Book Review: Rattled by the Rush by Chris Kelso

Rattled by the Rush by Chris Kelso

Paperback, 134 pages

Published January 2016 by JournalStone

I think Chris Kelso is a writer who will inspire alot of mixed and varied emotions. Lets make one thing clear the guy is talented and can write he writes worlds that are extremely weird. So weird I am not sure they are for everyone. His talent and ability is not in question, The man can write but the setting is so weird it feels like a disservice to use words like surreal and bizarro. This is the third Kelso book I have read all set in his fictional Slave State world. I have to say until p.23 of this book I was not sure what the slave state actually was. I knew it was a alternate reality, or at least I thought so. It was a very nasty world. Now I know that it is another dimension where alien hold humans captive, and in this case this reality with enslaved humans is at risk because a hole to earth has opened up in Siberia.

The main character is a failed comedian named Larry who is on to it all. Like all Kelso I admit I would lose track of the story from time to time. I don't find his narrative to be straight forward. It is easy to lose track of what is happy but the words and moments are so wonderfully weird and funny I am loving the ride. This book contains tributes to the master of surreal pulp sci-fi Phil K. Dick and even speaks to him directly at moments. Kelso has a few clever moments when he and his characters exchange letters.

Weakness...for me it is a short page count at has a couple pages of fluff pages 41-46 for example are unreadbable blocks of unbroken text I am sure had something to do with the book but I skipped and just thought was a waste. This book has about 15 of these pages. I couldn't hang with that.

If you are looking for weird sci-fi that takes elements of pulp, cyberpunk and makes them even weirder Kelso will be your jam. Kelso is a genius writer, while his style is not exactly my thing I can really respect what he is doing. Also I should mention that on page 77 there is hand drawing of a naked Hitler. I was reading on the bus and had no choice but to skip that page. Not public safe.