Space Tripping With The Shredded Orphans by Sonya Rhen
A Science Fiction/Humor Novel published by Amazon Digital Services (01/05/14)
Summary:
“Better-Than-Meat ™ loaf, sunken squid sub, and coyote cactus pie.” (Page 122).
The Shredded Orphans band is set to perform in another galaxy. No problem. Their ship, the Verity Aquinas, and their navigator Justice will take them straight to the city and performance venue, but After mechanical issues and the disappearance of some very important navigation charts, they land on the planet in the middle of nowhere. Certain that they can find the city if they walk in the right direction, the Shredded Orphans head out in search of civilization.
Keywords:
Spaceship, travel, band, space creatures, rock concert, trapeze, advanced technology, fashion, walking, lost, different species, slaves
My Review:
The little world details are the treasures that kept me reading, such as names of items, trademarked things, and chapter titles. The sci-fi world building details were stupendous and very imaginative.
This book reminded me a lot of Feed by M.T. Anderson. The Shredded Orphans and Feed both have that young person abandon with a carefree attitude. Both main characters in Shredded Orphans and in Feed feel invincible even in the face of problems – like dehydration and death in the middle of a deserted planet. The humorous dialogue and character interaction in Shredded Orphans are also similar to Feed, including some world building dialogue and slang/language, though it was not as far out as Feed.
The book did meander, just like the shredded orphans do in the beginning of the book. This adds to the plot wandering and randomness to the story. The book gets funnier and funnier as you get to know the characters.
I was at first disturbed by the sexism and female stereotyping Lix displays toward Ophelia (the signature female in the first half of the book). She says no and he continues to flirt. He touches her inappropriately without permission. When Ophelia wants to help build using a hammer she is asked to instead help make food (this doesn’t mean she listens, of course). The first questions that people ask of her upon meeting her include whether she has a boyfriend. Lix tries again to get with Ophelia after they’ve been drinking. Chitto was able to sway my opinion. Chitto is “sexless” and from a special and different planet. At first, Chitto said something that I didn’t like about not wanting to be a woman (by having long hair), but later Chitto showed that he could be both man and woman (as a gender), but simply preferred being a man and not because women were inferior or anything. Chitto, actually, is fairly humorous and great for the addition of an LGBTQ aspect to the book. “…if you are going to give my name a gender identity, but in my race we never use them.” (pp. 212-213).
This novel was published by Amazon Digital Services on January 5th, 2014 and is available on Amazon here.
TL;DR Star Rating: 3.75
Links for more information:
Rachel Author Barnard 