Truth? When I first started this book I was circling the planet WTF, enjoying the bizarre view of ‘whaaaaaaaaaaat?’ I took a break after Gaige has his trouser python unwillingly charged by compliant mutant alien snakes, whose purpose are to viagra his boy meat into a manliness during a ceremony where he gets to lose his branch’s cherry to one of his fathers sacrificial she-males in order to make him the mythic killer of his alien people, the Deltarcs. He awakens from this misty pelvic nightmare with his weiner still attached but sadly mutilated and no longer the beauty queen it once was. He dashes through the streets making nice with homeless fashion consultants, voices in his head, and a new friend who happens to be a white mouse who can speak to him and helps guide him through the first few hours of faux freedom from his childhood innocence. He knows his evil father is still after him for his mystical dick and his mythical purpose, and a run in with his girlfriend at the beach is a brief stop that is momentarily surreal amongst all this rather awesomeness. In my mind the interaction was accompanied with elevator music like one would in a sitcom. Gaige has his fathers freaky Deltarc dogs chase him and he makes a mad caper escape killing his new rodent friend and then resurrecting him from death; they are soul-buds from this on… I paused here and told my husband about this completely bugged out book I was reading and he made me almost pee myself when he asked me if I thought the author had watched a Hentai pRon sans the volume and then wrote her own narration of what she saw. It was pretty far out there so I really was willing to give that a lot of credence at that point.
After I got a little further in it began to read a little to me like a Christopher Moore-esque Erotica. Put a little essence of Tom Robbin’ sense of open to the cosmos feel and you have Red Rex: Blood Echoes in your mitts! Calinda B. does a great blending of science, metascience and science fiction blended together. I loved everything after the hump at the beginning and it had a great pace. There is this futuristic alien story and mythology base which gives you the background of the Deltarcs. She has you looking at the conscious, unconscious and subconscious mind, then the science of the brain itself. Technology as we have it today, and science fiction as technology as it may be one day. AND to twist it up a little she blends a little metascience in there with some rather controversial comments about scientific medical advancements as a psychosocial phenomenon. Perhaps inferentially, you can say the entire book is talking about how scientists and science programs opportunistically feed off those who are least in a position to defend themselves or speak in their favor for someone to defend them.
Gaige is the son of a Deltarc Lord and the Deltarcs are an alien race that feed on the psychic energy of other beings. They have found Earth and have been here for some time and they have been enjoying the comfort of the human buffet. They aren’t necessarily seeking out humans, they are avaricious and everyone is as scrumptious to them, sweeter still if they have empathic attributes–the Deltarcs are the asshats of the Universe. Gaige’s dad won Head Asshat of the Universe at the pageant but he ate the crown giver and was asked to leave the building. ANYWAY…the Deltarcs are devourers of peeps g0od and generous, and their giver must be unconscious. Those delta waves are prime real estate! Deltarcs, DUH!
Quite conveniently for the Deltarcs the society has begun to cryopreserve people; they have been putting them in cryostasis in a cryolab in space where they are medically treated or just cryofrozen. Sounds horrible and as Gaige shows me when his e-book peen goes wild he almost mentally chows down on someone, space travel is treacherous because sexual needs that go unchecked can lead to calamity. Thank the Lord, George Gordon Byron! I will not be going to the moon anytime soon! All the flights were booked between now and Christmas, and now I am way too busy! Penises are crazy in space and I cannot deal with that with Holidays and family, shhhh!
Like so many of my favorite Christopher Moore books, there are relationships in this book that are supportive to the main character that Gaige needs to get through the different stages of who he is in the book. I am not saying he is Gaige Chapter 1 and Gaige Chapter 2, it’s more complex and subtler than that. Gaige is constantly growing in this book and evolving and it’s not even through only his support network but also his combatants and challengers. Jaenna and Sojourn both have very realistic relationships with Gaige even if Sojourn isn’t human, his friendship/brotherhood is one that if he were a human and this was a contemporary book you would enjoy and like as much. The same with Jaenna–and this is actually how I was weighing all the relations in this book. If his father was some sort of drug lord, or king pin, would this book have worked? Yes! Would it make sense about him and Emily if this were a regular fiction. All these questions were solid affirmatives for me. This book works as a Sci-fi and it would work if you made it a New Adult.
I do recommend the two authors above if you like this book. Nether Tom Robbins or Christopher Moore are Sci-fi but they do have that great point of view on humanity and the social sciences that Calinda B. has. Tom Robbins really has a great flare for that thread of collective unconscious holds everyone together in someway through all time. A ripple that might have begun in the solar system back at the beginning of it’s creation may carry some of it’s Universal dust to fill our own personal reservoirs now. My favorite Tom Robbins’ novels are Jitterbug Perfume, Fierce Invalids Home From Hot Climates, and Half Asleep In Frog Pajamas. As for Sir, Christopher Moore–he hasn’t been knighted, but I just knighted him, I will have to think of a few of his novels or the list will be longer than the review. Lamb: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ’s Childhood Pal, Bite Me, A Dirty Job, Practical Demonkeeping, and Fool: A Novel.–That is like one or two suggestions, right?
Red Rex: Blood Echoes Synopsis:
“Your true name is Red Rex. The baddest of badasses, an alpha warrior beyond compare…” Or, at least, that’s what he’s been told.
