I picked up “Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny” due to both the curiosity of wanting to read a Western Novel for the first time and the fact that my interest was piqued after reading some short fiction written by Mr. Tempe O’Kun. I had quickly developed a fondness for Mr. O’Kun’s prose after reading his short stories, and I knew that I HAD to pick up “Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny” to see if he was just as skilled at novel-length stories as he is at short ones!
And…
I’ll admit that Tempe O’Kun has certainly proved that he has some serious Writer Skills with “Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny”. However, there is something of a balancing act between the pros and cons with this novel. Very mixed feelings overall.
“Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny” has its fair share of things going for it. There’s romance, mystery, conspiracy, and quite a few spoonfuls of action! And with the story shifting between the perspectives of the two protagonists and antagonist and revealing so many intricate details, this novel certainly has a lot to offer.
The true main character of this novel is a gun-slinging anthropomorphic bunny known as ‘Six’, and she’s a woman driven by the memory of her father and a dedication to the nomadic lifestyle of the classic western outlaw! She is not a rabbit that should be trifled with for numerous reasons.
However, her own machinations soon put her at odds with the law and a crime lord.
Only falling in love with the local bat sheriff named Blake wasn’t part of Six’s initial plans.
Furthermore, Six has no idea how utterly insane lion crime lord Hayes is and it is inevitable that their conflict won’t be pretty considering their traditional roles as ‘prey and predator’.
Allow me to get down to brass tacks by discussing a few things about the characters.
All that can be said Six is that is she is one flawless western hero bunny. A shining specimen of the traditional gunslinger vagabond hero ingrained in the genre and history itself! Of course, Six stands out from the rest in the genre due to the fact that she is an unstoppable rabbit with a (mostly) untamable heart! She’s definitely a character that will be stuck in my memory for some time!
I liked the romance between Six and Blake well enough. The scenes building their relationship hit all the right ‘oh my gosh so lovey-dovey I’m going to die’ buttons, and the scenes where the two ‘consummate’ their relationship certainly got me blushing a whole lot. The mission was accomplished: I liked the romance and I felt that the gunslinger bunny and law bat worked.
Alas, a minor thing that bothered me that it seemed Sheriff Blake simultaneously played his role well and yet he felt like a terrible sheriff. It felt like that the majority of his involvement in the conflict between Six and Hayes is largely influenced by Six dragging him a long for the ride. And when it wasn’t Six pulling him from plot development to plot development, he was receiving cryptic and partially unhelpful (from my perspective at least) information from his Deputy that clearly knew more about everything than he was letting on.
I felt that Blake was a wonderful character, but I wished that there were more scenes where he shined by himself.
Yes, without a doubt, Six is the true star of the novel. Her role is fantastic and I adore the fact that much of the romance and action is instigated by her will. But personally speaking, it just felt like Blake was more of a ‘second banana’ compared to Six. Blake was basically the “Luigi” to Six’s “Mario instead of the “Raphael” to Six’s “Leonardo” (for lack of a better way of describing it).
Reiterating: I felt that the chemistry between Six and Blake was great. I just felt that they should have had “equal billing” in the arc regarding the conflict against Hayes.
And as for the monstrous lion antagonist Hayes, I felt that he was a fantastic villain and an excellent subversion of the “noble lion” stereotype. He’s vicious, he’s cruel, he’s cunning, he’s manipulative, and he’s a complete mad man with what could be described as an ‘Apex Predator Complex’. In short, he was most definitely a fine antagonist in Six’s narrative.
In a nutshell, the characters were top-notch. They really “sold” the experience to me, if you will.
However, as much as I enjoyed this book, there are two particular issues I have with the plot beyond the romance that come to mind.
To list them in numerical order:
1. There a few points in the novel where it feels like the protagonists get from ‘point A to point B’ too easily. Six and Blake faced their fair of challenges, but in some cases it felt that the “sea parted” – if you’ll pardon the phrasing – too quickly just for the sake of Six’s and Blake’s convenience. It was as if the odds in the protagonists’ conflict against the antagonist were tipped more in the favor of the protagonists rather than actually feeling like their lives were at risk.
2. Slight Spoilers: I didn’t mind the small touches of supernatural plot details involving what I believe some internet users would refer to as “The MacGuffin” sprinkled into the book, but I do have to say that a fair portion of it felt a little too run-of-the-mill. There were instances where the scenes involving the mystical subject worked well and there and there were instances where the subject didn’t work all that well. It served its purpose in the plot and I liked the sense of mystery that this small part of the plot added to the novel, but it doesn’t change the fact that my feelings on everything involved in that “arc” of the novel remain mixed.
That’s pretty much the extent of my MAIN grievances with the novel.
However, I MUST take a moment to acknowledge the fact that many of these grievances have more to do with the fact that by the end of the novel it becomes clear that “Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny” is intended to be just the FIRST book in a longer series.
There’s little doubt that there be resolution for many of the loose ends in potential future books, and I’ll DEFINITELY be coming back for more. I’m just hoping that unanswered questions will be…well…answered, and I’m WISHING that there will be a pinch more danger and peril in store for Six and Blake that will test their mettle a bit more.
Maybe a pinch of disaster and tragedy that will put the relationship between Six and Blake to the test as well?
Insert shrug here.
In conclusion, “Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny” is a solid Western novel even with its flaws considered. Not only that, I recommend that all fans of anthropomorphic characters put this book on their reading lists!
I’d say that “Sixes Wild: Manifest Destiny” is worth a firm 3 out of 5 and a fistbump of great magnitude!
Cecil D. Fritz 