El Paladino

Tarped Merka, Book 1

By: Rev DiCerto

Narrated by: Jesse Gossett

Spaghetti Western meets Mad Max in an action-packed tale of a dystopian future.

Five hundred years from now, desperate to stave off the effects of global warming, the government of Merka covers the country's nearly two billion acres of open land with a white Tarp to reflect the sunlight. It's illegal to cut the Tarp, but all sorts of people—cutters, greenies, and banditos—do anyway. That's where the Paladinos come in.

Ranging on horseback across the desert-like Tarped land, and known by their green sombreros, Paladinos protect the Tarp, empowered to kill cutters at their own discretion. There is no due process for cutters—the Paladinos are judge, jury, and executioner. You cut the Tarp, you die.

El Paladino—he's known by no other name—has a problem. El Gotico is not your usual cutter, but a ruthless bandito who deals in forbidden technology. Facing a large organized group of gangstas, with no other green sombreros in the area to help, El Paladino must reluctantly accept the aid of a greenie girl he barely knows and throw in his lot with a pistolero he does not trust. Murder, mayhem, and profanity abound.

©2022 Rev DiCerto (P)2022 Rev DiCerto

Trigger warning

This story is raw and gritty, set in a post apocalyptic desert where climate change has had a visceral impact upon the landscape and its inhabitants. The characters move through un mundo at once reminiscent of "Mad Max" and "The Good, The Bad and The Ugly." This story is inclusive of nearly all genders, sexual preferences, and backgrounds- no one is spared from the violence and casual rape that occurs throughout this novel. While the dialog feels a little stilted at first, you'll quickly get into the swing of the banter, and the slang is quite amusing, especially once the references are made clear.

Truly, this story has stuck with me since finishing it. I will most definitely re-listen to it soon, which is the highest compliment I can pay it.