Caspar Vega must be an interesting character.\u00a0 His books are a bizarre mixture of fantasy\/horror and crime drama.\u00a0 Many of his characters are not the kind of people you\u2019d want to live next door to or even meet.\u00a0 They range from anti-social to sociopath to worse.\u00a0 And his books are never linear.\u00a0 They track back and forth in time and place and skip from voice to voice in unexpected directions.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve read and reviewed two other books by Caspar Vega, \u201cThe Pink Beetle\u201d and the \u201cThe Eclectic Prince.\u201d\u00a0 And after each one I confirm both to myself and to my readers that Mr. Vega\u2019s stories are way outside my wheelhouse.\u00a0 Not that I only read or enjoy light-hearted fare.\u00a0 I enjoy horror and even crime drama.\u00a0 But there is something nihilistic about the atmosphere in these stories that is off-putting for me.\u00a0 I must be getting old.<\/p>\n
But here I am again.\u00a0 I decided to try out Southern Dust.\u00a0 The premise of the story is that in the near future the Democrats assassinate a Republican president and install one of their own through chicanery.\u00a0 In response, a revolt in Alabama breaks the state away from the Union.\u00a0 And in short order a good number of other states also declare their independence.\u00a0 This story follows the fates of three individuals that collide in this strange new world.<\/p>\n
Along with the other suppositions of this world are super soldiers, vampires and black magic.\u00a0 But the mainstay of the story are the characters.\u00a0 And they live up to the type that I remember from Mr. Vega\u2019s earlier books.\u00a0 Even the good guys are very troubled individuals.\u00a0 The criminals on the other hand can be at least somewhat sympathetic but brutality is their stock in trade.\u00a0 Murder for hire, framing up ex-girlfriends and bounty hunting all occur but brain-washed undead is probably the weirdest plot device you run into.\u00a0 And even when one of the characters tries to do a good deed it boomerangs back on him in the classic no good deed\u00a0 goes unpunished catergory.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll finish my review of this book much as I\u2019ve done with its predecessors, with a mixed message.\u00a0 This is an interesting book.\u00a0 But it\u2019s not for everyone. It\u2019s for those who like gritty crime dramas with a staccato, post-modern, minimalist writing style.\u00a0 Your call.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Caspar Vega must be an interesting character.\u00a0 His books are a bizarre mixture of fantasy\/horror and crime drama.\u00a0 Many of his characters are not the<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mi_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[241,237,4,242],"tags":[68,142,1301,354,38,1300,59],"class_list":["post-4036","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-book-reviews","category-reviews","category-sff","category-sff-book-reviews","tag-book-review","tag-caspar-vega","tag-crime-drama","tag-horror","tag-review","tag-southern-dust","tag-urban-fantasy"],"yoast_head":"\n