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Red Dust
From beloved Cuban science fiction author Yoss comes a bitingly funny space-opera homage to Raymond Chandler, about a positronic robot detective on the hunt for some extra-dangerous extraterrestrial criminals. On the intergalactic trading station William S. Burroughs, profit is king and aliens are the kingmakers. Earthlings have bowed to their superior power and weaponry, though the aliens—praying-mantis-like Grodos with pheromonal speech and gargantuan Collosaurs with a limited sense of humor—kindly allow them to do business through properly controlled channels. That’s where our hero comes in, name of Raymond. As part of the android police force, this positronic robot detective navigates both worlds, human and alien, keeping order and evaporating wrongdoers. But nothing in his centuries of experience prepares him for Makrow 34, a fugitive Cetian perp with psi powers. Meaning he can alter the shape of the Gaussian bell curve of statistical probability—making it rain indoors, say, or causing a would-be captor to shoot himself in the face. Raymond will need all his training—and all his careful study of Chandler’s hardbitten cops—to outmaneuver his quarry. As he did in his brilliantly funny and sharp science-fiction satires A Planet for Rent, Super Extra Grande, and Condomnauts, Yoss makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar in Red Dust, giving us an unforgettable half-human hero and a richly imagined universe where the bad guys are above the laws of physics. Praise for A Planet for "A Planet for Rent is the English-language debut of Yoss, one of Cuba's most lauded writers of science fiction. Translated by David Frye, these linked stories craft a picture of a dystopian Aliens called xenoids have invaded planet Earth, and people are looking to flee the economically and socially bankrupt remains of human civilization. Yoss' smart and entertaining novel tackles themes like prostitution, immigration and political corruption. Ultimately, it serves as an empathetic yet impassioned metaphor for modern-day Cuba, where the struggle for power has complicated every facet of society." —Juan Vidal, NPR, Best Books of 2015 "In prose that is direct, sarcastic, sexual and often violent, A Planet for Rent criticizes Cuban reality in thinly veiled terms. Cuban defectors leave the country not on rafts but on 'unlawful space launches'; prostitutes are 'social workers'; foreigners are 'xenoids'; and Cuba is a 'planet whose inhabitants have stopped believing in the future.' The book is particularly critical of the government-run tourism industry of the ’90s, which welcomed and protected tourists—often at the expense of Cubans—and whose legacy can still be felt today." —Jonathan Wolfe, The New York Times About the Born José Miguel Sánchez Gómez in Havana, Cuba, in 1969, Yoss assumed his pen name in 1988, when he won the Premio David in the science-fiction category for Timshel. Since then, he has gone on to become one of Cuba's most iconic literary figures—as the author of more than twenty acclaimed books, as a champion of science fiction through his workshops in Cuba and around the world, and as the lead singer of the heavy metal band Tenaz. His four novels translated into English are A Planet for Rent, Super Extra Grande, Condomnauts, and Red Dust.
194 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2004
51 people are currently reading
776 people want to read
About the author
Yoss
81 books132 followersBorn José Miguel Sánchez Gómez, Yoss assumed his pen name in 1988, when he won the Premio David Award in the science fiction category for Timshel. Together with his peculiar pseudonym, the author's aesthetic of an impentinent rocker has allowed him to stand out amongst his fellow Cuban writers. Earning a degree in Biology in 1991, he went on to graduate from the first ever course on Narrative Techniques at the Onelio Jorge Cardoso Center of Literary Training, in the year 1999. Today, Yoss writes both realistic and science fiction works. Alongside these novels, the author produces essays, reviews, and compilations, and actively promotes the Cuban science fiction literary workshops, Espiral and Espacio Abierto.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 102 reviews
July 19, 2020
Q:
Trade is one thing, promiscuity’s another. Partners, not equals. Everyone in their own place. No aliens on Earth, no humans among the stars. (c)
Q:
Maybe now that the future has caught up with humans and it turns out they don’t like it, they find it hard to think up new possible tomorrows. (c)
I'm pretty sure that this novel was written on a lark.
Imagine a robocop fascinated by Chandler, Hammett, Spillane, Himes, Tracy (after old Dick)… And a bunch of his motley colleagues. Overall they are quite the company to behold: Raymond Chandler, Chester Spillane, Zarathustra Heidelberg, Zorro, Achilles, Arnold Stallone, Mao Castro …
Q: There even was a Chacumbele who killed himself, and a George III who went mad. (c)
As a sulphurous bonus we got 3 Alien types: reptiloid 'bulky' Colossaurs, humanoid Cetians and insectoid Grodos.
Q:
The aliens have a saying: Routine is the mother of efficiency and the grandmother of profit. (c)
Q:
We’re parked in a Lagrange point of the Saturn system. If the lighting were any good, it would be a magnificent spectacle. (c)
Q:
You can’t twist the word bar far enough to use it for the cubicles lit like tanning booths where Colossaurs guzzle their thirty kilos of raw meat a day and get all weepy-eyed reminiscing about the bright blue glare of their giant sun. (c)
Q:
If that’s not enough, all three alien species who come here prefer to repose in solitude. Must be some weird galactic kink. (c)
Q:
The first to go were my pals Zorro and Achilles, and the Grodo bounty hunter. (c)
Q:
Not only had he broken every law in the Cetian, human, and galactic books, he had managed to come up with two or three amusing new crimes of his own. (c)
Q:
...compartmentalization policy—Let not your right tentacle know what your left claw does... (c)
Q:
They see humanity as an “unpredictable species.” Which is a polite way of saying humans are a stupid and very dangerous race who have to be kept in check. (c)
Q:
we’re neither dead nor alive, neither earthlings nor galaxians, humans nor aliens, but rather both things—and something more. Or something less. (c)
Q:
So not only did I have to find a needle in a haystack, blindfolded, I had to grab it and pocket it—knowing that if I tried the needle might stab me, the hay might burst into flames, a roof beam might fall onto my head, I might be charged by a bull that hadn’t been there a second before, or I might be turned into a frog in the blink of an eye.
So what if the frog I’d be turned into would be a positronic robot frog. I still had to try. (c)
Trade is one thing, promiscuity’s another. Partners, not equals. Everyone in their own place. No aliens on Earth, no humans among the stars. (c)
Q:
Maybe now that the future has caught up with humans and it turns out they don’t like it, they find it hard to think up new possible tomorrows. (c)
I'm pretty sure that this novel was written on a lark.
