Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp by Jackson Paul

Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp Reviews

• 
  edifanob

  I'm not that familiar with all the wild west heroes.
  But that did not matter for enjoying this book.
  
  It is a short but hefty and action packed mix of steampunk and wild west.
  The story is told straight ahead. I liked the appearance of many well known people like the Wright brothers, Theodere Roosevelt, Rudolf Diesel and others.
  
  The the story include German characters and therefore the use of German language.
  I'm German and therefore I understand the German dialogues. The use of another language is fine for me as long as you do it in a proper way.
  I must say all the German dialogues must be proof-read because they are either wrong or misleading.
  Example: page 82 "Nein! Nein! Nicht scheissen! Nicht scheissen!"
  English translation "No! No! Don't shit! Don't shit!" I'm sure that is not what the author wanted to express. The translation of "Don't shoot" is "Nicht schießen"
  
  I'm no expert in English language but it seems there are some more mistakes.
  
  The story is a fast and fun read but the mentioned mistakes hindered my to give four stars.
  
• 
  Clay Davis

  Read like one of Clive Cussler's Van Dorn Detective novels.
• 
  Lyn Gilleland

  The story centers around Tom Horn, a famous gunslinger in the dying years of the Wild West era. Through a series of events,Tom is recruited to act as a bodyguard for Eleanor Roosevelt, a key diplomatic and peace-keeping figure in a world on the verge of a global war thanks to a weapon-dealing family known as Krupp. Throughout the story, the main cast – including Tom, Eleanor, and Tom’s nephew Kid – run into a large array of historic figures such as Theodore Roosevelt, the Wright brothers, and even a young Adolf Hitler, all the while dodging bullets and steam-powered inventions sent after them by the illusive group referred to as the warlords of Krupp.
  
  First off, and possibly the most compelling part of this book to me, is the action. The action scenes are well worth the read. They are clear, easy to imagine, and kept me on the edge of my seat. (Literally, I was sitting on the edge of my seat while reading it.) In my opinion, the action scenes were where the characters really came to life, as well as where their characterization seemed the most believable.
  
  Along with the action scenes, Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp has generally well-done description. At most points, I found it very easy to imagine the scenes portrayed in the book and, being a naturally visual person, good description is always a plus.
  
  Reading through the book, I found the addition of historic individuals from various eras to be a fascinating aspect. It’s always interesting to see modern portrayals of historic figures, and it is doubly interesting when those historic figures are taken out of their natural world and thrown into a steampunk story. Perhaps my favorite of these historical characters were the Wright brothers. In Tom Horn, these two ingenious characters get a life of their own and go from mere inventors to action-quality heroes, and perhaps of all the characters in the story, these two fit in with the steampunk atmosphere the best.
  
  Of course, there were also some serious downsides to the story too, not the least of which being the long and rather odd title. One of the problems I initially noticed in the story was the huge assortment of editing errors that I found in it: changes in tense, misspellings, words missing, and various other typos. Of course, I also bought one of the first edition stories, back when Dr. Robinson was trying out writing under the pseudonym Jackson Paul, and I have since been informed that a large portion of those errors have been fixed, so the typos are something of a mute point.
  
  Plot-wise, there isn’t a lot of new material here. It really is just a basic “war maniac wants to throw the world into chaos and get rich” sort of story. The characters, and one plot twist I actually, honestly didn’t expect, were what really made the story interesting, so it wasn’t all that bad, but if you’re looking for a particularly fresh idea, you won’t find it in this book.
  
  I think the thing that bothered me the most in this book, though, was the extraordinary amount of inconsistencies. One minute, Tom is wielding dual revolvers, then they become pistols, then they become a single rifle. The revolver vs. pistol thing really isn’t that big of a deal to me, as most people don’t recognize that there is a difference between the two. I actually wouldn’t have recognized the difference if it weren’t for my brother, who pointed out that error when I read the first draft of Prism World to him. The rifle, though? That one was a bit of a stretch for my imagination.
  
  However, it isn’t just the weaponry that tends to be inconsistent. The characters themselves seem to change frequently, particularly during the slow parts of the story but also occasionally in parts of the action as well. One instant, Eleanor is admitting to Tom that his method of handling difficult situations, namely fighting, is rather beneficial; the next, she is scolding him for knocking out a Krupp soldier who was trying to kill them. I recognize that she is supposed to be a naive character, but at some points she verges on the realm of just plain stupid.
  
  Dialogue was another thing that remained rather inconsistent, and even stilted, throughout the story. At some points, Tom is using cowboy dialect; the next, he is speaking in proper English. Some of the characters’ choice of words in certain instances seemed to be out of place and, for that matter, out of character. Then there’s the simple fact that the description is decidedly gory in parts, while Tom, who technically should be a badass character, is still saying, “Dang it!” I would much rather have seen the character use the unveggified version of the word or, at least, to simply read something like, “He swore under his breath.” The use of a mild cuss word by a character who is anything but mild just cheapens him in the end.
  
