The vital substance that supports the economy bubbles up in the desert, and a Texas businessman kicks off an invasion to control it.

Before you jump to conclusions, the desert is in New Mexico, the substance is water, and the war is between the two neighboring states, leading to The Land Of Enchantment being occupied by the Texas State Guard.

The resulting censorship and brutality leads to a guerilla insurgency and a rebellion that stretches from the internet to the remote mountains.

An amateur biologist and slacker becomes Dr. X, the leader of the free New Mexican resistance. A motorcycle gang warlord becomes a partisan warrior for his own reasons. An indigent becomes a hero, the kind easily forgotten. A vulgar speedfreak powers the violent shock troops of the Texas invaders. This is not your usual war story.

TO THE LAST DROP is like that: a bit off of our expectations. Fans of Abbey’s “The Monkey Wrench Gang” and Nichol’s “Milagro Beanfield” trilogy will doubtless see the possibility of a similarly satisfying read here, and wouldn’t be disappointed. But it’s not a clone of either work by any means.

Charlotte Jusinski, reviewer for the Santa Fe Reporter, bit on another of the book’s aspects when she wrote:

There are many nudges, as well as all-out jabs, at the United States’ occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan.
I just had to ask, “Is this novel a satire?”
Is To The Last Drop a prophecy? A foreshadowing? A carefully calculated answer to the equation we’re still writing with each gallon down the drain?

Somewhere between a milagro monkeywrench caper and a carefully calculated prophesy, lies the multi-rooted novel that manages to provoke thoughts and laughter at the same time.