Trashy Tuesday: The most violent westerns in print! Edge by George G Gilman

[@SubtropicBob]

The VERY wild wild West genre! One of my faves.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah they're so much fun

[@JoeBrumley-i4n]

It has been from the 70s and Book 11 Sioux uprising I think you called it.. the ending was and still is the most gruesome. I remember waiting patiently for each new edition when it came out.. They adopted it to screen and have not been able to see it yet.but will

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yeah that ending is incredible

[@diamondslashranch]

I must get some of these and read again. When I was about 12 my father let me read a few of them but only after he was done and had blacked out what he deemed inappropriate for a 12 year old. I’ve always wondered what was behind those black patches😂

[@Netty_Noo]

I read Edge the Loner as my first Western and yup as predicted I Loved Edge so much I bought the next 5 lol … This really was a great video Olly , really informative. I didn’t know until last week from Roy Reads Anything’s newspaper clipping , that George G Gilman was a pen name . X

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha! Glad you enjoyed him!

[@royreadsanything]

The pen name was a lame pun on Gee Gee as in horse (those animals with the wooden hooves)

[@Netty_Noo]

@@royreadsanything LOL hehehe 😂I will never live that down lol - interesting fact on the lame pun - Thanks Roy x

[@CriminOllyBlog]

@@royreadsanything That is lame!

[@Coojo78]

If you like violent westerns you have to read "Congregation of Jackals" and "Wraiths of the Broken Land" by S Craig Zahler

[@CriminOllyBlog]

A few people have recommended him, I need to check him out.

[@tlash544]

Finally scored one! So happy

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Brilliant!

[@vin0413]

You have piqued my curiosity on this series Olly. Thank you for this eye opening episode.

[@Rogsie-p6l]

I read most of these as a teenager in the seventies and enjoyed them at the time. They were all pretty samey and I’d pass them over today.

[@BOBBERT-w1w]

Well done. Been a Edge fan since the 1970's. Would like to see you do another video when you have read more. Or one on Adam Steele as well.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Hoping to get to the Steele books soon!

[@BobbyHall-eu1xv]

I kicked off June on the range with Edge The Loner, it doesn't have the beautiful prose of Zane Grey or the feeling of adventure that Louis L'amore seems to effortlessly create but it was full of violent action and every chapter seemed to finish with a flourish. Very enjoyable and I will continue the series.

[@Netty_Noo]

Hey Bobby I did this for June on the range too and this was my first ever western read , and all those things you listed there was why I loved Edge LOL 😂 I bought the next 5 :)

[@BobbyHall-eu1xv]

@@Netty_Noo Snap! I now absolutely love the western genre, I've read so many and found so many great authors - Zane Grey, Louis L'amore, Elmer Kelton, TV Olsen, Luke Short...it should have been a no brainer as I love spaghetti western movies but its taken this event to realise how good the books are!

[@Netty_Noo]

@@BobbyHall-eu1xv thats excellent x it’s wonderful discovering something new to love x enjoy

[@tracejefferson3169]

I enjoyed many of those as a young teen. Also enjoyed 'Sudden'

[@backrowbrighton]

Good stuff Olly. Yesterday's trash is today's treasure. I always felt that Josiah Hedges aka Edge was a conflicted character taken to the extreme. Buried beneath his capacity for extreme violence was a moral code of sorts. You get flashes of it through the series. Edge was a ruthless killer but not an indiscriminate one. I can't remember the title but one of my favourite stories is one set during the Civil War in a Confederate POW camp. The squalor, suffering and cruelty is very well put across.

[@bertsbooks2505]

I remember these! All a bit Hotel Bastardos as I recall!

[@eriebeverly]

Fun and informative video. I see Edge paperbacks from time to time and I had no idea the author and character were UK imports.

[@andrewrodgers2180]

Very Edgy episode Olly. Thanks for the heads up. Another series I have to keep a look out for. Sounds like this series is right up my tree, being a fan of spaghetti westerns and Sam Peckinpah movies' must admit I have not really read a lot of westerns. This maybe my reenter into the genre. May you shoot straight and ride true.

[@davebrzeski]

I've only read one Edge western. I don't remember which one, it may have been the first. I think it had the highest maggot count of any book I'd read at that point! 😆

[@sidclark1953]

It's a pity you don't like memoirs, Olly. George Armstrong Custer's "My Life on the Plains" is pretty good. He makes the comical proclamation about the Indians at one point, "They've got to stop depredating!" Then there is his stirring account of making a dawn raid on a small Indian encampment killing men women and children while his regimental band played "Garry Owen".

[@kenward1310]

Love the Edge series. They read like Louis L'amour with the boring bits left out.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Ha ha ha that’s a great description

[@alpertroncp2198]

I'd like to get my hands on these books. I have one about a band of players who are performing Shakespeare, but that's it. Otherwise I do have Gillan's 6 book Undertaker series and that's been great!

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I need to try the Undertaker books! If you're just starting out collecting them you can find job lots on ebay. Once you've got a few those are less appealing because you end up with duplicates, but they're a good way to get started.

[@nunyabidness4220]

Gilman (aka Terry Harknett) also wrote the Apache series as "William M. James." He also wrote an Executioner-type series, "Stark," under the name Joseph Hedges (which is Edge's real name). Those Stark books are boring and terrible, but the westerns are all decent, or at least they were until Harknett got mired in formula. I was really addicted to Edge books in high school. They aren't as great now that I'm a grown-up and see how terrible Edge's puns were (and eventually the plots were compromised as a way to set up more terrible puns), but I still look upon them fondly. Great to see a video from you on 'em. :)

[@Mondomeyer]

You forgot Adam Steel.

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Glad you enjoyed it! Yeah I read a couple of Harknett's 'Crown' books about a detective in Hong Kong and they weren't nearly as entertaining as Edge

[@nunyabidness4220]

@@Mondomeyer I remembered Steele, I just didn't mention him because Olly was already talking about Steele. I've also got the Edge/Steele crossovers. I like Steele, but not nearly as much as Edge. He also, briefly, did an "Undertaker" series.

[@Mondomeyer]

@@nunyabidness4220 Ah.

[@Mondomeyer]

@@CriminOllyBlog Yeah, I read the first one and it was suprisingly lame for a martial arts written by the author of Edge. It wasn't bad, but the expectations were more than it could live up to.

[@GaryMartinDobbs]

I knew TERRY ( G G Gilman) and actually brought EDGE to eBook for the first time

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Oh wow, that’s very cool! Absolutely love this series

[@DDB168]

I haven't read any, but would like to, except a certain booktuber is pumping up the prices of these things !! They're becoming difficult, and expensive to get 😭😭 Btw you probably missed a classic test match. 🏏🏏

[@CriminOllyBlog]

I heard it was pretty good but the end sucked

[@wendyvilla2904]

🖤💚

[@alexblue6991]

You can still get them in Glasgow for £ 2.50

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Oh nice!

[@pseudonymman9382]

Do you answer any comments ?? That aren't complimentary?

[@CriminOllyBlog]

Yes, but I get too many comments to answer all of them

[@jackthereader]

You saucy boy. Stop making videos JUST for me before I HAVE to fall in love with you. UwU

[@pseudonymman9382]

Dont call them 'trashy books' we are reading them for Fks sake