Arkoma by Calum Lott
Blurb:
BLOOD IN THE SAND. BLOOD ACROSS THE STARS.
Hiding from her tortured past, Nelsa endures deadly duels by day and drinks herself numb at night. While she rots away in the saloons on the outskirts of Arkoma City, the ruthless Salazano tightens his stranglehold on the desert planet and the stars beyond.
After an unlikely proposition sends her on the path of vengeance, Nelsa must rally her fellow outlaws for a daring heist that will change the course of the wild Frontier forever.
Review:
“Always endure. Always forward.”
Arkoma is my first foray into Calum Lott’s Valsollas Galaxy, which also contains the novels: A Dirge for Cascius Parts 1 & 2 and Immortal Aberration. Arkoma is a sun-seared, gritty Western full of sci-fi tech equipped gunslingers bent on exacting violent revenge for a horrific past wrong. A sci-fi western may seem like an odd choice to you. To which I would say, all are welcome in the Galaxy of Valsollas! Think an abbreviated and truncated Dark Tower with our favorite gunslinger, Roland Deschain. Calum paints a dusty, rough-and-tough environment that feels like the spaghetti westerns of old while updating the six-shooter into crylun powered armor and weaponry.
Our protagonist, Nelsa, is a sharpshooter who keeps her pockets full of ismo from local duals to the death in order to support her addictive and mind-numbing lifestyle. She’s running from the heartbreaking memories of past trauma inflicted for stealing from one of the local, ruling families. Arkoma, at its core, is a slick heist story that’s rooted in the deep desire to enact vengeance for past trauma. Calum does a fantastic job of throwing the reader into a brand-new world, establishing a full cast of characters and enough backstory to provide emotional investment, and pull off a bloody heist within the confines of a fairly short novella. As such, this is a fast paced, hit-you-in-the-face kind of story. And because of that, it was a perfect introduction into the Valsollas Galaxy. Calum also has an exhaustive glossary in the back of the novella which is informative and extremely helpful if this is your virgin voyage.
Nelsa’s compatriots were interesting and fleshed out, providing a solid foil to her down and out character. While they furnished some fun and levity, Lott keeps the pressure cooker on and the fire burning throughout the story. Without going deeply into spoilers, Lott does a really nice job wrapping this story up and not shying away from the brutality that lends a story of revenge its air of authenticity. There were strong themes of endurance and hope and honor that permeated the story, which I really appreciated.
While Arkoma was my first stop in the Valsollas Galaxy, it certainly won’t be my last. I was impressed with Lott’s fresh and unique narrative voice. As I mentioned above, he wasn’t afraid to hurt the reader, which is imperative when attempting to honestly tell the tale of vengeance. Arkoma was a fantastic introduction into Lott’s imagination and the vastness of Valsollas Galaxy.
“She didn’t care about getting up on her own as long as she got back up.”
