Synopsis
The Hinterlands are a lawless place of broken dreams and broken people.
Roth is a bodyguard trying to leave his dark past behind, but history has a way of turning back up. Cynthia is a bandit who’s trying to make a future by wading through blood. They travel separately, trying to live by their own codes. All while a man in a red cloak tracks their blood-soaked footprints.
Review
For a Few Days More by Z.B Steele is another of those indie books that snuck up on me. Several of my friends recommended it to me when I posted in December that I was looking for more great books to boost, and I was not disappointed.
Like many other “Western” Fantasy books, this defies classification in the best way possible. Instead of leaning too hard in one direction, the author split the difference and said, “You know what, I do what I want.” And I greatly respect that. Equal parts Red Country by Abercrombie and Blood Meridian (or All the Pretty Horses, I like that one better) by Cormac McCarthy, this gritty tale mines the depth of human depravity while offering up just the slightest bit of scant hope.
Those of you looking for Dragons or Magic need to keep on movin’ pardner, but for those of you, like me, that care first and foremost about memorable characters, brutal decisions, and excellent plot, For a Few Days More will be your Huckleberry. Relentless action centers around outlaws, former outlaws, and a red-cloaked figure that introduces a nearly supernatural sense of creeping dread to the tale.
What impressed me most was the polish and pace Steele creates in this quick read. It can be easy to rush the plot in something this brief, but I never felt like anything was underdeveloped. There were some answers I still wanted, but sometimes in a setting like this, there are no real answers. The world is violent, life is brief and brutish, and every character is just doing the best they can—a lot like us.
Earlier I compared this to Red Country by Abercrombie. I gotta say, I liked this one a lot more than that (no slight to Ol’ Lord Grimdark). Same with Blood Meridian. Mr. Steele found a way to take the tone of those stories and fashion something of his own out of it.
So grab a whiskey, draw a blade or two, and let’s dance.
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