A high-stakes story of political intrigue against the backdrop of a lethal contest that finds Blackfoot Solomon Bull trapped between a murderous conspiracy and the system his father resisted to the death. A tale with the breakneck pace of a sprint through a burning desert, full of harsh beauty and unrelenting menace. –Dennis Tafoya, author of Dope Thief
Clayton Lindemuth manages to be …
Blackfoot Indian Solomon Bull trains for the ultra-dangerous endurance race called Desert Dog. Winning the race would solidify Solomon’s inheritance. His father was a rebel who died in the 1980’s fighting the US government for the American Indian Movement.
Ex-mercenary Cal Barrett designed Desert Dog to shred people. Rumor is he recruits winners into a clandestine paramilitary outfit. Solomon is approached by Rachel, a government official who’ll do anything to persuade him to infiltrate Cal Barrett’s outfit. She warns him that something big is on the horizon.
Meanwhile, crooked Senator Cyman’s security chief is on Solomon’s tail. Defacing Cyman’s re-election billboards sparked a bigger reaction than Solomon bargained for.
The pendulum between assimilation and war is swinging. Will Solomon get eaten by the machine his father died fighting?
Can one man fight the evil that surrounds him and win?
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Rebellion occurs when a person decides any future is superior to the continuation of the present. – Albert Camus
Solomon Bull is a 27 year-old day trader. He had a Blackfoot father and a white mother and strongly identifies with his Native American roots. And he lives in Arizona.
Following a bet with his roommate (who is also incidentally effing Solomon’s girlfriend) he decides to go after a candidate running for the Arizona Senate seat and finds out just how how far he’s willing to go to bring this man down, after finding out more about him.
At the same time he’s training for an endurance race called the Desert Dog, which he plans on winning.
This is the seventh Lindemuth book I’ve read in a full-fledged binge and it’s the first one I didn’t love.
For the most part I liked protagonist Bull. My husband and youngest son are part Cherokee and proud of it. But this book became too political and anti-government for me way back towards the start of the book. I should have just given up on it and put it in DNF pile but kept expecting it to improve.
There are people out there that enjoyed it a lot. I just don’t happen to be one. And, no, I’m not pro-government to the exclusion of everything else. I just thought this story was way too slanted and not balanced.
I love this author’s style of writing and his imaginative approach to the story. I have read other of his works and intrigued by each. Makes one think!
Great read with a conservative twist.
Learned a lot (had to look up the most words) reading this clever work. Some of the race scenes were amazing to read/live. After a little bit, I decided to highlight many of the writer’s interesting/witty quips. I’ll read it again, soon. Fun. Outlaw. Interesting. With twists.
Enjoyed the characters
I liked it. Drags at times, but enough twists to keep you engaged. Main character is interesting.
Good character s highly entertaining
Solomon Bull is a wonderful Blackfoot Indian character that Clayton enacts in a series of events that are unique.
Not what I expected but still a good read.
There were 2 critical elements of this book that fell flat for me. I am an American Indian and a desert dweller and the depictions in this book related to those 2 elements of my experience didn’t ring true.
Hard to read
Characters were slow todevelop. The use of obscure intellectually challenging verbage was interesting but distracting. Plot was interesting as was the hero’s method of handling the situation.
read a little like a history book
Did not enjoy this books political preaching much. The characters and actual story were ok, but it had a lot of plot holes and ended with no reasonable conclusion.
No. Just n.o.
Solomon Bull was more like Superman than a real person but it was a fast moving light read
A very good read. Unlike what I usually read. It was intriging and really held my attention. You did’nt know what to expect next. I recommend it highly.
This book was a little different than i normally read, love the quotes at the front of the chapters!
Lindemuth has a somewhat unique style of writing that really resounds with me. The action takes place in the area where I live, and I enjoyed his take on features of the local area. The story is imaginative and has a few twists. The characters are all people I think I know, and they are at their unique best. When the story started with an 8 foot rattlesnake I didn’t know what to expect. They just don’t get that big in Arizona. The description of the cholla was interesting, but very inaccurate. Cholla get their moisture from the air and will self impale on anything moist. Small hairs on the needle wiggle to keep driving the needle in. They are like tiny barbs and most difficult to remove. All of the unique features of this part of Arizona were perfectly described, and used effectively to support the storyline. This is one great book!
Solomon is a great character, but the book – in spite of being a real page turner – is full of self-examination and descriptive passages that call for close attention and – for me, at least – occasional re-reading in order to fully grasp the concept or thought-train of the main character, Solomon Bull. Very enjoyable, with some interesting twists and turns. I’ll be re-reading this one just to see what I might have missed (or misunderstood) the first time through.