The Steel Traveler of Urth

Set in the far, far future, Steel Traveler Of Urth is a wild combination of The Good, The Bad And The Ugly (the sunburned landscape, the characters who take it for granted that everybody's out to cheat and/or kill everyone else as they vie for treasure)and The Road Warrior (the hard-to-kill hero has suffered so many losses, he's trying to be as big a bastard as everyone else, but he keeps being tripped up by his own innate decency). The heroine may or may not have a heart of gold, but she definitely has a long, fluffy tail; the hero's best friend and worst enemies are all giant, sentient insects. (If you suffer from arachnophobia, this book may work as therapy for you.) The action ricochets from one vivid landscape (sun-blasted desert, frozen mountains, arcane laboratory, eons-dead city) to another, just as the characters' relationships ricochet from business to pleasure, from love to hate. The author has a wild, cinematic imagination.