Imagine a robocop fascinated by Chandler, Hammett, Spillane, Himes, Tracy (after old Dick)… And a bunch of his motley colleagues. Overall they are quite the company to behold: Raymond Chandler, Chester Spillane, Zarathustra Heidelberg, Zorro, Achilles, Arnold Stallone, Mao Castro …
Q: There even was a Chacumbele who killed himself, and a George III who went mad. (c)
As a sulphurous bonus we got 3 Alien types: reptiloid 'bulky' Colossaurs, humanoid Cetians and insectoid Grodos.
Q:
The aliens have a saying: Routine is the mother of efficiency and the grandmother of profit. (c)
Q:
We’re parked in a Lagrange point of the Saturn system. If the lighting were any good, it would be a magnificent spectacle. (c)
Q:
You can’t twist the word bar far enough to use it for the cubicles lit like tanning booths where Colossaurs guzzle their thirty kilos of raw meat a day and get all weepy-eyed reminiscing about the bright blue glare of their giant sun. (c)
Q:
If that’s not enough, all three alien species who come here prefer to repose in solitude. Must be some weird galactic kink. (c)
Q:
The first to go were my pals Zorro and Achilles, and the Grodo bounty hunter. (c)
Q:
Not only had he broken every law in the Cetian, human, and galactic books, he had managed to come up with two or three amusing new crimes of his own. (c)
Q:
...compartmentalization policy—Let not your right tentacle know what your left claw does... (c)
Q:
They see humanity as an “unpredictable species.” Which is a polite way of saying humans are a stupid and very dangerous race who have to be kept in check. (c)
Q:
we’re neither dead nor alive, neither earthlings nor galaxians, humans nor aliens, but rather both things—and something more. Or something less. (c)
Q:
So not only did I have to find a needle in a haystack, blindfolded, I had to grab it and pocket it—knowing that if I tried the needle might stab me, the hay might burst into flames, a roof beam might fall onto my head, I might be charged by a bull that hadn’t been there a second before, or I might be turned into a frog in the blink of an eye.
So what if the frog I’d be turned into would be a positronic robot frog. I still had to try. (c)
March 8, 2023
A sci-fi noir semi-parody that spends a lot of time describing very little, trying it's best to be funny but rarely actually being it.
This was my first Yoss book, and based on the reviews I've read in the past of his previously published translations, I was expecting two things: a jarring amount of misogyny, and a good amount of refreshing sci-fi inventiveness.
Dear review reader, I have good news, and I have bad news. Good news first - I encountered no misogyny, and pretty much no female characters, so maybe that's why. The bad news is that I also did not encounter a lot of originality or inventiveness.
The story takes place on the space station the William S. Burroughs, where a police android (or 'pozzie' in Yoss-speak, what with them having positronic brains) who is obsessed with Raymond Chandler's writing (and therefore is called Raymond himself), is trying to catch a bunch of space criminals. Specifically, one that is said to be the Gaussical, a psychic who warps probability around them in their favour. So Raymond the robot seeks the help of prisoner, who is a Gaussical himself, so as to fight fire with fire.
What follows is a light parody of a noir thriller, that never really becomes very atmospheric or thrilling (things I associate with the genre). There's a lot of technobabble, the kind used in Star Trek, where it tends to sound quite interesting but actually is void of any real idea.
The thick layer of tongue-in-cheekness makes it so that the characters never become alive. The fleeing space criminals never get to speak and have no character at all.
The world feels two-dimensional. There is some beautiful writing here, but I never have I seen so many words used to describe so little. I still have barely no idea how the Nobel's world looks, feels or operates. The science fiction is there as a light flavouring only.
The idea about Gaussicals sounds fun (and reminiscent of the Infinite Improbability Drive from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but isn't exploited anywhere near enough. You're waiting for the moment the two Gaussicals will finally face eachother, the reality-warping weirdness that must thunder over us.. and it just doesn't happen. There a few fun little reality twists described, but it's all a bit underwhelming.
The story burbles along, going from place to place, from minor character to minor character, there's a big final encounter and that's it. I was hoping for a lot more, something unique. Perhaps this book is exactly the wrong entry point for the virgin Yoss reader.
(Kindly received an ARC from Restless Books through Edelweiss)
This was my first Yoss book, and based on the reviews I've read in the past of his previously published translations, I was expecting two things: a jarring amount of misogyny, and a good amount of refreshing sci-fi inventiveness.
Dear review reader, I have good news, and I have bad news. Good news first - I encountered no misogyny, and pretty much no female characters, so maybe that's why. The bad news is that I also did not encounter a lot of originality or inventiveness.
The story takes place on the space station the William S. Burroughs, where a police android (or 'pozzie' in Yoss-speak, what with them having positronic brains) who is obsessed with Raymond Chandler's writing (and therefore is called Raymond himself), is trying to catch a bunch of space criminals. Specifically, one that is said to be the Gaussical, a psychic who warps probability around them in their favour. So Raymond the robot seeks the help of prisoner, who is a Gaussical himself, so as to fight fire with fire.
What follows is a light parody of a noir thriller, that never really becomes very atmospheric or thrilling (things I associate with the genre). There's a lot of technobabble, the kind used in Star Trek, where it tends to sound quite interesting but actually is void of any real idea.
The thick layer of tongue-in-cheekness makes it so that the characters never become alive. The fleeing space criminals never get to speak and have no character at all.
The world feels two-dimensional. There is some beautiful writing here, but I never have I seen so many words used to describe so little. I still have barely no idea how the Nobel's world looks, feels or operates. The science fiction is there as a light flavouring only.
The idea about Gaussicals sounds fun (and reminiscent of the Infinite Improbability Drive from The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy), but isn't exploited anywhere near enough. You're waiting for the moment the two Gaussicals will finally face eachother, the reality-warping weirdness that must thunder over us.. and it just doesn't happen. There a few fun little reality twists described, but it's all a bit underwhelming.
The story burbles along, going from place to place, from minor character to minor character, there's a big final encounter and that's it. I was hoping for a lot more, something unique. Perhaps this book is exactly the wrong entry point for the virgin Yoss reader.
