Tabula Rasa/Deep Penitentiary 6

by Shane Crash, Anthony Mathenia

Shane Crash and Anthony Mathenia team up for a double-feature and present two grindhouse inspired stories in one retro-styled split-paperback. In Crash's Tabula Rasa, Ryan Pierce wakes alone and dazed, in an abandoned facility once used to imprison the world's most bloodthirsty vampires. He must travel alone for hundreds of miles through vampire-infested territory in order to reunite with his friend and his lover. Tabula Rasa is a gritty tale of survival, packed with humor, action, and emotional resonance. In Mathenia's Deep Penitentiary 6, assassin Theta Butterfly goes deep undercover in a remote space prison in a life or death attempt to locate her missing twin sister. As a prisoner, she has to confront a gang of ferocious inmates lead by Honey Bee, a black bombshell from the dark side of the moon. Theta must find the will to live as she is subjected to livid abuse at the hands of the warden, the infamous Dark Mother. Caged ... tortured ... Theta Butterfly cuts through all obstacles to find out the horrific secrets of Deep Penitentiary 6.

176 pages, Paperback

First published June 20, 2013

About the author

Shane Crash is an American author and activist. He’s published several zines centered on alleviating poverty and homelessness. In 2009 he co-authored a collection of satire and poetry in the short zine, Lost Thoughts. And in 2010 he released Travel Logs, a short chronicle of his travels across the globe.

He’s a student of cosmology and physics. From the age of 21 to 23, Shane traveled the world, voluntarily homeless, living out of a backpack, traveling from city to city. Shane has partnered with the Catholic Worker House to care for single mothers fleeing abuse. He’s also partnered with the Catholic Workers to tutor immigrants, teaching English, and American history.

Shane often speaks on nonviolence and social responsibility. He runs Pacifist Army, a volunteer group of nonviolent activists who raise awareness on various social issues, including nonviolence and poverty.

Shane passionately advocates for education and nonviolent alternatives to war. He’s a fan of marvel comics and pizza.

Reviews

[Brendan · Rating 3 out of 5]

I backed this book on Kickstarter & was totally stoked when it arrived in the mail. As promised, it looks fantastic. The cover art is great, and it is a thrill to get a book in an archaic format like this.

As not really expected, it's VERY short. The cover promises two books in one, but it's really two stories in one book. 176 total pages. I still would have backed it knowing this, but it would have been nice to know I was getting a novella and a short story rather than two novels.

As for the content...I liked Deep Penitentiary 6, the women's prison story, a lot. The cult angle was cool, and the science fiction setting opened up some interesting angles. My quibble with this is that despite its science fiction setting, the characters are always making 20th century pop culture references, including a lot of meta stuff about women's prison movies. This is a matter of taste, but I prefer my pulp fiction played straight, and whenever the movie conversations happened, they pulled me out of the story. The comparisons are clear and the story is a lot of fun--the authorial winks were unnecessary. This one also featured a couple of pretty significant (to my English teacher eyes) typos. Still, it ends with the promise of a sequel, which I would totally read.

Tabula Rasa just didn't bring the same kind of glee to the table. It didn't really work for me.

[Alan · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots and lots of fun with a women in space prison story. I personally preferred Tabula Rada because of its much less campy tone, but both were good fun. Tabula Rasa is a more serious straightforward story and Deep Penitentiary is a very campy homage to women in prison movies. Definitely would recommend.

[Scott McKenzie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Five word review: Like Grindhouse in novel form.