Ben Dixon

I have to say I received this book from Read Em & Reap a Goodread's group in return for a honest review.

Part Western, part Zombie Apocalypse, part Civil War historical fiction . . . What you ask? Wait, how can that be any good? I'm not sure but it's an entertaining read for most of the story. The author has done a brilliant job of writing a fusion-style book, it's like the best French Japanese restaurant, you are skeptical but once you take a bite you keep eating shaking your head thinking this shouldn't work, but it's just so good and it works, exactly like this story. And these aren't even my favorite genres!

It reminded me of one of my favorite Westerns, The Magnificent Seven (M7). These men we meet, aren't all good men - there's a mountain man, a man-for-hire, a bank robber, a crazy man, a Japanese warrior, a bounty hunter, and a pony express rider - they too, just like the M7 become more because of a cause.

Terrific book, read if you need something different. Don't read if: you don't like violence, it pretty much drips blood as you read; you are bothered by typos and grammatical errors, this bothered me a bit and I hope future versions get a better editor; or if you have a problem with the N____ word - please keep in mind that this is set during the Civil War era but some people are offended by that word, even when used as people spoke back then.

I'd read more by these authors.… (más)

I've read the first five stories of the series a while ago - thanks to the generous authors - and was happy to get a copy of the omnibus as well. However, I have to shamefully admit that this collection somehow got lost between my kindle piles and was only recently (re-)discovered. Time to delve into the world of Red Dust again! Reading the first stories (and my earlier reviews), it all came back to me and I was eager to get to the last two stories which were new.

Red Dust is a series of stories that center around a zombie plague in the Civil War era. What fascinated me most was that the zombies were never the main focus, but mostly provided the setting for stories about loyalty, intrigues, hatred and all the other ugly faces of war and men in war. I was especially intrigued by the ruthlessness with which some individuals used zombies as means and weapons to achieve their goals. Instead of fighting together, people constantly fought each other, regardless of the common danger.

While the stories are connected, it is perfectly OK to read them individually without having a question mark hovering over your head requesting missing details. But of course I recommend to read all of them, because each story is worth it, and which is now easily possible thanks to this great omnibus edition.… (más)