(Kindly received an ARC from Restless Books through Edelweiss)
September 27, 2020
How I read this: Free ebook copy received through Edelweiss
For the past week or two, I have been hearing about this new novel by the scifi author Yoss that’s gaining traction, and I mean I’ve been hearing about it EVERYWHERE. I decided to finally read my copy and instantly liked the tone of it. Red Dust is very down to earth, jokey and has a good pace. It also reminded me of one of my favorite scifi series, Murderbot Diaries!
To sum up the vibe, imagine a space cop team made up of a 20th century private eye, a Greek soldier, a conquistador, a terminator, and a communist revolutionary. And they're all artificial humans. And it's funny as hell, while being dark too. You want to read it.
Here's my full review:
https://avalinahsbooks.space/red-dust...
And just in case you won't read my full post, I have to comment on one thing before you go. There was one downside to this book – it had exactly 0 women characters. I realize that this might have been chosen because it is supposed to reflect a 20th century noir detective story – which most likely never really had serious female characters. But it’s not like other contemporary noirs fail to incorporate women into the story – in fact, a lot of them have female leads, or at least very strong and competent side characters. So I feel like it could have been done. This still happens more often than not in scifi, which is sad – and I wouldn’t have minded to read a woman character on these pages.
But then again, being used to this kind of thing, I won’t take away from my rating – I still immensely enjoyed the book, and I believe it still deserves 5 stars for the content. Let’s just hope more and more scifi writers soon realize that women, uh, exist too. And that a lot of them are their readers.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
For the past week or two, I have been hearing about this new novel by the scifi author Yoss that’s gaining traction, and I mean I’ve been hearing about it EVERYWHERE. I decided to finally read my copy and instantly liked the tone of it. Red Dust is very down to earth, jokey and has a good pace. It also reminded me of one of my favorite scifi series, Murderbot Diaries!
To sum up the vibe, imagine a space cop team made up of a 20th century private eye, a Greek soldier, a conquistador, a terminator, and a communist revolutionary. And they're all artificial humans. And it's funny as hell, while being dark too. You want to read it.
Here's my full review:
https://avalinahsbooks.space/red-dust...
And just in case you won't read my full post, I have to comment on one thing before you go. There was one downside to this book – it had exactly 0 women characters. I realize that this might have been chosen because it is supposed to reflect a 20th century noir detective story – which most likely never really had serious female characters. But it’s not like other contemporary noirs fail to incorporate women into the story – in fact, a lot of them have female leads, or at least very strong and competent side characters. So I feel like it could have been done. This still happens more often than not in scifi, which is sad – and I wouldn’t have minded to read a woman character on these pages.
But then again, being used to this kind of thing, I won’t take away from my rating – I still immensely enjoyed the book, and I believe it still deserves 5 stars for the content. Let’s just hope more and more scifi writers soon realize that women, uh, exist too. And that a lot of them are their readers.
I thank the publisher for giving me a free copy of the ebook in exchange to my honest review. This has not affected my opinion.
Book Blog | Bookstagram | Bookish Twitter
January 31, 2021
This is a novella by a Cuban writer Yoss, a story that is a homage to the golden age SF and hard-boiled detectives. I read is as a part of monthly reading for January 2021 at Speculative Fiction in Translation group.
This is a story of a cop based on an alien space station. His name is Raymond ("Raymond (as in Chandler)") and he is an anthropomorphic robot with positronic brain (see Asimov’s reference?), who was created almost six decades ago to support order on the space station built by the Galactic Trade Confederation on the outskirts of the Solar system. He and a score of other robots, each named after one or another real or fictional character - Zorro, Mao Castro, Achilles, Einstein – follow the style of their namesake – e.g. a mask and sword for Zorro or Red Guards uniform for Mao. Raymond wear trench coat and fedora, and narrates the story in style of a hard-boiled detectives (supposedly styled after Raymond Chandler, but I never have read his work to say for sure).
There are three main alien races, also quite ‘ordinary’ for older SF – an insectoid Grodo, reptilian Colossaurs and human-like Cetians, who are despite the similarity hatch from eggs and are clones. The story starts when a Cetian prisoner with PSI powers is delivered to the station but escapes and our hero has to bring him back.
This is a light read without anything astoundingly new.
This is a story of a cop based on an alien space station. His name is Raymond ("Raymond (as in Chandler)") and he is an anthropomorphic robot with positronic brain (see Asimov’s reference?), who was created almost six decades ago to support order on the space station built by the Galactic Trade Confederation on the outskirts of the Solar system. He and a score of other robots, each named after one or another real or fictional character - Zorro, Mao Castro, Achilles, Einstein – follow the style of their namesake – e.g. a mask and sword for Zorro or Red Guards uniform for Mao. Raymond wear trench coat and fedora, and narrates the story in style of a hard-boiled detectives (supposedly styled after Raymond Chandler, but I never have read his work to say for sure).
There are three main alien races, also quite ‘ordinary’ for older SF – an insectoid Grodo, reptilian Colossaurs and human-like Cetians, who are despite the similarity hatch from eggs and are clones. The story starts when a Cetian prisoner with PSI powers is delivered to the station but escapes and our hero has to bring him back.
This is a light read without anything astoundingly new.
January 13, 2021
This is the first translated work I read together with the Speculative Fiction in Translation group. I'll start by saying I enjoyed the translation.
It's a clear homage to Douglas and Asimov novels - imagine a cheeky version of R. Daneel Olivaw. Light and amusing but a little bit over the top with the expositions for a short novel. Might work better as a novelette.
It does not have any complicated plot or twists yet there were some parts I'd like to get more e.g. the final showdown.
Looks like the author specializes in this kind of writing so I might check his other works when I want to read something light.
It's a clear homage to Douglas and Asimov novels - imagine a cheeky version of R. Daneel Olivaw. Light and amusing but a little bit over the top with the expositions for a short novel. Might work better as a novelette.
It does not have any complicated plot or twists yet there were some parts I'd like to get more e.g. the final showdown.
Looks like the author specializes in this kind of writing so I might check his other works when I want to read something light.
March 20, 2021
This was quite fun!
