In this debut novel, acclaimed short-story author Tim Pratt delivers an exciting heroine with a hidden talent–and a secret duty. Witty and suspenseful, here is a contemporary love song to the West that was won and the myths that shape us….

As night manager of Santa Cruz’s quirkiest coffeehouse, Marzi McCarty makes a mean espresso, but her first love is making comics. Her claim to fame: The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl, a cowpunk neo-western yarn. Striding through an urban frontier peopled by Marzi’s wild imagination, Rangergirl doles out her own brand of justice. But lately Marzi’s imagination seems to be altering her reality. She’s seeing the world through Rangergirl’s eyes–literally--complete with her deadly nemesis, the Outlaw.

It all started when Marzi opened a hidden door in the coffeehouse storage room. There, imprisoned among

the supplies, she saw the face of something unknown…and dangerous. And she unwittingly became its guard. But some primal darkness must’ve escaped, because Marzi hasn’t been the same since. And neither have her customers, who are acting downright apocalyptic.

Now it’s up to Marzi to stop this supervillainous superforce that’s swaggered its way into her world. For Marzi, it’s the

showdown of her life. For Rangergirl, it’s just another day....

"Pratt (Little Gods), praised for his short fiction, stumbles in his first novel. Marzipan 'Marzi' McCarty, a 20ish California art school dropout, writes quirky comics. Marzi's also the night manager — barista of Genius Loci, a Santa Cruz coffeehouse decorated by vanished muralist Garamond Ray to hold in elemental Evil. The wild adventures that Marzi concocts for her cowpunk character, Rangergirl, start coming true after her artsy friends become obsessed with freeing weird gods. When the Outlaw, a representative of everyone's worst fears, busts loose from its surreal corral, the Desert Lands, it's up to Marzi, the new artist-guardian, to save the whole shootin' match from disaster. Pratt's simplistic message, glimpsed sporadically behind clouds of neo-hippie jargon, self-consciously naughty language, outdoor sex and nasty violence, is pretentious and even a little nave — that art can trap our fears and hold them at bay. Like too much marzipan, it all turns cloying mighty fast, pardners." Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

"Tim Pratt's The Strange Adventures of Ranger Girl is a two-fisted meta-fiction of old west mythos and modern day — sharp writing, cool characters, fascinating ideas, and the courage to have fun. Readers of comics and classics and both will enjoy this novel." -Jeffrey Ford, author of The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque

"Rangergirl is a fine blend of imaginative and engaging — a tale well-told." --Cory Doctorow, co-editor of Boing Boing and author of Someone Comes to Town, Someone Leaves Town

"Quirky and fun."--Rocky Mountain News

"Tim Pratt's "The Strange Adventures of Rangergirl" is a two-fisted meta-fiction of old west mythos and modern day--sharp writing, cool characters, fascinating ideas, and the courage to have fun."--Jeffrey Ford, author of "The Portrait of Mrs. Charbuque."

Tim Pratt has been nominated for the Nebula award and for the Campbell Best New Writer award, and his fiction has appeared in Best American Short Stories and The Year's Best Fantasy and Horror. He lives in Oakland, California, where he co-edits a literary 'zine, Flytrap, with his fiancee, Heather Shaw.