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Thanatos Rising Series #2
Wizzy Wig
Jake Denny has a pizza problem. Even though they are officially friends now, he still can't figure out how to talk to Kix Welty, the intimidatingly hot delivery driver from Pizza Joe's. Every time he tries to ask her out, he ends up rambling on about video games, kung-fu movies, or science. She must think he's the most boring boob on the planet. So when Kix stumbles upon a key component to an experiment Jake is planning, he seizes the opportunity to impress her. Unfortunately for everyone, his experiment works. The resulting twist in reality puts Kix into the path of a dangerous stalker and Jake in the center of a nightmarish web. Thanatos is thirty-two pounds of (mostly) Maine Coon cat. He lives upstairs from all this mess, and he definitely does not approve. Together, he and Pansy will set the Universe back to rights. They will conquer villains! They will avenge things! They will... Wait...who is Pansy?
- GenresScience FictionFantasy
374 pages, Kindle Edition
First published September 21, 2015
About the author
Tiffany Pitts
5 books15 followersTiffany grew up in the Seattle area in a time when the Super Sonics were huge and Starbucks was just a store at the end of the Market. Tragedy struck early in her life as her family moved to New Jersey mere months before Bon Jovi’s “Slippery When Wet” album hit record stores. It took nearly a decade to wean herself off the hairspray. But Seattle called her back, so she went; eventually earning a degree in Botany (pronounced “Bar tending”) at the University of Washington.
She made one more valiant attempt to leave the PNW after college by travelling around the country doing not much of value and making very stupid decisions. She is thankful every day that the internet was not a huge deal in those years. Then Seattle called again so she picked up and moved home where she spent many years being a scientist of middling talent in several labs that she absolutely did not blow up—except for that one time and everyone agreed not to talk about that any more.
Now she divides her time between writing fiction and raising two kids who are wonderful but, for some reason, won’t stop licking things.
She made one more valiant attempt to leave the PNW after college by travelling around the country doing not much of value and making very stupid decisions. She is thankful every day that the internet was not a huge deal in those years. Then Seattle called again so she picked up and moved home where she spent many years being a scientist of middling talent in several labs that she absolutely did not blow up—except for that one time and everyone agreed not to talk about that any more.
Now she divides her time between writing fiction and raising two kids who are wonderful but, for some reason, won’t stop licking things.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
April 22, 2020
Fun fun fun!
While this sequel to Double Blind requires a bigger suspension of disbelief and desperately needs a MUCH heavier stroke of the red pen, it's so much fun, I almost didn't care.
Yes, there were a few instances where editing fails made it impossible to understand what ideas Pitts was attempting to convey, but mostly I only felt slightly annoyed by missing words and sudden changes in grammatical tense. There was much less of the confusing head hopping that plagued the first book, and almost none of the questionable depictions of foreign characters.
And for enduring those th (normally enough to make me want to DNF), I got to hang out with characters who I liked even better this time around (Carl and Deli barely made appearances, but Toesy, Jake and Sacha each got a lot of screen time) and follow the twists and turns of a hella twistier plot. All while trying not to laugh myself unconscious.
While this sequel to Double Blind requires a bigger suspension of disbelief and desperately needs a MUCH heavier stroke of the red pen, it's so much fun, I almost didn't care.
Yes, there were a few instances where editing fails made it impossible to understand what ideas Pitts was attempting to convey, but mostly I only felt slightly annoyed by missing words and sudden changes in grammatical tense. There was much less of the confusing head hopping that plagued the first book, and almost none of the questionable depictions of foreign characters.
And for enduring those th (normally enough to make me want to DNF), I got to hang out with characters who I liked even better this time around (Carl and Deli barely made appearances, but Toesy, Jake and Sacha each got a lot of screen time) and follow the twists and turns of a hella twistier plot. All while trying not to laugh myself unconscious.
September 21, 2020
A 35 lb immortal cat with thumbs!
This is the second book in this series. This involves a computer genius who lives in the basement of an old house. A girl he wants to impress (Kix, the pizza delivery girl) and a physics experiment that opened a hole between dimensions...in Seattle.... plus some sly commentary on our society.