I have also read Yoss' Super Extra Grande, a space opera with a nod to '70s pulp fiction. Red Dust is sci-fi with a heavy nod to retro noir detective fiction. Both are fun, but I did enjoy this one a bit more (probably because I like noir detective stories).
I found the nods to classic noir, the tone, & the pacing fun. It's fast & satisfying, like eating a big tub of popcorn at a summer action movie. Probably not memorable over the long term, but fun while immersed in it.
P.S. I am not the sci-fi reader who ponders whether the science is or is not possible, so I have no advice on that front for those who care about things like that. It's not super-detailed & I would suspect for those who discount sci-fi with "incorrect" science, this may not make your cut.
I have also read Yoss' Super Extra Grande, a space opera with a nod to '70s pulp fiction. Red Dust is sci-fi with a heavy nod to retro noir detective fiction. Both are fun, but I did enjoy this one a bit more (probably because I like noir detective stories).
I found the nods to classic noir, the tone, & the pacing fun. It's fast & satisfying, like eating a big tub of popcorn at a summer action movie. Probably not memorable over the long term, but fun while immersed in it.
P.S. I am not the sci-fi reader who ponders whether the science is or is not possible, so I have no advice on that front for those who care about things like that. It's not super-detailed & I would suspect for those who discount sci-fi with "incorrect" science, this may not make your cut.
September 9, 2022
Eh.
A sci-fi noir (semi?)parody that tries really hard to be funny and smart and sort of fails at both, in my opinion. Maybe I'm not into robocops.
A sci-fi noir (semi?)parody that tries really hard to be funny and smart and sort of fails at both, in my opinion. Maybe I'm not into robocops.
April 6, 2021
This was a fun ride through the galaxy. There were absolutely no female-identified/female-adjacent characters in this work, not even any of the aliens which was wild strange.
I did like the pace at which this book moved. It was incredibly descriptive, slightly confusing but categorically different from a lot of the books I’ve read recently. There were moments that gave me Star Trek vibes, moments that gave me Bladerunner, yo honestly this book was drowning in Bladerunner vibes. I wasn’t mad at it tho. There was a The Martian moment where the main character, an Android detective and his alien crony are adrift in space waiting on someone to save them for like 17 days where they believe they’re going to die. That was interesting. A couple of pretty salient points were made in a humorous way about racism and class divisions in our current society vs the necessity for division in an alien-takeover. The big-ending fight sequence was kind of pulpy which was cool.
Overall, I enjoyed the read, didn’t blow me away but it did keep me entertained!
I did like the pace at which this book moved. It was incredibly descriptive, slightly confusing but categorically different from a lot of the books I’ve read recently. There were moments that gave me Star Trek vibes, moments that gave me Bladerunner, yo honestly this book was drowning in Bladerunner vibes. I wasn’t mad at it tho. There was a The Martian moment where the main character, an Android detective and his alien crony are adrift in space waiting on someone to save them for like 17 days where they believe they’re going to die. That was interesting. A couple of pretty salient points were made in a humorous way about racism and class divisions in our current society vs the necessity for division in an alien-takeover. The big-ending fight sequence was kind of pulpy which was cool.
Overall, I enjoyed the read, didn’t blow me away but it did keep me entertained!
July 4, 2020
I do so like Yoss, and the Cuban Science Fiction novel, " Red Dust" written by Yoss, translated by David Frye and published by Restless Books, was certainly no disappointment. It was wonderful.
First sentence: "This is the story of how I go my second name"
Keywords: Sci-fi, Cuban, translated, Raymond Chander, hard-boiled.
Yoss dedicated this book to Raymond Chandler and it encases the spirit of Chandler. The main character is a police officer on the William S Burroughs space station. He is not human. He is a "pozitronic robot", a "pozzie" for short, and his "keyname" is "Raymond (as in Chandler)". In true Yoss style we have a world full of aliens of all shapes and sizes (and I mean ALL shapes and sizes). It is sprinkled with names and references that we recognise - Asimov, Bladerunner, Storm troopers, Asimov's three laws of robotics, Philip Marlowe, Humphrey Bogart. And it is written in the true hard-boiled style.
Words which come to mind are - ludicrous, totally irreverant, horrific, whirlwind adventure. The author's crazy ability with words is quite spectacular. "Red Dust" contains the normal cast of Yossian characters - big, small, multi limbed, multiple orifaces and utterly grotesque. And so we discover how Raymond got his second name, And no - it was not Chandler.
Quite wonderful. I totally recommend it.
Thank you to the Edelweiss, the author and the publisher for sending me the ARC of this book.
First sentence: "This is the story of how I go my second name"
Keywords: Sci-fi, Cuban, translated, Raymond Chander, hard-boiled.
Yoss dedicated this book to Raymond Chandler and it encases the spirit of Chandler. The main character is a police officer on the William S Burroughs space station. He is not human. He is a "pozitronic robot", a "pozzie" for short, and his "keyname" is "Raymond (as in Chandler)". In true Yoss style we have a world full of aliens of all shapes and sizes (and I mean ALL shapes and sizes). It is sprinkled with names and references that we recognise - Asimov, Bladerunner, Storm troopers, Asimov's three laws of robotics, Philip Marlowe, Humphrey Bogart. And it is written in the true hard-boiled style.
Words which come to mind are - ludicrous, totally irreverant, horrific, whirlwind adventure. The author's crazy ability with words is quite spectacular. "Red Dust" contains the normal cast of Yossian characters - big, small, multi limbed, multiple orifaces and utterly grotesque. And so we discover how Raymond got his second name, And no - it was not Chandler.
Quite wonderful. I totally recommend it.
Thank you to the Edelweiss, the author and the publisher for sending me the ARC of this book.
January 26, 2021
Oh man how I would've LOVED this book when I was 15 or so. There is a robot cop (cool!) on a space station (very cool!) built by aliens (oh yeah!) that are portrayed as ultra-capitalists / neo-colonialists (poignant!).
The SF has many elements of Golden Age (unrealistically terrestrial-looking aliens, PSI powers), but there are modern sensibilities in the mix. It doesn't exactly feel like homage; it's more like the author read loads of classic SF as a teen and wanted to write something that his younger self would've enjoyed.
And it works like a charm! I mean, I'm middle-aged now, but I'm not so jaded I wouldn't enjoy the buddy-cop adventures of a robot cop who is also a Raymond Chandler-fan and a criminal with weird PSI powers.
