I've read the first five stories of the series a while ago - thanks to the generous authors - and was happy to get a copy of the omnibus as well. However, I have to shamefully admit that this collection somehow got lost between my kindle piles and was only recently (re-)discovered. Time to delve into the world of Red Dust again! Reading the first stories (and my earlier reviews), it all came back to me and I was eager to get to the last two stories which were new.
Red Dust is a series of stories that center around a zombie plague in the Civil War era. What fascinated me most was that the zombies were never the main focus, but mostly provided the setting for stories about loyalty, intrigues, hatred and all the other ugly faces of war and men in war. I was especially intrigued by the ruthlessness with which some individuals used zombies as means and weapons to achieve their goals. Instead of fighting together, people constantly fought each other, regardless of the common danger.
While the stories are connected, it is perfectly OK to read them individually without having a question mark hovering over your head requesting missing details. But of course I recommend to read all of them, because each story is worth it, and which is now easily possible thanks to this great omnibus edition.