Here's an interview I did for Bizzong! The Bizarre and Weird Fiction Podcast.
If you're really not a podcast person, but you are interested in hearing me do a short reading from Taboogasm, you can scrub to around 49:54 (or just click here to jump to that bit).
If you'd prefer, you may listen to the podcast at any of the following locations:
Bill is a sad sap. He’s usually drunk and when he’s not drunk, he’s hungover. He’s a wretch, but a very lucky wretch. He keeps winning one lottery after another. In fact, he’s gotten his sorry self banned from a few lotteries for life because he’s so lucky. Just when he thinks his life can’t get any luckier, he stumbles upon a small but determined group of aliens. Yep. This story goes from being an odd comedy to a kind of scifi horror flick. Oh, to hell with it! I’m not sure what genre to shove this book in!
The most important thing about this book is that it made me laugh, often inappropriately. That probably says a lot about my personality, but you won’t figure that out unless you read this book. Sometimes I was laughing because the situation was sad and true, so therefore a little funny. Sometimes I was laughing because you just can’t simply read those taboos without laughing, sometimes uncomfortably. Gregor Xane manages to poke fun at a lot of taboos in this book. There’s plenty of dwarf humor, jibes at pregnancy, and also inappropriate use of puppets shaped liked aliens. Yeah, I’ll just let you stew on that.
Much of the book takes place in a mansion that is really a spaceship. Bill and Miss Plumpkin are the only two humans in this mansion that’s on a voyage to a far off alien world. Jake, the alien who masterminded this, was the last of a site-seeing group that crashed on Earth a few decades ago. The mansion is staffed with robots who impersonate their human counterparts. Reno is the chief among these, explaining things to the humans and keeping the staff in order. Since Bill is stuck in space for a great length of time, he falls into a ‘Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas’ episode and becomes even more wretched than he was on Earth. Yet, even here, there is humor. It’s often limp, vulgar, and encrusted in stale vomit, but it’s there. Once our ‘hero’ comes out of this sodden episode, the humor returns with more dwarf jokes and some unexpected comfort bots.
There’s no one character that I could consistently root for in this book, but it was a very, very interesting fiction. I’m OK with it lacking a hero and a definite villain as this made the story interesting. I never knew where it was going and I was little sad when it ended. While I did sometimes suffer from crude humor fatigue, I kept coming back to it. Reading this book was like watching several natural disasters, one after the other. Fascinating, scary, and filled with nervous laughter.
I read this book through the Kindle Unlimited program.
The Illustrations: Mike Tenebrae was responsible for the cover and several illustrations in the book, which are also part of the Kindle ebook edition. Of course, the cover drew me right to this book. I was rooting for the killer whale from the start. However, I feel that Tenebrae’s illustrations within the story are the better ones. They are a bit more detailed and sometimes there are naughty bits. I also appreciate his attention to facial expressions that reflect the book scene he’s captured so well.
Gregor was saving up the crazy for a rainy day with Taboogasm.
Disclaimer: Gregor Xane is a good friend of mine. We speak daily. I also helped to design the layout of the cover for the hardcover edition and did the font work on the Kindle and paperback covers, although the artwork is all Mike Tenebrae's fault. And before you brush this review off as a biased review from a friend, I am overly critical of the people I surround myself with. I don't kiss anyone's ass and I sure as shit am not going to help promote someone I don't think deserves it. Gregor is one of the good ones. Probably the best indie author working right now. That is my honest opinion.
Now for a little goofiness.
My buddy Gregor knows his way around weird. He's spent a significant amount of time honing his craft and perfecting the art of explaining the unexplainable. While he is my friend, I look forward to his newest work like I do the works of Stephen King and Rachel Ray and John from the now disbanded band John and Kate Plus Eight. And, once you've completed Taboogasm, I'm sure you'll become a dedicated Xanist, as well. But first, a history lesson.
My purely-platonic-yet-erotic man-crush on Gregor Xane started when I read his debut, Six Dead Spots, and gave it a critical review. Gregor contacted my eliteness soon after to express how much he wanted to massage my manly bits. I responded by telling him I was married but we could totally cyber sex like it was 1999 as long as he agreed not to tell my wife about our late-night, virtual saber-clashing sessions. Between rugged hammering of each other's tent stakes, Gregor asked me to do a proofread of another piece of classy literature entitled The Hanover Block. I fangirled all over that thing until it became stiffer than a pair of old sweat socks baked in a kiln. Since then Gregor's sexy ass has taken me from mound pounding to goat loving to puppet shows to cattle farming, until finally we stopped here at Taboogasm.
Now, I know what you're thinking. You're thinking, "Who the fuck is Edward Lorn and why should I care what he thinks?" I have no answer to that question. But what I do know is that Gregor Xane should be a household name by now. It is an affront to Tom Cruise's good name that Gregor Xane is not on the tip of your tongue every morning and the last thing in your mouth before you kiss your significant other goodnight in the evening. And Taboogasm is a damn good reason as to why that should be the case. This man has proven he can write anything and write it well. But what I find most impressive about Gregor's writing is the fact that he can make the craziest shit so damn real and enthralling. Because, in the hands of a lesser author, his premises would not be taken seriously. It is a testament to Gregor's writing chops that I was able to suspend my disbelief while reading the story you are about to experience. For fuckery is afoot, and you're about to have one helluva freaky ride.
In summation: Taboogasm is a must read for many reasons, but the simplest reason is the best one. You have never and will never read anything like it. Come for the experience. Stay for the fantastic writing.
Final Judgment: Men's Adventure with a Xanist twist.
Description:
Bill likes booze. He likes women. But he doesn't like to work. Luckily for Bill, if he plays the lottery, he wins.
Every single time.
What happens when a low-life starts living the high life?
What happens when a deadbeat loser becomes the luckiest man alive?
He draws some unwanted attention, naturally, from dark and powerful forces, and before he knows what's what, his days on Earth are numbered.
Bill's luck just ran out.
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