That said, this IS a light work that doesn't pretend to be great literature. It was a very enjoyable treat, but that's it.
The SF has many elements of Golden Age (unrealistically terrestrial-looking aliens, PSI powers), but there are modern sensibilities in the mix. It doesn't exactly feel like homage; it's more like the author read loads of classic SF as a teen and wanted to write something that his younger self would've enjoyed.
And it works like a charm! I mean, I'm middle-aged now, but I'm not so jaded I wouldn't enjoy the buddy-cop adventures of a robot cop who is also a Raymond Chandler-fan and a criminal with weird PSI powers.
That said, this IS a light work that doesn't pretend to be great literature. It was a very enjoyable treat, but that's it.
August 16, 2025
I like your funny words magic man
June 3, 2025
Such a fun book!!! I feel like saying anything more about it would be a spoiler bc it’s only 160 pages but trust everything I would say is overwhelmingly positive
February 4, 2020
Yoss has such a unique voice for science fiction. The worlds he creates have this retro, Heinlein charm to them but with a perspective from the modern era. Red Dust is no exception; it's a compact, well-written detective noir set in space. We follow the story of a Raymond Chandler obsessed robot and his human, ex-criminal partner as they track down one of the most dangerous people in the galaxy. Part Douglas Adams, part Agatha Christie, all excellent.
September 18, 2021
A fun, action-driven sci-fi/noir mashup of a novella following a robot detective chasing a criminal who can warp reality. I enjoyed that this novella is set in the same universe as Yoss's A Planet For Rent, but the worldbuilding was less central to this story than the plot and tributes to the writing of Raymond Chandler and other classic detective stories.
Cw for suicide, slurs
Cw for suicide, slurs
January 6, 2022
I enjoyed it. The novella could have been longer. A lot was packed in there. Too much.
Read
December 23, 2020rips, honks, slaps, so good
August 7, 2024
This book, Red Dust, was a total surprise to me. I had never heard of the author (Yoss) or the book, but discovered it while trying to find a copy of a Timothy Zane book in the library; one of the things I've missed since COVID and mostly finding new books on Goodreads. Yoss is a Cuban science fiction author and the lead singer in a heavy metal band.
The book is a space opera homage to Raymond Chandler. [sci fi and noir, what more can you ask for]. The protagonist is a positronic robot detective. and characters include three alien races beyond humans. The story is short, but extremely well executed. This will not be the last book by Yoss that I will read.
The book is a space opera homage to Raymond Chandler. [sci fi and noir, what more can you ask for]. The protagonist is a positronic robot detective. and characters include three alien races beyond humans. The story is short, but extremely well executed. This will not be the last book by Yoss that I will read.
July 9, 2020
Newly translated into English by Restless Books, Red Dust is another short sci-fi adventure from Cuban author Yoss. This time around, Yoss has combined elements of pulp sci-fi with elements of pulp detective stories.
To stop a dangerous criminal and to prevent a catastrophic breakdown in human-alien relations, an android detective teams up with a small-time crook with psychic powers. It’s a premise intentionally evocative of Asimov’s Caves of Steel and leans into detective story clichés on purpose, with the android narrator (who has modeled its personality on the private eyes penned by Raymond Chandler) taking certain actions precisely because he read about them in old detective books. This mitigates some of the unoriginality of using so many old crime story tropes throughout the course of the book, I think? And the unlikely coincidences and reliance on intuition are forgivable because the small-time crook’s psychic power is probability manipulation, I guess? You have to smile at Yoss writing himself such a good authorial “get out of jail free” card with Red Dust’s setup. The plot is largely predictable, but still fun, and I have to admit that the ending didn’t play out exactly like I expected: .
Taken for what it is, Red Dust is an entertaining read that you can finish in a single sitting if you’re so inclined, but it has some flaws. It does a lot of telling instead of showing, which Yoss could have avoided by spending some time with the android police force working on the space station before the main story got started, thereby allowing him to more artfully introduce the setting and the main character. Furthermore, I’m not sure if Yoss was trying to mimic the narrative voice of a Chandler character in Red Dust, but to the extent he was trying to do so he didn’t succeed, as the narrator here reads pretty much identically to the narrator of Super Extra Grande. Additionally, the universe of Red Dust isn’t as interesting if you’ve read Yoss’s book A Planet for Rent, as Red Dust’s setting is a less developed iteration of the same idea that humans are the low man on the intergalactic totem poll.
And now that I’ve mentioned A Planet for Rent, Red Dust’s biggest flaw is that it pales in comparison. I keep reading books by Yoss hoping to get another excellent and poignant work like A Planet for Rent, but instead Red Dust and his other translated works are all light adventure stories instead. There’s nothing wrong with them, per se, and of course Yoss is free to write whatever stories he fancies, but I can’t help it that I want him to dig deeper (as I know he’s capable of doing). Still, a fun book is a fun book, and Red Dust’s self aware sci-fi hardboiled amalgam is an enjoyable enough time. 3.5/5, rounding down.
To stop a dangerous criminal and to prevent a catastrophic breakdown in human-alien relations, an android detective teams up with a small-time crook with psychic powers. It’s a premise intentionally evocative of Asimov’s Caves of Steel and leans into detective story clichés on purpose, with the android narrator (who has modeled its personality on the private eyes penned by Raymond Chandler) taking certain actions precisely because he read about them in old detective books. This mitigates some of the unoriginality of using so many old crime story tropes throughout the course of the book, I think? And the unlikely coincidences and reliance on intuition are forgivable because the small-time crook’s psychic power is probability manipulation, I guess? You have to smile at Yoss writing himself such a good authorial “get out of jail free” card with Red Dust’s setup. The plot is largely predictable, but still fun, and I have to admit that the ending didn’t play out exactly like I expected: .
Taken for what it is, Red Dust is an entertaining read that you can finish in a single sitting if you’re so inclined, but it has some flaws. It does a lot of telling instead of showing, which Yoss could have avoided by spending some time with the android police force working on the space station before the main story got started, thereby allowing him to more artfully introduce the setting and the main character. Furthermore, I’m not sure if Yoss was trying to mimic the narrative voice of a Chandler character in Red Dust, but to the extent he was trying to do so he didn’t succeed, as the narrator here reads pretty much identically to the narrator of Super Extra Grande. Additionally, the universe of Red Dust isn’t as interesting if you’ve read Yoss’s book A Planet for Rent, as Red Dust’s setting is a less developed iteration of the same idea that humans are the low man on the intergalactic totem poll.
And now that I’ve mentioned A Planet for Rent, Red Dust’s biggest flaw is that it pales in comparison. I keep reading books by Yoss hoping to get another excellent and poignant work like A Planet for Rent, but instead Red Dust and his other translated works are all light adventure stories instead. There’s nothing wrong with them, per se, and of course Yoss is free to write whatever stories he fancies, but I can’t help it that I want him to dig deeper (as I know he’s capable of doing). Still, a fun book is a fun book, and Red Dust’s self aware sci-fi hardboiled amalgam is an enjoyable enough time. 3.5/5, rounding down.
August 25, 2024
Maybe a generous 2.5* ? (this review is just rambling)
Idk, I just didn't really care until the very end and some word choices ("exotic" and the g- word for Romani people) were very....questionable. Maybe you could explain those by the main character being obsessed with old detective stories etc but still, it was a choice I did not like.
I also struggled so much getting into this, I started the audiobook like 4 or 5 times until I finally managed to finish it - even though it's just about 3 hours long (excluding the fact I listened to it sped up).
I liked the idea of "Gaussicals", beings that can basically change the probability of things happening and thereby can change reality itself, but other than that I don't have much to say.
Weirdly pro-cop, too? Even though they are very aware they are just a tool, somehow the cops seem to be the good guys?
The writing was generally good, though, and the characterizations were clear and solid. Doesn't save it for me, though.
Idk, I just didn't really care until the very end and some word choices ("exotic" and the g- word for Romani people) were very....questionable. Maybe you could explain those by the main character being obsessed with old detective stories etc but still, it was a choice I did not like.
I also struggled so much getting into this, I started the audiobook like 4 or 5 times until I finally managed to finish it - even though it's just about 3 hours long (excluding the fact I listened to it sped up).
I liked the idea of "Gaussicals", beings that can basically change the probability of things happening and thereby can change reality itself, but other than that I don't have much to say.
Weirdly pro-cop, too? Even though they are very aware they are just a tool, somehow the cops seem to be the good guys?
The writing was generally good, though, and the characterizations were clear and solid. Doesn't save it for me, though.
December 14, 2024
How Red Dust got published in its original language, let alone translated, is inexplicable and—I can only assume—a giant slap in the face to any writer who has had a competently written story rejected by publishers. This novella makes moves to be an extraplanetary adventure and a hardboiled mystery and a mecha‐inflected action tale and an android’s rights think piece and succeeds on exactly none of these fronts, instead offering a confusing mess of half‐formed ideas and genre fiction clichés.
The only thing (and I mean only thing) remotely redeeming in this entire story is the coinage of the word ‘Gaussical’. That’s a cool word.
The only thing (and I mean only thing) remotely redeeming in this entire story is the coinage of the word ‘Gaussical’. That’s a cool word.
June 24, 2022
Popcorn book. Not too long, adequately entertaining, but doesn't bring anything new to the table. Rating: competent.
July 19, 2023
Not my kind of thing. Also too complicated world and too much context for such a short story. Didn’t enjoy it.
July 5, 2025
Good light hearted sci-fi mystery, you can’t go wrong with that. (Some female characters would have been nice though.)
March 20, 2020
Not my favorite Yoss, although still charming enough. I expected a bit more of a proper Chandler-esque mystery in space and this was, instead, more or less a paint-by-numbers sci-fi adventure. I like the Psi angle, but all in all? Meh.
August 11, 2024
José Miguel Sánchez, better known as Yoss, is a Cuban science fiction author who admits is trying his hand at a hard-boiled crime novel a la Raymond Chandler with RED DUST.
It tells the story of Raymond, a robot (positronic) who witnesses the murder of two of his police officer comrades on the trading post he is stationed at some miles off of Saturn (the planet).
The murderer, he finds, is what is known as a Gaussian. In other words, he is someone with Psi powers who can bend space and time, make it rain indoors, pop tiny unicorns into existence, and any other bizarre twists to the Gaussian bell curve of probability.
In short, this Gaussian villain by the name of Makrow 55 is impossible to capture or kill. So our positronic hero who is obsessed with the novels of Raymond Chandler and detective crime fiction (he even wears a trench coat and a broad-brimmed hat) seeks the help of another Gaussian who happens to be a petty thief behind bars.
Together, they journey to another sector in search of the resourceful Old Man Slovoban, an impossibly old Romani man who has his own reasons for seeking out Makrow 55. What follows are high-octane chases, incredibly imaginative descriptions of the setting and characters, near-misses and hanging-by-a-thread scenarios including endless days floating in space in old suits turned toxic.
Yoss is incredibly inventive and his descriptions are spellbinding. His writing is compelling and fun.
But there is more than meets the eye here. RED DUST, besides being somewhat of a subtle treatise about class and power, is also a heartwarming metafictional tale about probability and how life can turn around in a split second.
The book starts with Raymond telling us that, given that he’s such a huge fan of Chandler, you’d expect him to tell the story in the style of that American-British novelist. The reason why he doesn’t is the overarching mystery of the novel.
And the answer to that is lovely, heartwarming, and fun to get to.
I spoke to the author after finishing this and his friendliness, openness, and kindness, explains this little red book.
It tells the story of Raymond, a robot (positronic) who witnesses the murder of two of his police officer comrades on the trading post he is stationed at some miles off of Saturn (the planet).
The murderer, he finds, is what is known as a Gaussian. In other words, he is someone with Psi powers who can bend space and time, make it rain indoors, pop tiny unicorns into existence, and any other bizarre twists to the Gaussian bell curve of probability.
In short, this Gaussian villain by the name of Makrow 55 is impossible to capture or kill. So our positronic hero who is obsessed with the novels of Raymond Chandler and detective crime fiction (he even wears a trench coat and a broad-brimmed hat) seeks the help of another Gaussian who happens to be a petty thief behind bars.
