Long Range Ranchers. Frontier Stories of Ranchers, Wranglers, and Other Fools - Ben Patterson

The future's still wild, and the west just got bigger.

On the planet Veltran, the twin suns rise over endless orange plains, where the wind cuts hard and the sandstriders run wild. Out here, survival isn't about who draws first - it's about who laughs last, shoots straight, and can keep their mount from eating the neighbor's herd.

Like many, Eve Granger rides the frontier's edge - a wrangler, rancher, and stubborn optimist trying to hold her own against outlaws, sandstorms, and one particularly conniving neighbor. Around her circle a cast of misfits, dreamers, and hard cases: smugglers posing as traders, preachers with plasma rifles, and thieves with hearts of gold and prices on their heads. Together, they scrape out a living under the glare of two suns, where justice comes late, and honor comes first.

Across the mesas and mining towns of Veltan, their stories intertwine - tales of grit, stubborn hope, and the kind of trouble only humans can bring to a brand-new world, including The Legacy, where the past still has teeth.

Long Range Ranchers is a collection of frontier sci-fi stories from Ben Patterson, where The Ballad of Buster Scruggs meets Firefly, and the west just traded its horses for horned beasts and hover crafts.