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Broken
America is lost to the chaos of war. The dead reign free in the South as the land of the living is consumed in the fires of the Civil War.
Matthew Holt now fights for the Confederacy. Once an unrelenting man of the law, he must face the evil amongst man that challenges the very code of honour he swore to live by.
Betrayed and cast into slavery, Holt finds himself thrust into a quest for justice in a lawless land.
Matthew Holt now fights for the Confederacy. Once an unrelenting man of the law, he must face the evil amongst man that challenges the very code of honour he swore to live by.
Betrayed and cast into slavery, Holt finds himself thrust into a quest for justice in a lawless land.
42 pages, Kindle Edition
First published June 25, 2014
7 people want to read
About the author
Ben Dixon
15 books12 followersI studied History at Sheffield Hallam University. I'm an Indie author and write with my friend Sam Campbell. Together we've created a series of zombie westerns.
I have lots of ideas to develop and hope to bring some new interesting books to the world.
I have lots of ideas to develop and hope to bring some new interesting books to the world.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
October 15, 2014
'The Broken' introduces us to a new character named Holt. We first meet him as a ranger returning runaway slaves to their merciless owner. Later on, Holt fights with the Confederates, but is betrayed and forced into slavery himself. Forced to fight against the invading undead, he manages to escape and later on joins a group of already well-known outcasts we met in previous installments. Together, they decide to stop the general who is responsible for the undead plague spreading through the chaos of war. While not everything is explained, more details about the origin of the zombie plague are revealed.
This was another action-packed and fast-paced adventure in the Red Dust series. However, the numerous changes that marked Holt's fate (ranger, soldier, slave, slave soldier, fugitive, ...) followed each other too fast, overloading the story with ideas. Either it should have been longer so the development of things could have been more elaborate, or the authors should have focused on a single event and summed up the rest as a short introductorily background. Reading this short story felt much longer than reading its predecessors, and I wonder whether this one would have better been put into a novella-length book.
I guess I said it somewhere in the past, but I would appreciate a detailed full-length novel for Red Dust sometime, and reading 'Broken' confirmed that the authors do have enough great ideas and potential to do so.
This was another action-packed and fast-paced adventure in the Red Dust series. However, the numerous changes that marked Holt's fate (ranger, soldier, slave, slave soldier, fugitive, ...) followed each other too fast, overloading the story with ideas. Either it should have been longer so the development of things could have been more elaborate, or the authors should have focused on a single event and summed up the rest as a short introductorily background. Reading this short story felt much longer than reading its predecessors, and I wonder whether this one would have better been put into a novella-length book.
I guess I said it somewhere in the past, but I would appreciate a detailed full-length novel for Red Dust sometime, and reading 'Broken' confirmed that the authors do have enough great ideas and potential to do so.
December 23, 2018
Finally I get some answers!! If you read RedDust and King then you will know what I am talking about!!
After Kingstown was destroyed and the people were free, King disappeared after his revenge. Along with other people who disappeared in this series but *hint* maybe we will see them again??
This book starts off with Ranger Holt. A man who lives to the letter of the law no matter who gets hurt.. but during his journey he realizes just because a law is made, doesn't mean it equals justice.
ZOMBIES!! or Risers.. where did they come from....?? I don't want to give too much away because this book answered so many of my questions and I absolutely enjoy reading about the civil war enhanced with zombies!!
Read on my friends and zombie lovers!!! This book will entertain your mind and bring all those details and questions to some understanding but I still hope for book 6 :)
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. (You guys rock Ben and Sam!!)
After Kingstown was destroyed and the people were free, King disappeared after his revenge. Along with other people who disappeared in this series but *hint* maybe we will see them again??
This book starts off with Ranger Holt. A man who lives to the letter of the law no matter who gets hurt.. but during his journey he realizes just because a law is made, doesn't mean it equals justice.
Stop looking at me like that, Holt, those days of us playing lawmen and bandits are long gone.
ZOMBIES!! or Risers.. where did they come from....?? I don't want to give too much away because this book answered so many of my questions and I absolutely enjoy reading about the civil war enhanced with zombies!!
