Book Report: The Return of Santiago, by Mike Resnick

I read Santiago, the prequel to this book, more than a decade ago. I found it charming: a retelling of western-style myths in a science-fiction setting unified by a search for the most mythical of all characters.

The Return of Santiago is more of the same, although the circumstances have changed and the story is different. Santiago is dead, so a back-world thief sets out to recreate him. Along the way he deals with characters as eccentric and larger-than-life as anything Santiago ever encountered.

In addition to being as entertaining and filled with action as an early John Wayne movie, it also deals with some weighty thoughts: balancing the benefits of civilization against the dangers of government, the pressures of social evolution producing the people that are needed at the time that they are needed, and the surprising ways that human beings can sometimes become the things that they try so hard to find in others.

Ulysses Rating: 3 - I enjoyed this.