Local Author Unleashes a Las Vegas Drone Assassin Novel
Origins of ‘Hammer of the Dogs,’ Jarret Keene's Latest Dystopian Sci-Fi Adventure
By Melissa Gill
Jarret Keene is soft-spoken — despite his big name in the Las Vegas literary community. He’s dressed casually. The usual for Jarret; a t-shirt and a rugged cap, his broad shoulders draped in curly brown hair. At the Feather Shows book launch for Las Vegas Writes — an annual collection of essays and comics edited by Jarret — his demeanor is calm and contemplative. He meanders through his introductions of each writer in the anthology, offering brief anecdotes on how they ended up on stage. His breezy ability to move on reminds us that the stage and lights don’t really matter. We’re all just having a conversation with him. He stops speaking, and each writer reads an excerpt from their story.
Although the night marked another annual release for Las Vegas Writes, at the end Jarret coolly announced the release of his recent action-adventure novel, Hammer of the Dogs — like Rhianna at the Super Bowl halftime show. A confident anti-spectacle.
Hammer of the Dogs takes place in a post-apocalyptic wasteland of Las Vegas where 21-year-old Lash finds herself captured by an unexpected enemy overlord. She’s not only fighting to protect Las Vegas valley survivors and her younger classmates, but on a mission to rescue her beloved father. Warlords are at odds and armed drones are on the loose, but there’s also a healthy dose of humor and warmth.
Lash and Richter, who develop an enemies-to-lovers' romance, have an amusing banter that provides comic relief, balancing out the dire circumstances. For example, when Lash and Richter visit the evil madam with the carnivorous pet flamingos, their dialogue lightens the mood.
“‘Might’ve gone better if you hadn’t threatened to barbecue her birds?’ Richter said.
‘Hey, at least she laughed. She only laughs when she’s PO’d. Are you angry, Mr. Richter?’
It came out flirtier than she wanted.”
Jarret celebrates a younger generation’s boldness through his depiction of Lash, as she rises above a corrupt authority while it explores themes of transformation, grief, and coming-of-age.
Jarret Keene earned his Ph.D. in Creative Writing at Florida State University. Now, according to Writer’s Digest he’s a “highly sought-after assistant professor” in the Department of English at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, where he teaches American Literature and the art of creating graphic novels. He wrote The Underground Guide to Las Vegas, The Killers: Destiny is Calling Me, and poetry collections such as Monster Fashion, shaping a body of work that encompasses his ability to harness succinct and vigorous language across genres.
Only ‘a Half-Step Away From an Apocalypse’
For his latest novel, Jarret pulled a Henry David Thoreau and took to a cabin in the woods to write. “The first session occurred in a snow-encased cabin situated on a sprawling lakeside summer camp in rural Michigan,” says Jarret. “I ate canned beans and drank black coffee and took long walks in the frozen wasteland and wrote for many, many hours.”
“Months later, I ended up in a house in Littleton, Colorado, a few miles from Columbine High School, site of the world’s first notorious high school shooting,” Jarrett continues. “I wrote the second half of Hammer of the Dogs, and watched ‘80s flashback movies at Alamo Drafthouse like The Beastmaster, Red Dawn, and The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai in the 8th Dimension.”
Photo courtesy of Jarret Keene.
Although Jarret wrote the story outside of Las Vegas, his narrative reflects his experiences working as an assistant professor, entertainment journalist, and writing for casino corporations on the Las Vegas Strip.
“I wanted to give readers a tour of the places that Las Vegas writers rarely, if ever, reveal. That to me is the essence of local Las Vegas culture — the spots where we toil and infrequently tell others about because we think it’s too boring but it’s really deeply fascinating, even compelling,” says Jarret. “I think it’s important to show those parts of Las Vegas that receive scant attention, like, for instance, the gypsum mines, the caves near Aliante and so on.”
Speaking of Vegas: imagining a bleak cityscape that is usually synonymous with luxury wasn’t a jarring depiction for Jarret. The pandemic proved that even a city that never sleeps, like Las Vegas, shuts down when a global health emergency strikes. In fact, he says that “Las Vegas is always a half-step away from experiencing the apocalypse, so it was easy to imagine the valley ruined by an economic collapse or a nuclear catastrophe.”
When the Strip shut down for nearly three months during the pandemic, he rode bicycles with his family from one end of the Strip to the other. There were no pedestrians, cars, or airplanes. The around-the-clock resorts went dark like the rest of the world. For the first time, 24-hour casinos had to figure out how to close their doors that were built without locks.
“It was eerie and troubling,” says Jarrett. “And it wasn’t far from what I imagined Lash experiencing as she navigated her way through a largely lifeless and at times very desperate city that had once entertained millions and now sat fallow, phantom-like.”
Lash Goes Rogue
Despite how harrowing he paints this shattered world, Lash, a radiant female protagonist, represents a new hope, embodying an ambitious, bright future. Jarret went along for a wild ride as she emerged on the page in unforeseen ways.
