Review: Miguel Traveler: The Man from Texas by Daniel McFatter

Navigating the modern world is hard enough, but waking up and finding yourself in a bizarre and unforgiving future is a much greater challenge. In Miguel Traveler: The Man From Texas, author Daniel McFatter ambitiously takes readers into the future – a vision where society as we know it has broken down, the wasteland has overtaken the promised land, and survival is not promised to anyone.

When the Woman in Black wakes Miguel from his stasis slumber, he embarks on a journey to discover his own purpose – why was he put in stasis? What happened at the end of his life? And most importantly, why was he brought back to the land of the living? In the desolate stretches of Outfar, Miguel is faced with a world he doesn’t recognize: machines have become intelligent, life has become sparse, and the ultimate goal of those in power has become eternal life.

Combining sci-fi elements with a colloquial Western tone, this book is a rough-around-the-edges adventure with a post-apocalyptic cloud hanging over every page. Dropped in a barren corner of this futuristic wasteland, Miguel becomes involved with one of the last tribes of men, who seem as suspicious of his presence as he is of the tribe’s motives. Miguel is a “sleeper,” imbued with unpredictable powers, such as knowing things he shouldn’t know, which isn’t always received well by the locals.

At Whistletop, Miguel begins to uncover the secrets of this desolate world, what went wrong when the world changed, and how the remnants of humanity managed to survive. However, the deeper this Traveler digs into his own past, the more he realizes that the generation and life that he left behind is far from lost. Driving to an epic and surprising conclusion, this book is effortlessly engaging and brilliantly crafted from the very first page.

This story is a slow-burning wonder, with intense passages of description pushed up against suspenseful dialogue and occasional action-packed sequences. There is supreme patience in the prose, which is evidence of an author who knows precisely where the story is going, and confident that the story will be worth the wait. McFatter is an obvious lover of language, and has a gift for painting scenes in explicit, visceral detail.

The world building is impressive and happens subtly, with revelations about new technologies and pieces of history intermingled with the present action of the plot. This gradual immersion into Outfar makes the book addictive and fascinating to explore. This is in addition to complex, vulnerable and deeply human characters that seem torn from reality, rather than constructed for a purpose in a fantasy future.

The technical side of this novel is polished and nearly perfect, with very few grammatical errors and a clear mastery of language and sentence structure. The true value of the book lies in its philosophical depth and emotional maturity. Delving into issues of mortality, personal value, and the legacy that one can leave, this novel is a powerful tale in a disturbingly weird world, and readers are fortunate that this isn’t the end for Miguel Traveler, as Book 1 sets the stage brilliantly for a new series.