Read on my friends and zombie lovers!!! This book will entertain your mind and bring all those details and questions to some understanding but I still hope for book 6 :)
I was given a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. (You guys rock Ben and Sam!!)
April 10, 2015
The most important thing to remember when reading this is that it is truly part of a larger whole. I read the first four books in this series last year and remember that they made a lot more sense if taken as sections of a longer, serialized novel instead of discrete books. I wish I had read this book and #6 immediately after the first four as I have forgotten some details.
That being said I was glad to see the return of the mountain man from the first book, this circled back nicely and some of the details started coming back to me. I also had to remember that there are some language oddities caused not by grammar or usage errors but by the fact that the author is from a different country. Overall the plot was good and there were just a couple of action sequences that I found a bit tough to swallow. I tried to ignore what might be "typesetting" errors but some of the its vs. it's discrepancies bugged me.
I definitely liked the book and have already started in on #6.
That being said I was glad to see the return of the mountain man from the first book, this circled back nicely and some of the details started coming back to me. I also had to remember that there are some language oddities caused not by grammar or usage errors but by the fact that the author is from a different country. Overall the plot was good and there were just a couple of action sequences that I found a bit tough to swallow. I tried to ignore what might be "typesetting" errors but some of the its vs. it's discrepancies bugged me.
I definitely liked the book and have already started in on #6.
April 12, 2015
I'm reading this series in the collected form, but thought I'd rate each segment separately.
While there are some problems with reading short stories which are essentially snapshots of life (and history in this case), and there are still some editorial problems, the series is pretty addictive. I rated #4 three stars, but as it continues into Broken I'm moving that up to a serious three and a half (read: 4).
While it isn't a complete reading experience it is a really interesting experiment in writing. I'd love to peek into the lives of these two writer/collaborators and see how they fashion each story and how it works itself into the major Red Dust tapestry. I reckon a lot of work (and fun) has gone into this series.
While there are some problems with reading short stories which are essentially snapshots of life (and history in this case), and there are still some editorial problems, the series is pretty addictive. I rated #4 three stars, but as it continues into Broken I'm moving that up to a serious three and a half (read: 4).
While it isn't a complete reading experience it is a really interesting experiment in writing. I'd love to peek into the lives of these two writer/collaborators and see how they fashion each story and how it works itself into the major Red Dust tapestry. I reckon a lot of work (and fun) has gone into this series.
September 6, 2014
Holt is the sort of lawman that upholds the law without questioning the moral justice -the right or wrong of law itself. Suffice to say he learns his limits between following the orders of law and the morality of what it means to be human and have humanity and know that the law is often flawed because of the people and politics that make it up.
Holt meets up with King and Griffin and Issac and the mountain man Masterson - Issac and Masterson go one way and King and Griffin and Hold another - to Gettysburg, where General White unleashes a monstocity which makes the dead rise without being infected by a Riser/Plaguers bite. Yet the danger Issac and Masterson face may be greater still...
Holt meets up with King and Griffin and Issac and the mountain man Masterson - Issac and Masterson go one way and King and Griffin and Hold another - to Gettysburg, where General White unleashes a monstocity which makes the dead rise without being infected by a Riser/Plaguers bite. Yet the danger Issac and Masterson face may be greater still...
September 7, 2015
Solid 3 1/2 stars.
The western zombie horror saga continues, bringing together the characters from the prior stories as Confederate soldiers confront the Union army amidst the backdrop of the undead. This is not one to read as a stand alone, and most definitely is better read without a significant break in time between books in the sequence.
As an aside, I felt a significant annoyance at the persistent misuse of 'its' and 'it's' throughout the book - sometimes the authors got it right, most of the time they didn't.
Overall, well done, and off to the next book!
The western zombie horror saga continues, bringing together the characters from the prior stories as Confederate soldiers confront the Union army amidst the backdrop of the undead. This is not one to read as a stand alone, and most definitely is better read without a significant break in time between books in the sequence.
As an aside, I felt a significant annoyance at the persistent misuse of 'its' and 'it's' throughout the book - sometimes the authors got it right, most of the time they didn't.
Overall, well done, and off to the next book!
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews