I had a hard time rating this one. It's at its heart a pulp western, and I don't have much experience in that genre. The writing style was simple (lots of short declarative sentences) and in the third person, and that contrasts greatly with the more complex first person sci-fi I've read a lot of lately. It's probably not something I would have picked up, except for two things...

One, it's got a lot of steampunky alt-history elements to it. It's set in the late 1800s in the US Southwest (mostly), and it's nice to see steampunk stories that aren't set in Victorian England. Apart from an alien intelligence with mind control, it's a plausible alt-history. The alien influence affects why this history diverges from ours, but it does it through affecting people's motivations, not through introducing future tech. I liked that idea.

Second, it's largely set in a very specific area of the US Southwest I know very well, the central New Mexico Rio Grande valley. The author went to college in the same very small town I did and he used not just the town but specific canyons, buildings, and even courtyards that are still there and I have spent lots of time in. Near the beginning of the book, for example, there is an attempted witch trial on a courtyard behind a church surrounded by a low adobe wall. I spent many hours in that courtyard leaning against the adobe wall watching over recess at the little school attached to the church where I taught. There were references and word play and scenery that felt like he was writing just for me.

In the end, it was a fun romp with characters that grew and were nice to get to know. There are more books in the series, and I've already bought the next one. The writing style wasn't my current taste and would have earned the book three stars, but the personal connection I felt earned it five. I settled with four -- it was, as I said, a fun fast read and I'm glad I found it.