Book Review: The Wanderer and the New West by Adam Bender
Disclaimer: I received a download of this book through a Goodreads Giveaway to facilitate this review. No other compensation was requested or offered.
Fifty years ago, the Born-Again Patriots party was a rising independent political party with a platform of libertarianism and isolationism. About the same time, Breck Ammunition was the fastest-growing firearms company in America. Al Breck didn’t like having to compete with foreign gun manufacturers, nor the cumbersome regulations his company had to deal with. So he became the BAP’s biggest supporter.
Now the Born-Again Patriots have succeeded in abolishing all political offices above mayor (though mayors still work together in unofficial groups) and privatizing the functions that used to be handled by big government. Also, they’ve made huge concessions to Breck Ammunition, which now has a practical monopoly on the manufacture of firearms in what used to be the United States. No longer do you have to have pesky licenses, or waiting periods, or limits on the amount of submachine guns you can purchase.
One of the side effects in Liberty, Arizona (which used to have a different name before the BAPs took over) is a sharp rise in shooting-related deaths and injuries. Nobody could have seen that coming. In the most recent incident, a young woman was gut-shot by a man she’d rejected for a date. Which is sad, but because her family isn’t rich enough to pay for private security protection, nothing can be done.
Until, that is, the mysterious drifter known as the Wanderer calls the boy out during a church service, and the two go outside to shoot it out. This is the last straw for Sheriff (technically) Ben Martin, who is understandably frustrated by his inability to enforce the law, but feels that vigilantes are not the answer. He develops a personal grudge against the Wanderer.
This incident also arouses the interest of Rosa Veres, a blogger who wants to use her site, The New West, to bring attention to the news that the official media, owned by Breck Ammunition, suppresses. In her day job as a reporter for Our Times newspaper, Rosa is invited to a demonstration of Breck Ammo’s latest product. Her reportage of the incident is a mite too honest, and now she’s a target.
It will take both the Wanderer and his new partner, Kid Hunter (a hitman with a heart) to keep Rosa alive and bring down Breck CEO Gerard Breck. But the Wanderer has his own dark secrets that may destroy him.
This dystopian Western touches on some current political issues while still managing to do a decent job of being a Western. If the setup seems implausible, that’s perfectly normal for the dystopian genre. (The inconsistent technology seems to be a byproduct of isolationism screwing with innovation, but a lot of the effects you would logically have by cutting America off from the rest of the world aren’t addressed.)
I found the characters mostly interesting, though Gerard Breck veers into the cartoonishly evil at times. (And another villain’s motivation is kind of ludicrous.) The least developed characters were the Red Stripes gang, a white supremacist motorcycle gang that’s taken over several towns in the Southwest since the state police no longer exist.
Like many B Westerns, this book doesn’t seem to know how sheriffs work, and the fact that it took as long as it did for the residents of Liberty to think of creating a militia seems dubious. There’s also some blurring of the point as gun violence is both the cause of most of the problems and the solution to them.
That said, there are a number of good action scenes, and the setting is interesting enough that a sequel with mostly new characters would be welcome.
Mildly recommended for those who are fans of both Westerns and dystopias.
