Frenzetta

by Richard Calder

Technology from the past litters the streets, and the old world has fragmented. But only one thing matters to the man-monster Duane Duarte: his love for the murderous Frenzetta, a 17-year-old half-rat, half-human. Duane Duarte is a revenant, or reanimated corpse, a seven-foot-tall fighting machine engineered from the body parts of fallen soldiers. Frenzetta is a chimera, doomed to enjoy the horribly ecstatic fate of death by orgasm. Together, this delightful couple cut a swath of sex and violence across four continents of a far-future universe.

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Cyberpunk

192 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Adam · Rating 4 out of 5]

A baroque picaresque/romp of surrealistic porn and grand guignol a la Angela Carter’s Passion of New Eve or Infernal Desire Machines of Doctor Hoffman, with a mix of the decadent adventures of Moorcock, and more than a hint of Ballard pushed through a vision where anima, 30’s pulp, and French Symbolism are of equal import. Strangely fun if you give it a chance and wade through the purple prose with lots of cruelty and outrageous gore and an overload of style. Set in version of world where an event called the Abortion forced another reality on our own with lots animal people, a weird mix of technology (airships and muskets, teleporter and one stomping robot), and divided into Afric, Europa, Cathay, and Atlantis who wages war on all with their air navy and robots and in a wonderful inverse are the last remaining humans (the others ruled by the tribes of the perverse). Romping through this world on their way to the Moon and mythical freedom are a goblin princess (half rat and human) who will die when she orgasms, a brain eating revenant, and their dwarf maid. Balloon rides, a birth from a corpse, squid weaponry, necromancers, a queen who has her brain transplanted in a freshly killed young girl every year, a mix of myth and technology add to the perverse thrills of this book. Edgar Allen Poe and Marquis de Sade would have loved this one.

[Ivi_kiwi · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book is about a brain-eating Frankenstein's monster-style Zombie and a Girls Who is half rat/half human with really big breasts.
The First half of the book was weird and silly and completly over the top. I did enjoy it and would have g iven 3 stars.
Then it kind of got boring. Lazy old sexism Masquerading as "edgy".

[mister · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my favorite books. this author is dark and twisted.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read this a long time ago and had it on my bookshelf for as long. I finally had to rationlise my collection when we moved house. But this book stil sticks in my mind. There is only really one way to describe it. It is weird. Very weird. Some authors try to be weird, others just are weird without even trying. I have also read some of his other books but they weren't as memorable as this one. Read the top review on this book on GRs, my review cannot do it justice.