Advisory Committee Chair
James Braziel
Advisory Committee Members
Leonard K Grimes
Sherman V Camp
Daniel Siegel
Document Type
Thesis
Date of Award
2020
Degree Name by School
Master of Arts (MA) College of Arts and Sciences
Abstract
The Seventh Rider is a genre-bending novel best described as a dark fantasy western with horror elements. It takes place in a fictional fantasy setting imitating and, to a degree, satirizing the real colonial and imperial culture of the mid-19th century in which the classic American Western novel generally takes place. It follows Marlough, a former highwayman and scalphunter and participant in a colonial genocide and Van Alleyn, a bounty hunter who first arrests Marlough and then forces him into a journey seeking a legal pardon and eventually a moral redemption for his past crimes. The novel adapts the “mythology” of the classic American Western to build a fictionalized fantasy setting in the way that the novels of George. R. R. Martin or J. R. R. Tolkien adapted the various mythologies of medieval Europe to create a fictional fantasy medieval setting. It simultaneously parodies and revels in the tropes and archetypes of the classic Western to create something that is hopefully new and original. And very much in the spirit of the classic Western and its mythology, the overriding theme of the novel is redemption. The following represents only the first of seven planned “books” that will make up the entirety of the finished novel.
Recommended Citation
Lallone, Gregory, "The Seventh Rider" (2020). All ETDs from UAB. 2206.
https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/2206