic Western
    Reviewed in the United States on December 19, 2019
    Verified Purchase
    Going into this book, I expected a postapocalyptic western, and was not surprised. The world is populated largely with gray hats, not too many saints left after the end. Most of the characters are hiding something, however major or minor, and possess identifiable flaws and foibles. These recognizable characters live in a fortified bubble of civilization in a very hostile world surrounded by mutant wildlife and nomad scavenger clans. Though it is not as dire as that descriptor might sound, as people have adapted to their situation, establishing a truce with the scavengers, and figuring out how to make use of at least some of the wildlife.

    Into this somewhat stable status quo drops a craft from orbit with a single occupant looking human, and claiming to be from Mars. Naturally, this riles up both the townsfolk and the scavengers as everyone tries to either protect themselves or take advantage of the situation without knowing what the situation is. These schemes tumble over each other and intertwine as fortunes grow and fade as in any good western yarn. Like most of the people in and around New Halchita, the Martian is hiding her own secrets and agenda that pile onto the others.

    The adventure and interplay was entertaining, but I can't say I ever took a liking to any character in particular. If I had any real complaints it would be the two scenes where the meeting minutes of the council were used instead of letting the scene play out, and the somewhat rushed ending.
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  • William J. Cook
    5.0 out of 5 stars Not Your Grandfather's Western
    Reviewed in the United States on October 15, 2021
    Verified Purchase
    Nope, we’re not in Kansas anymore, or Wichita for that matter. We’re in New Halchita, not much more than a carbuncle on the back of the western plains. The dusty little town would have gone completely unnoticed for another century had it not been for the visitation of the “giant cast-iron cockroach the Martian (if that’s what it was) rode in on.”

    Author Jonathan Eaton’s novels are not “your grandfather’s westerns,” as his later books, A Good Man for an Outlaw and Outlaws and Worse, so definitively prove. The Prairie Martian is no exception. Told with Eaton’s droll, pitch-black humor, it’s the story of a Martian who calls herself “Nancy,” come to earth for God-knows-what reason. But this is post-apocalyptic earth in the 25th century, still recovering from the great war (the GIW, but no one can remember what the letters stand for). It is earth like the mid-1800’s, before electronic technology, because orbiting high overhead are the last bitter words of advanced civilization: “lagamachies”—satellites programmed to obliterate any trace of higher technology.

    Presiding over this Grand Guignol is Sheriff Frank Westfall, former “tick-juicer” (Oh, Mr. Eaton, what nightmares you must suffer!). For those of us old enough to remember, think James Arness, only taller.

    Author Eaton draws us in with his lean, understated prose. The story is engaging, even thrilling at times, the world-building convincing, and the characters memorable. I give it a very enthusiastic thumbs-up.
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Top reviews from other countries

  • fabwab
    5.0 out of 5 stars Five Stars
    Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 31, 2017
    Verified Purchase
    excellent read, good characters, fast paced and gripping from first to last. Well worth a read
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  • Susan Day
    5.0 out of 5 stars A great read
    Reviewed in Australia on March 24, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    There are some very clever, and let’s say interesting, aspects of sci-fi story in this book. I liked the sheer inventiveness this author brought to this regularly visited genre. How often do we read similar plots and devices, but not the Prairie Martian. It’s full of surprises, wit and charm.
    Set in the not-so-distant future the author really takes the reader on a ride while being true to the 1950’s western stories the book seems to be inspired by. I liked this book and would be happy to recommend it to any adult reader who needs a good laugh, and is willing to give this talented author complete control while the story lasts.
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  • Valerie
    5.0 out of 5 stars Delightful writing, entertaining plot
    Reviewed in Canada on February 14, 2018
    Verified Purchase
    I do not usually read books in this genre, and was therefore blessed with freedom from expectations. I was pleasantly surprised on all counts. The writing is delightful and flawless, wistfully funny without trying to be so, with moments of profound wisdom and beauty all the better appreciated for their unexpectedness. This is of course very subjective, but this book reminded me of J.K.Rowling's "The Casual Vacancy" in its masterful reflection of the human condition. The setting is closer to the 19th century than the 25th due to a setback suffered by human civilization, and the author's Dickensian style is perfect for describing the lives and times of his characters. The elements of science fiction, described in lively and convincing detail, did not disturb the flow of the story but rather reminded me that human nature does not change.
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