  I honestly wasn’t sure what to make of Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp when I first started reading it. It certainly has its slow, sometimes unnecessarily slow, moments, and then there are moments that could definitely have been expanded, (shown rather than told, as we put it in Rough Writers). Overall, though, the story was a good one, and turned out better in the end than I expected it to in the beginning. It’s an easy, fun read, so if you’re looking for something quick to pass the time, Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp is a good fit. However, if you’re looking for a serious, professional-quality story, this isn’t the book for you. It all depends on taste.
• 
  Matt Mitrovich

  Steampunk is a great genre to write stories in. Besides the imaginative tech, authors have a wide variety of fascinating of historical figures to choose from. For example, did you know Tom Horn, the title character of Tom Horn vs. The Warlords of Krupp by Glen Robinson, is a real person? Obscure historical figures have found new life in alternate history, like Mordechai Anielewicz in Harry Turtledove's Worldwar series.
  
  Back to the novel, Tom Horn (ex-Pinkerton, ex-Indian fighter, ex-gunslinger) has settled down to enjoy the rest of his years in peace on a south Texas ranch. That is until he is arrested for murder, only to be rescued by New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt. Taking Tom and his nephew, Kid, east in a zeppelin, he recruits Horn to guard his 16-year-old niece Eleanor who is being sent to Vienna to attend a meeting of world leaders. War is brewing and the Krupp industrial family wants to stoke the fires so they can profit by selling weapons. An enigmatic group known as the Foundation wants to prevent a world war from happening and is sending Eleanor with her uncanny ability to make peace to convince the Great Powers that brinkmanship is not the answer. The Warlords of Krupp will do anything to stop her.
  
  The plot to Tom Horn is not very original. The bad guys want to start a world war so they can sell weapons, the good guys want to stop it from happening. Similar plots can be found in the films Sherlock Holmes: A Game of Shadows and the awful abortion The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (go read the graphic novel by Alan Moore instead). The idea of starting a war, even for a weapons company, always sounds like a bad business plan. War can be destructive, so unless Krupp's factories are located in some remote corner of the Earth, the factories producing the weapons could be destroyed. Even if the factories were in some remote corner of the planet, they would still need to be staffed and supplied with raw materials and the finished product would need to be shipped to whatever nation needed it. Whether by air or sea, any ship carrying the goods could be attacked by another nation wanting to deny their enemies from gaining the weapons. Finally, people don't like it when you give weapons to the enemies. While in Tom Horn the Krupps seem to be allied with the Germans, my guess is the Kaiser would not approve of selling the same weapons to the British, French or Russians.
  
  As I mentioned before, Krupp is desperate to stop Eleanor from reaching Venice, yet Krupp agents carry out overly-complicated to stop the teenager and her guardians. Although Tom explained to Roosevelt that he expected Krupp to come all guns blazing, not caring if innocent bystanders get caught, rarely does his theory play out. The bad guys consistently try to capture Eleanor first before they kill her. For example, the Germans use a sub to board and capture an ocean liner that Tom and Eleanor are travelling on, instead of just destroying the ship altogether. Perhaps there is some logic to the Krupp business plan and their strategy to stop Eleanor that escapes me, but at the moment I cannot think of it.
  
  Despite the incompetent villains, Tom Horn was a fascinating character. His common sense, cowboy ways delightfully clashed with the scientists and elitists he met on his travel to Europe. I also like any story that includes a shout out to one of my favorite American presidents, Theodore Roosevelt. I wish more authors would use this bigger-than-life character, who probably lived a more eclectic life than the title character himself. In fact Robinson makes use of several historical characters, sometimes to the detriment of the novel. Thomas Edison and a very young Adolf Hitler, both mentioned in the Amazon description of the novel, do appear in non-speaking roles in the novel, but have very little impact on the plot. It felt like the author shoe-horned them into the novel simply because of their recognizable names, instead of helping the story move along.
  
  There are other issues with the novel that prevented me from giving it a higher grade. Passive voice, POV problems and typos. There were also contradictory statements made by Tom Horn that led to some head scratching. For example, Tom mentions earlier in the novel that the mute Kid lost his ability to communicate after his father died. Later in the novel Tom explains that the boy became mute after he got hit on the head. Issues like that show a lack of editing.
  
  Even with said issues, the book does not disappoint in its claim of being steampunk adventure novel. It includes the usual tropes associated with the genre: famous historical persons, anachronistic technology, airships and, of course, steam power. Lack of editing and the unoriginal plot hurts the novel, but fans of the less serious "steampulp" genre will enjoy reading Tom Horn beat up the bad guys and save the world in the process.
• 
  Bill Tillman

  This was my first exposure to Tom Horn an American Folk Hero. As a steampunk story in the venue of 'Wild, Wild West' it is an excellent tale. The mechanics of the book were sadly lacking, typo errors galore, wrong tense and POV. I am sure the author will improve as he continues to write. I would recommend this tale to anyone wishing to read alternative history, steampunk or fiction.