Together, they journey to another sector in search of the resourceful Old Man Slovoban, an impossibly old Romani man who has his own reasons for seeking out Makrow 55. What follows are high-octane chases, incredibly imaginative descriptions of the setting and characters, near-misses and hanging-by-a-thread scenarios including endless days floating in space in old suits turned toxic.
Yoss is incredibly inventive and his descriptions are spellbinding. His writing is compelling and fun.
But there is more than meets the eye here. RED DUST, besides being somewhat of a subtle treatise about class and power, is also a heartwarming metafictional tale about probability and how life can turn around in a split second.
The book starts with Raymond telling us that, given that he’s such a huge fan of Chandler, you’d expect him to tell the story in the style of that American-British novelist. The reason why he doesn’t is the overarching mystery of the novel.
And the answer to that is lovely, heartwarming, and fun to get to.
I spoke to the author after finishing this and his friendliness, openness, and kindness, explains this little red book.
February 7, 2024
Sarcastic quick little scifi tale that I picked up because I wanted to try “Cuban sci fi”.
Raymond is one of the many android police patrolling the border between human space and the more superior alien races. Raymond is asked to track down a particularly troublesome human and learns more about his struggle.
In an effort to read more translation scifi- found this quick sarcastic novella. Found this enjoyable but honestly nothing special. The crass sarcasm and underlying defeatism is going to turn off some people.
Raymond is one of the many android police patrolling the border between human space and the more superior alien races. Raymond is asked to track down a particularly troublesome human and learns more about his struggle.
In an effort to read more translation scifi- found this quick sarcastic novella. Found this enjoyable but honestly nothing special. The crass sarcasm and underlying defeatism is going to turn off some people.
July 15, 2020
Such a fun read! This book is a science fiction homage to old noir detective stories-- sort of a Philip Marlowe in space. David Frye provides an excellent translation into English, while maintaining Yoss' Cuban flair of names and phrases.
November 10, 2023
Wow! Loved this story of pure sci-fi invention
September 4, 2025
Rating: 4* of five
The Publisher Says: From beloved Cuban science fiction author Yoss comes a bitingly funny space-opera homage to Raymond Chandler, about a positronic robot detective on the hunt for some extra-dangerous extraterrestrial criminals.
On the intergalactic trading station William S. Burroughs, profit is king and aliens are the kingmakers. Earthlings have bowed to their superior power and weaponry, though the aliens—praying-mantis-like Grodos with pheromonal speech and gargantuan Collosaurs with a limited sense of humor—kindly allow them to do business through properly controlled channels.
That’s where our hero comes in, name of Raymond. As part of the android police force, this positronic robot detective navigates both worlds, human and alien, keeping order and evaporating wrongdoers. But nothing in his centuries of experience prepares him for Makrow 34, a fugitive Cetian perp with psi powers. Meaning he can alter the shape of the Gaussian bell curve of statistical probability—making it rain indoors, say, or causing a would-be captor to shoot himself in the face. Raymond will need all his training—and all his careful study of Chandler’s hardbitten cops—to meet his match.
As he did in his brilliantly funny and sharp science-fiction parables A Planet for Rent, Super Extra Grande , and Condomnauts, Yoss makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar in Red Dust, giving us an unforgettable half-human hero and a richly imagined universe where the bad guys are above the laws of physics.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Raymond (short for Raymond Chandler), a pozzie living on space station William S. Burroughs of the Galactic Trade Confederation, presses an already-imprisoned Gaussical into helping him catch a fellow Gaussical whose probability-bending is getting too greedy. Raymond believes like will call to like, and trusts he's Philip Marlowe not Miles Archer.
If none of that made sense, but you're still intrigued, sign up for this voyage of the Cuban-registered spaceship Yoss powered by much the same sense of absurdity that powered Douglas Adams to fame and fortune. Only he wrote it in Spanish. Lots of kinetic to-and-fro, lots of pseudo-hardboiled dialogue, innumerable odd lifeforms (the Gaussians, psionically gifted Cetian benders of probability, are my favorites but are not alone) pack the under-two-hundred pages set in the same fictional universe as A Planet for Rent (q.v.) very full.
Too full, most likely; and almost entirely male, so the misogyny Yoss is known for doesn't flare up. But don't think he's at a loss for slurs! Or any other colorful language, this man's right up there in the inventiveness standings. While I just said the short book's maybe a bit too packed, it's not filler...but it's also not moored onto a solid foundation unless you have read A Planet for Rent. They are not interconnected in plot or characters, but in background assumptions like Humanity's made up of wildly unpredictable, untrustworthy wild cards who need watching and controlling for their own good. (And their overlords' profit.) And our pozzie Raymond (positronic-brained android) is part of the machinery that keeps conflict between Humanity and the Xenoids to a dull roar. It's because of that the fascination with Raymond Chandler got hold of MSX-3482-GZ. We're all friends so let's use keynames, though. Sets the proper tone. As the events unfold we should be getting set up for the two Gaussians (you know, Gauss? numerical analysis, conformal mapping, all that stuff y'all already know too much about for me to go into it) confronting each other with one (reluctantly) representing Order and one not. And it never happens. Fifth star gone.
Rooted in Yoss's experiences of the 1990s collapse of socialist Cuba, his well-founded mistrust and anger at capitalism is loud and clear in the stories that precede this novella, where they reach a high shine. It's clear to me that the loud clanging of alarm bells in these two titles should have been heeded quite a while ago.
Best ten years ago; second-best, today.
The Publisher Says: From beloved Cuban science fiction author Yoss comes a bitingly funny space-opera homage to Raymond Chandler, about a positronic robot detective on the hunt for some extra-dangerous extraterrestrial criminals.
On the intergalactic trading station William S. Burroughs, profit is king and aliens are the kingmakers. Earthlings have bowed to their superior power and weaponry, though the aliens—praying-mantis-like Grodos with pheromonal speech and gargantuan Collosaurs with a limited sense of humor—kindly allow them to do business through properly controlled channels.
That’s where our hero comes in, name of Raymond. As part of the android police force, this positronic robot detective navigates both worlds, human and alien, keeping order and evaporating wrongdoers. But nothing in his centuries of experience prepares him for Makrow 34, a fugitive Cetian perp with psi powers. Meaning he can alter the shape of the Gaussian bell curve of statistical probability—making it rain indoors, say, or causing a would-be captor to shoot himself in the face. Raymond will need all his training—and all his careful study of Chandler’s hardbitten cops—to meet his match.
