Book Review — Red Dust by Yoss
An entertaining, sci-fi adventure, without the commitment.
When you want to read a sci-fi novel, you know that you’ll have a lot in front of you that’s going to take a lot of time and commitment. Browsing the bookstore aisle, you’ll find many large, dictionary length, sci-fi novels that have more sequels than they do words for Christ sake! Not saying thats a bad thing — I’m currently burning through the Dune series — but it’s hard to find a sci-fi novel that is able to deliver on an immersive world, and interesting characters while keeping a low page count for someone looking for a quick read. Sometimes, you just want to read a space opera while you’re in between another series, and not have to commit to a whole new lot of books. Well, I can tell you that Yoss has just successfully delivered that, with his newest book Red Dust.
Yoss is an award winning sci-fi writer from Cuba, that has made a name for himself among sci-fi fans throughout his country, while also being the frontman for heavy metal band, Tenaz. Having 4 of his novels translated to English by David Frye, Red Dust being his 4th, Yoss has started attracting a newer audience with each new piece of work. Red Dust is the first of his novels that I have read, so I wasn’t too sure what to expect, but any skepticism I had disappeared once I started reading.
Red Dust takes place some time in the future, where aliens have made contact with earth in order to farm its’ minerals, in exchange for limited knowledge of their technological advancements. The aliens have taken interest in our mid 20th century sci-fi novels, which then leads them to incorporate many ideas from them, in order to make humans more comfortable. Throughout that time, a neutral trade center called William S. Burroughs — one of the many references to literature in the book — is established, where humans and aliens trade their minerals and technology (don’t worry, all of this is given within the first chapter.)
The story then follows the main character Raymond — a positronic robot detective apart of a police group, called “pozzies,” that is stationed on the Burroughs. He has been tasked with hunting down a escaped prisoner that has dangerous abilities.
The first thing that jumped out at me when I started reading Red Dust was Yoss’s love for literature. The main character is named after, and references, author Raymond Chandler; famous mystery writer from the mid 1900s. Yoss has said that this novel is a homage to Chandler’s mystery novels, and has gone as far as to dedicate the book to him. The main character dresses like a 50’s detective, wearing a fedora and coat, much like the detectives Chandler wrote about. The further you get into the book, you’ll start to see how other pozzies have been inspired by many famous characters in literature, mythology, and history. Raymond even mentions how they all look like people who’ve came from a Halloween party. They are many nods to other works of literature, and it’s refreshing to see a story not shy away from its’ influences
We have many books that talk about dystopian futures, different realities, different galaxies, trying to create new worlds, all to avoid being derivative or falling into tropes. Red Dust instead thinks of how our literature and culture would affect a future with aliens and robots, and what would that do to our technological advancements. It was an aspect of the story that I appreciated, and it demonstrated the love Yoss has for sci-fi and mystery novels.
The characters in the story are very fleshed out. With a shorter novel, developing characters that have different abilities, are from different planets, and are different species, can seem like a daunting task. However, Yoss gives the characters just enough characterization and backstory to understand their motives, and create interesting discussions between each other.
The one problem I had with the story was the main antagonist, Makrow 34. While the novel is being told through Raymond’s perspective, meaning the knowledge of the Makrow 34 is only what he discovers while investigating, I wish there were more moments that flushed out his character more. Throughout most of the book, all you know is that he has ‘psi abilities,’ which makes him really powerful and dangerous. I believe that the story could have benefited from understanding his motivations more. That would make the stakes feel higher, rather than just have an antagonist on the run.
Overall, Red Dust delivers a developed, entertaining, mystery/space opera novel, all without the commitment usually expected from some more well known sci-fi epics. The characters and world Yoss has created gives you what you’d want from a sci-fi adventure, without having so much information shoved down your throat. If Yoss decides to do a sequel, then I wouldn’t be sure if you’d then be able to consider it a small commitment, but with the groundwork that has been laid in this book, there is much potential for sequels and spinoffs.
Red Dust releases July 7, 2020.
Was given an advanced copy, from Restless books, in exchange for a honest review.
