Static reverberated across the control tower. Frantically Bilbao adjust to get a clear message.

“Look I didn’t ask to be picked. None of us did. We have a choice take the mission—you mean suicide mission don’t you Alph?—cool down Beta we can take the mission which will surely result in one or more of our being demaged beyond repair. Or we can try to hide. Don’t cry Delt. You’ll get Charlie started.— there’s a third option. We can fight. How many more of us will crash on the risky transports? We’re more than mindless machines. We are people too in our way and not just a line item.”

Excerpt from New Sheriff In Town by Regina Raiford Babcock

The bombastic love child of Afro-punk sci fi and Western thrillers, New Sheriff in Town offers a blender set to max spin on genre fiction grafted to modern day culture politics. A flash novel each short short story chapter is a perfect literary bite.

Set three years after a devastating Android human civil war, New Sheriff is at its heart a mystery. As a reader rocketing from the past to the novel’s futuristic frontier I became a participant. Tending the frozen landscape or following down clues, I dived deep into Raiford Babcock’s sophomore novel. Ex partners Two Axe and Hatchet race to solve a double homicide of Android soldiers turned farmers before racial tensions boil over.

The twisty tales from Raiford Babcock’s dementedly delicious previous collection, Nice Things, didn’t prepare me for this genre blurring romp. I don’t want to leave the moons of Saturn.