City Ash and Desert Bones

Myler’s debut is part Wild West, part dystopian future, part gory horror, and wholly rooted in the haphazard gusto of 21st-century fan fiction. The gritty details are envisioned down to the last sand-dusted blob of guts, but the worldbuilding is a handful of allusions—Leonardo DiCaprio, Frankenstein, Tombstone, and more—all cobbled together. Apostles Reesa and Joule, newly graduated from the Apostle Training Center, are chosen by the Theocracy to pair up, marry, and go to Big City, a one-saloon burg in the Nevada desert that’s rumored to have a cache of oil. Why hydrocarbons would be important 300 years hence is never explained, nor is why the government would send two raw recruits to investigate this crucial resource. But so it is, and the apostles get a hostile reception from townspeople who haven’t seen outsiders in a century. They’re hiding a secret scourge: “takers,” bizarre mucous monsters who can kill with a touch—and, possibly, do much worse. A handsome loner named Tombstone tempts naive Reesa into curiosity that rapidly unfolds into a nightmare. The writing is raw and under-edited—this is a freshman outing that doesn’t quite grow into its ambition—but the vibrant story is a fun ride for horror fans nevertheless. (Oct.)