Razored Saddles

In an introduction to this collection of 17 short stories, Lansdale ( Dead in the West ) and Doubleday editor LoBrutto observe: ``This a book of offbeat stories with a Western theme. In some cases it might be fairer to say that the writers started with a Western element and let the story run from there, and the faster it ran, the more the Western element was left behind. That's okay.'' Actually, it's more than okay; it's terrific, the themes running a wild gamut from comic to SF, to horror and madness, to vicious crime and to self-inflicted punishment. Among the eclectic mix are Scott Cupp's deliciously sacrilegious Alamo diary, ``Thirteen Days of Glory''; a roundup of multicolor dinosaur ghosts, ``Sedalia,'' by David Schow; the title story by Robert Petitt, evoking a post-apocalyptic rattlesnake rodeo; Richard Laymon's ``Dinker's Pond,'' featuring a tall tale-telling, murderous old miner; ``Gold,'' an entertaining rumination on the nature of success, revenge, piracy and treasure by Lewis Shiner; and tales of gunmen, lawmen, trigger-happy trappers, urban cowboys, double-crossing car thieves, outlaws and outcasts. This is a welcome injection of fresh air (and adrenalin) into the western genre. (Sept.)