Review: The Wild West with Zombies
Rating: 3 out of 5
Date: 10 31, 2013
* I received a copy of this book from the author in exchange for a fair and honest review.  I do not know this author and was in no way compensated for my reading of this book, other than being asked for an honest review. *I found the novel "Red Dust: The Fall" a book that while easy to read, not one that was easy to follow. A lot of presumptions are required in order fo a person to draw any real conclusions to each of the three short stories included within this anthology.In the first story for example, "The Lost Party", can be taken totally at face value, which will leave many unanswered questions, however if a person has a knowledge of American history then one can presume that the author is offering up another possible answer as to what happened to a caravan of people who disappeared in the mountains during a very long winter. I found the main character in this particular story, Masterson, to be well fleshed out and this was potentially my favourite of the three stories in the book. I would have very much liked to have learned more about him as well as how the undead fit in, such as where did they come from. All in all in my opinion this first tale was also the best tale of the three stories, but I so would have enjoyed it even more by learning more about both Masterson as well as how the undead fit in, or how they got there in the first place...The second story is "Feud" in which a rider finds himself not only in an isolated small town, but also in a position where two pwerful men both try to get him to choose a side and help them to end a feud that it would appear is as old as the town itself. The moral challenges, and how they were handled by the primary character Griffin were well done without a lot of predictability. Once again there are the undead who are completely unexplained and even stranger to me is the fact that everyone just accepts them as a predator of the Old West landscape, not that diferent from something like a coyote... it just did not make a lot of sense to me.The third and final story is "The Last Rider", the story of a highly dedicated Pony Express rider brought back into service since the rise of the undead has interrupted the telegraph services, as well as stopped its growth. The young rider, Isaac, takes his job to deliver a message extremely seriously. He rides thru a battle of the Civil War, which also includes riding thru battles with the undead, unwilling to allow anything to stop him from delivering his parcel. I felt I got a half decent feel for who Isaac is, and why he does what he does, but I also feel like he could have been fleshed out a lot more. I also really liked how the book did not end with any silly cliff hangers which appear to have become far too prevalent in more and more books today.Overall, while I did find the book an easy read that was written quite well I had a lot of problems with the fact that in every story it felt as if I was always being dropped into the middle of a story, given some really intriquing parts to each tale, then was yanked back out of it with no real closure. I believe the writer writes well, and that each story has a great deal of potential. I would just like to see that potential focused on one story at a time that fully develops the characters, storylines, and takes it all the way to a full conclusion, rather than parts of a story. I may not have loved this book, but I will be keeping my eye out for this author as I firmly believe that he has a lot to offer once he finds his groove in how he tells a tale.