“The most rewarding part of writing Hammer of the Dogs was watching Lash develop before my eyes, with little to no effort on my part,” says Jarrett. “At times, I felt like I was channeling the character, or taking dictation from her, and I never felt like I had to push her along or put words in her mouth to satisfy some weird political message. She has her own beliefs, her own way of doing things. Heck, she has her own soundtrack!”
Lash’s music taste reveals another aspect of her personality, a glimmer of her nostalgia of happier times, before Las Vegas became almost uninhabitable. Jarret admits her life soundtrack was nothing like his own. His musical leanings are alternative-rock groups like the Pixies, U2 and the Cure. But Lash is a metal head through and through.
Photo courtesy of Jarret Keene.
“This music shaped the aggressive way that I went about rendering Lash’s adventures. When things felt like they might bog down, I’d crank [Judas] Priest’s ‘Screaming for Vengeance’ or Slayer’s ‘Spill the Blood’ or AC/DC’s ‘Shake Your Foundation’ and let the words hit the page like bullets,” explains Jarret. “When things needed to get moody or thoughtful, I’d play W.A.S.P.’s ‘Sleeping (in the Fire)’ or Lita Ford’s ‘Under the Gun’ or Skid Row’s ‘Wasted Time,’ and I’d let the words simmer on the page. I had never used music in this way before writing ‘Hammer of the Dogs,’ for inspiration in shaping the mood of certain scenes or chapters of a novel.”
As most creative people experience, sometimes art takes on a life of its own, causing the creator to feel more like its vessel than its sole architect. Hammer of the Dogs is no exception, as Lash made it clear to Jarret that she was going to go off-script.
“I set out to write an adventure novel, but Lash made my book into something else — a literary action narrative packed with feeling, intellect, and white-hot wrath.”
Post-Apocalyptic Vegas, But With Love and Reverence
You could scroll through a thread of Goodreads reviews to see how people feel about the book, but we’re more interested in what other Las Vegas wordsmiths are saying about it.
Shwa Laytart, a Las Vegas writer, producer and co-owner of Avantpop Bookstore, raves about Jarret’s latest science fiction tale, referring to him as “a Las Vegas rockstar.”
“He’s a skilled journalist, poet, biographer, teacher, a devotee of comics in all shapes and forms,” says Shwa. “Hammer of the Dogs emulates all of Keene’s achievements and passions while showcasing the city, even in its post-apocalyptic form, with love and reverence.”
Award-winning Las Vegas-based writer and poetess, Heather Lang-Cassera, who serves as a Nevada State Lecturer teaching Creative Writing and other courses, shares her thoughts on Jarret’s prose and protagonist.
“Jarret Keene’s Hammer of the Dogs is the rare novel which brims with both the exquisite diction of a collection of poems as well as a story so engaging that the reader might feel they’re playing an action-packed video game,” says Heather. “Throughout the novel, I am fully invested in the protagonist, Lash, never a passive bystander simply witnessing her enthralling story. Keene, already a prolific writer in a variety of genres, may have outdone himself with this one.”
Current Clark County Poet Laureate, Editor-in-Chief and Poetry Editor for The Citron Review Angela Brommel expresses her appreciation for Jarret’s allusions to Nevada’s vast desert landscape.
“It is significant that Keene acknowledges the blue desert sky more than once in the novel,” says Brommel. “So many dystopian worlds are created as if they would be completely strange to us. Keene’s dystopia isn't a wholly unrecognizable Las Vegas. His deliberate references to the enduring Mojave Desert and iconic architecture remind us that the challenges and dangers of the future world are already here in the light of day.”
Westerns: Ripe for Rediscovery
In an effort to introduce young readers to Westerns, Jarret is now on a journey to reviving the understated literary genre.
“My current creative endeavor involves writing a Young Adult Western trilogy for a leading publisher of Westerns. I’m so excited to be working in a genre that is ripe for rediscovery,” says Jarret. “It’s time for young readers to embrace the Old West!” he beamed.
If there’s one thing Jarret knows how to do well, it’s reimagining American literature, channeling comic book-style comedy and taking the pretentiousness out of contemporary literature. Reality already mirrors a dystopian disaster, with the climate crisis and political turmoil, so why not imagine a brighter future? In Hammer of the Dogs, the Las Vegas author aims to evoke the same upbeat feeling subsequent to watching something like Top Gun “with their fists pumping in the air and ready to vanquish all fools,” says Jarrett. “I wrote Hammer of the Dogs to be a gripping adventure with a feel-great ending. Sci-fi has gotten too dark, and it’s time to crank up the fun, the good times, the joy and the pleasure.”
The University of Nevada Press published Hammer of the Dogs in September 2023.
Learn more about the author by visiting www.JarretKeene.net.
