Red Dust (Cuban Science Fiction)

Three kinds of aliens, positronic robots, masers, and a new world are part of Red Dust. This inventive science fiction book comes from Yoss, a Cuban science fiction writer, translated by David Frye. As a fan of science fiction, this quick read is fun.

Yoss builds a new world in Red Dust and refers often to Asimov, detective novels, and creates space ships and creatures, that all took me a few pages to learn. The payoff was well worth it. Good science fiction demonstrates the weaknesses and strengths of humanity. In Red Dust, ironically, the emotional connection comes in the form of Raymond, a humanlike robot police officer. Of course, “the robot sheds light on humanity” idea has been done before (I think of Data in Star Trek Next Generation) but it’s written well here. I really enjoyed Raymond. I also couldn’t guess where the plot was going, it is fresh, unique. Yoss’s humor shines through either because he understands English or because the translator is that talented. The strength of the book is the relationships between Raymond and a couple of key characters, but the action is also clear and gives the book tension. I’m happy to have discovered the world of Yoss and will look for more of his quirky novels.