255. What Are Space Westerns? | After Moses with Michael F. Kane
What happened to the once-popular Western genre? As a prospector doll put it, “Once the astronauts went up, children only wanted to play with space toys!” And yet the Western legend lives beyond the Earth, often mixed with the sci-fi genre. What is a space Western? We invite raygun-slinger and After Moses sci-fi Western author Michael F. Kane to ride into the studio.
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Mission update
- Last week: new review of Amanda Wright’s Darkfell
- This week: Stephen’s article about the greatness of Cinderella (2015)
- Later this week: new review of Angie Dickinson’s debut Truth Cursed
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Backstory: author Michael F. Kane
Michael F. Kane cut his teeth on science fiction and fantasy. In fact, his first memories of Star Wars are his mother covering his eyes during the rancor scene. Later, he fell in love with the classics, Tolkien, Asimov, Herbert, and more. Somehow, despite the odds being stacked against him, he grew up to be a somewhat respectable human being. By day he’s the music director at a mid-sized church, but at night he dreams of unseen lands and places man has never trod. Check out his website MichaelFKane.com to stay up to date on his publishing adventures.
Quotes and notes
- After Moses, Lorehaven review, 2024
- The Last Frontier: How Louis L’Amour’s Son Is Fighting Publishing’s ‘Men Don’t Read’ Myth, Kristin McTiernan, Fictional Influence, March 21, 2025
- Apple Maps gets drivers lost in Australian outback (from 2012)
1. From big skies and rough men of Westerns
- Our memories of watching old Western reruns on TV, often pulp.
- Examples include The Lone Ranger, The Rifleman, and a few others.
- Now most Christians may see this genre as fairly safe and traditional.
- But many prestige and pulp stories alike push the