As he did in his brilliantly funny and sharp science-fiction parables A Planet for Rent, Super Extra Grande , and Condomnauts, Yoss makes the familiar strange and the strange familiar in Red Dust, giving us an unforgettable half-human hero and a richly imagined universe where the bad guys are above the laws of physics.
I RECEIVED A DRC FROM THE PUBLISHER VIA EDELWEISS+. THANK YOU.
My Review: Raymond (short for Raymond Chandler), a pozzie living on space station William S. Burroughs of the Galactic Trade Confederation, presses an already-imprisoned Gaussical into helping him catch a fellow Gaussical whose probability-bending is getting too greedy. Raymond believes like will call to like, and trusts he's Philip Marlowe not Miles Archer.
If none of that made sense, but you're still intrigued, sign up for this voyage of the Cuban-registered spaceship Yoss powered by much the same sense of absurdity that powered Douglas Adams to fame and fortune. Only he wrote it in Spanish. Lots of kinetic to-and-fro, lots of pseudo-hardboiled dialogue, innumerable odd lifeforms (the Gaussians, psionically gifted Cetian benders of probability, are my favorites but are not alone) pack the under-two-hundred pages set in the same fictional universe as A Planet for Rent (q.v.) very full.
Too full, most likely; and almost entirely male, so the misogyny Yoss is known for doesn't flare up. But don't think he's at a loss for slurs! Or any other colorful language, this man's right up there in the inventiveness standings. While I just said the short book's maybe a bit too packed, it's not filler...but it's also not moored onto a solid foundation unless you have read A Planet for Rent. They are not interconnected in plot or characters, but in background assumptions like Humanity's made up of wildly unpredictable, untrustworthy wild cards who need watching and controlling for their own good. (And their overlords' profit.) And our pozzie Raymond (positronic-brained android) is part of the machinery that keeps conflict between Humanity and the Xenoids to a dull roar. It's because of that the fascination with Raymond Chandler got hold of MSX-3482-GZ. We're all friends so let's use keynames, though. Sets the proper tone. As the events unfold we should be getting set up for the two Gaussians (you know, Gauss? numerical analysis, conformal mapping, all that stuff y'all already know too much about for me to go into it) confronting each other with one (reluctantly) representing Order and one not. And it never happens. Fifth star gone.
Rooted in Yoss's experiences of the 1990s collapse of socialist Cuba, his well-founded mistrust and anger at capitalism is loud and clear in the stories that precede this novella, where they reach a high shine. It's clear to me that the loud clanging of alarm bells in these two titles should have been heeded quite a while ago.
Best ten years ago; second-best, today.
January 24, 2022
Fun, light, if inessential read. I think the world he's built is interesting, if not wholly unique. He does spend a lot of time going into detail about aspects of the world, which would be nice if we were going to spend more time here, but it's a short read that wraps up pretty quickly and I don't think there's any plans for more stories, so. What little real estate we get here is filled up with a lot of description and explanation and a fairly quick plot. It's somewhat of a nod to Raymond Chandler noir stories, but at the same time it doesn't lean into that enough. It's also a tidy little sci-fi story, featuring aliens and robots and psi powers and whatnot, but since it's so short and not terribly new, it's also not enough there.
Main issue for me is that this book is billed as being "funny". Some reviews even say it's "laugh-out-loud" and refer to it as a "parody". This book is...not funny. Smile-inducing at times, maybe, but overall it's pretty dry. The dialogue is a bit wordy, the descriptions are a bit forced, and the plot overall isn't clever enough to make you chuckle at the thought of it. I'd say the synopsis is more clever than the excecution, which takes a pretty journeyman approach to it all. Here's the interesting bit: the main character, Raymond, is a positronic robot who dresses up in a fedora and trenchcoat and thinks he's a detective a la Phillip Marlowe. Could be funny, yeah? Sorta is...but where the problem lies is that this idea was done in Fallout 4, with an android character named Nick Valentine, who read too many 1920's serials and has the same procllivities, even down to the trenchcoat and fedora. Now, Yoss's book originally came out in Cuba in 2004 acording to the copyright, so this idea may have actually inspired Fallout 4. But for me, reading this in 2022, many years after playing Fallout 4, it felt like I'd already seen the idea executed, and somewhat better, actually, in the game. Hard to fault Yoss for this (again, he was technically first) but I can't fight my expectations.
I wish this had been punchier and funnier. I was ready to leap into it excited, enjoy a breezy story with some fun characters, and maybe check out more of the author. But I was a bit underwhelmed, and definitely wasn't chuckling (this is no Hitchhiker's) so I may wait to check out other stuff of his. A light read and an easy one, but somewhat empty calories.
Main issue for me is that this book is billed as being "funny". Some reviews even say it's "laugh-out-loud" and refer to it as a "parody". This book is...not funny. Smile-inducing at times, maybe, but overall it's pretty dry. The dialogue is a bit wordy, the descriptions are a bit forced, and the plot overall isn't clever enough to make you chuckle at the thought of it. I'd say the synopsis is more clever than the excecution, which takes a pretty journeyman approach to it all. Here's the interesting bit: the main character, Raymond, is a positronic robot who dresses up in a fedora and trenchcoat and thinks he's a detective a la Phillip Marlowe. Could be funny, yeah? Sorta is...but where the problem lies is that this idea was done in Fallout 4, with an android character named Nick Valentine, who read too many 1920's serials and has the same procllivities, even down to the trenchcoat and fedora. Now, Yoss's book originally came out in Cuba in 2004 acording to the copyright, so this idea may have actually inspired Fallout 4. But for me, reading this in 2022, many years after playing Fallout 4, it felt like I'd already seen the idea executed, and somewhat better, actually, in the game. Hard to fault Yoss for this (again, he was technically first) but I can't fight my expectations.
I wish this had been punchier and funnier. I was ready to leap into it excited, enjoy a breezy story with some fun characters, and maybe check out more of the author. But I was a bit underwhelmed, and definitely wasn't chuckling (this is no Hitchhiker's) so I may wait to check out other stuff of his. A light read and an easy one, but somewhat empty calories.
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