Eighteen year old Gaige Dupond has his life all mapped out. Lose his virginity to Emily. Get married. Become a pro soccer player and travel the world.
His father, a pure-bred Deltarc from another planet, whose race is growing extinct on planet Earth, has other plans—either confirm that he truly takes after his warrior father, and not his dearly departed empath mother, or snuff out his existence.
All plans go awry, however, when the dangerous red darkness in Gaige is awakened like a beam of hell flickering from his right eye. Pursued by a vicious Deltarc bounty hunter, Deltarc tracking hounds and his father’s wicked minions, he loses his home, his life, all that he holds dear in pursuit of the truth. In his quest to find his mother, victim to a corrupt cryopreservation project in outer space, and right the wrongs inflicted on him, he finds something far darker—his own sinister motivations and the need to feed on something other than human food. His only companion, a lab rat refugee named Sojourn, Gaige knows he’ll never be loved—not in the way he’d always envisioned. Will he find the revenge he’s seeking, or will he become an evil replica of his father? That’s the last thing he’d ever wish on himself, but it may be his only option for survival.
Purchase Red Rex: Blood Echoes:
Excerpt Red Rex: Blood Echoes:
The babe he now knew as Susan slowly sauntered toward Gaige. “Mm mm mmm,” she said, her eyes making a lazy sweep of his body. “Where do you want to do this?”
Gaige cocked his head, his erection straining against his filthy jeans. “Seems a little public here. What do you have in mind?”
“Come with me.” Susan grabbed for his hand.
The skin contact stung, sending a searing shock up his arm. His right eye began to glow like a light switch had been flipped inside.
You’re supposed to do this when they’re asleep, Red Rex.
“It’s Gaige. Gaige.”
I hear your thoughts, his rat, Sojourn, said.
Susan stilled. “What did you say?”
“The name’s Gaige. I thought you might want to know who you’re going to fuck.” Gaige grinned at her, feeling very turned on.
Susan turned to him. “Whoa, I must be drunker than I thought. I’m seeing things. Your eye’s all red, like a holiday light bulb.” She snickered, stumbled and caught her balance, grabbing Gaige’s arm. “Oh my.” She stroked his biceps. “Aren’t you solid? This will be fun.”
He closed his eyes as the red darkness gathered from her touch.
She snagged his hand and pulled him down the street.
You’re supposed to do this when they’re asleep, the rat repeated. Don’t you ever listen? In the delta or theta, not alpha or beta.
“Shut up, rat, you’re messing with my head.”
I can hear your thoughts, stupid human.
“What did you say?” She turned again, blinking and squinting. “Yep, pretty fucked up. Now you’re glowing red all over.” She shrugged and led him into a dark dirt parking lot—the kind used during day hours and abandoned at night. “Here we are. My favorite place to fuck.” She backed up to the side of a brick building, and yanked up her skirt. Next she took his hand and guided it between her legs.
No panties. Gaige, feeling like a kid in a candy store, groaned, feeling her slippery heat. The red in him flared like shooting flames.
Susan laughed. “I really shouldn’t have eaten that E-bomb.”
“You took a happy pill?” Gaige said. I wonder what that will do to her brain waves. Gaige had never done drugs in his life but the effect of her ecstasy high made his erection stiffen to the point of pain.
“Just one teensy little tab, no big deal. And right now you look like a big red fuckable male and I am very horny. Feel.” She spread her thighs wide.
He plunged a finger inside her and moaned.
I’m telling you. She needs to be asleep.
“Shut up, rat.”
She frowned and blinked. “Did you call me a rat?”
“Uh, no. Sorry. Shut up, you’re all that. All that juicy. That’s what I said. Just feel what I’m doing to you, baby.”
Meet Calinda B.’s :
Calinda B was told early on that she should be a writer. She heard frequent praise for her writing, as well as her sense of humor. Scoffing at such admonitions and praise, she went on to pursue her life of adventure, chock full of the things that make up a well-rounded adventurous life: music (yup, she was a singer in a rock and roll band), dance (even performed hip hop in Russia), rock climbing (ever hung from a rock wall a few stories up? Yikes!), fire walking (taught high-ranking Moscow fire officials how to walk the coals), kayaking, scuba diving (she’s in love with sharks), travel, and falling in love again and again.
Living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest with the love of her life and her two cats, she has now chosen to put fingers to keyboard and write – when she’s not in pursuit of another adventure!
The Daily Grind: College educated and life-experienced, Calinda B has worked in the world of computers and technology for a long time. Before that she worked in the world of health and fitness, as well as art. Throughout her career she has relied on her writing abilities to write articles, ad copy and web content.
Calinda B.’s Web Tracks:
Website | Facebook | Twitter | Google+ | Goodreads | Amazon Author Page | Pinterest
Calinda B. on All The Things Inbetween:
|
|
Follow all the updates for this blog by visiting and liking The All The Things Inbetween Facebook page. Click the button to enter the ring! |
|---|---|
|
|
I’m looking for authors and victims willing to write guest blogs, reviews and interviews for All The Things Inbetween. If you would be interested in taking part please drop me an email and I will send you a thank you picture of a kitten! |
