El Mosaico: Scarred Souls (El Mosaico #1)

El Mosaico Book Review

James Wymore

            If you love mixed genres, you can’t help but love the patchwork gunslinger in Michael Panush’s latest book.  El Mosaico, Vol. 1: Scarred Souls is a Frankenstein’s monster of a story set in as many different story tropes as the namesake character has body parts from various corpses.  This collection of daisy chained Weird West short stories is a potpourri of dark magic, science gone bad, and 1930’s pulp horror.  I have to say I thoroughly enjoyed it.

            Every chapter is a short story featuring Clayton Cane, a cowboy bounty hunter made like Frankenstein’s monster by a mad scientist turned voodoo priest at the end of the Civil War.  The creator died after making just one of what was intended to be an army of super soldiers, leaving a southern states’
Captain Dixie—in the same vein as Captain America for a failed government,
except a lot uglier.  The serial tall tales take us through old Egypt, the cusp of the Ragnarok, London, and the boarder-lands;
to name just a few of the vast world settings.  We meet friends and foes of the enigmatic protagonist.  At the end, a greater purpose in Cane’s life becomes clear.

            Although the serial short story format is really an excellent construction for reinforcing the nature and personality of the character, it became tedious at times if I tried to read too many stories in a row.  So I recommend taking the book one chapter per sitting, if you find that happening.  The character growth through the series is well done.  However, I found myself wanting more.  I wanted to see longer snippets of Cane’s broken memories.  I wanted his pasts, of which we are told there are many, to have more impact on his current actions.  Some of the writing was rough, but it felt appropriate for a rough rider.

            I’d probably rate this book a PG-13 with the caveat that the prolific violence is mostly fantastic in nature.  It’s not a good book for reading to children,
but teens could do a lot worse.  A consummate fan of comic books, the Weird West, and cross genre works, I really enjoyed the plethora of settings and antagonists.  People who are strict fans of epic fantasy or hard sci-fi might not appreciate how far this book asks the reader to suspend disbelief.  I, on the other hand, found it as delightful.  It reminded me of a comic book series with imaginative and rich visual ideas.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say for anybody who likes Steampunk and Dr. Who,
this book will be right up your alley.  For Weird West awesomeness, I give it four out of five stars.