Oh yes..Toesy.. the immortal cat. He is wonderful.. all of the characters are. But i like toesy! He has thumbs, and can teleport (all cats can! )
The story is fun and interesting! I liked it immensely! I won't give it away.. please read this book and it's lead in "double blind" then order "parallax", the third book in this series.
And don't annoy Toesy..
This is the second book in this series. This involves a computer genius who lives in the basement of an old house. A girl he wants to impress (Kix, the pizza delivery girl) and a physics experiment that opened a hole between dimensions...in Seattle.... plus some sly commentary on our society.
Oh yes..Toesy.. the immortal cat. He is wonderful.. all of the characters are. But i like toesy! He has thumbs, and can teleport (all cats can! )
The story is fun and interesting! I liked it immensely! I won't give it away.. please read this book and it's lead in "double blind" then order "parallax", the third book in this series.
And don't annoy Toesy..
June 7, 2019
Sequel to Double Blind. Massively confusing - but in a good way! (Gets somewhat less so as you go on….and I think that may be intentional.) A psychopath, parallel dimensions, romance, an awesome augmented cat, and pizza– oh, and a sugar glider - what more do you need?! The book could stand alone, but you would miss some references (or they would be confusing, and not half as funny) if you had not read Double Blind first.
Anywho...enjoyed both books! Fun romps both! 4.5 stars
Anywho...enjoyed both books! Fun romps both! 4.5 stars
October 18, 2020
pick a plot line and main characters already
Jumps between character perspectives and plot lines erratically leaving the reader with just enough disjointed plot development to hint at an overarching direction but not enough for you to actually care. Add parallel dimensions to the mix and it's just an incoherent mess. The first book in this series was a decent first try for a new author; this sequel is just confusing without any momentum.
Jumps between character perspectives and plot lines erratically leaving the reader with just enough disjointed plot development to hint at an overarching direction but not enough for you to actually care. Add parallel dimensions to the mix and it's just an incoherent mess. The first book in this series was a decent first try for a new author; this sequel is just confusing without any momentum.
July 25, 2019
What A Hoot
They story is fast paced and a little crazy. Toesy steals the show again. In fact the non human characters are great and make the story. I was laughing g out loud after reading the scene where Nick reacts to Diabo's bite. I'm disappointed there isn't another book in the series.
They story is fast paced and a little crazy. Toesy steals the show again. In fact the non human characters are great and make the story. I was laughing g out loud after reading the scene where Nick reacts to Diabo's bite. I'm disappointed there isn't another book in the series.
September 6, 2019
An entertaining and mind-bending read!
I didn't think it was possible to like this second book of this series more than the first, but I think I do, lol! Great suspense, Interesting plot, snappy dialogue, and wonderful character development! Really looking forward to reading more by this author. I hope there is a third installment in the works??
I didn't think it was possible to like this second book of this series more than the first, but I think I do, lol! Great suspense, Interesting plot, snappy dialogue, and wonderful character development! Really looking forward to reading more by this author. I hope there is a third installment in the works??
November 26, 2018
A worthy follow up!
Loved the first book with these characters, and Wizzy Wig didn’t disappoint. It was especially fun to get a new story from the POV of characters who were merely supporting in the first.
Loved the first book with these characters, and Wizzy Wig didn’t disappoint. It was especially fun to get a new story from the POV of characters who were merely supporting in the first.
June 11, 2019
Thankfully, my battery didn’t die...
...Before I finished this book.
You know how when you want something so bad you can almost taste it? This book explains why it's a good idea not to try to taste it.
Plus, cat demigods, sugar gliders, and spider heaven.
...Before I finished this book.
You know how when you want something so bad you can almost taste it? This book explains why it's a good idea not to try to taste it.
Plus, cat demigods, sugar gliders, and spider heaven.
December 19, 2020
A group of all-too-human characters navigate the tangled (and sometimes deadly) realities of love, lust, and jealousy in this Mr. Toad’s Wild Ride of inter-dimensional intrigue driven by a cat, a sugar glider, and a venomous Central American spider.
February 4, 2018
This one was a little more difficult to follow than the previous book. Must admit that it was a novel concept.
December 16, 2018
As the world gets zanier, the plot gets a harder to follow. However, I enjoyed the characters that were developed here, and found the entire thing amusing.
March 28, 2020
Funny, charmingly odd characters and a great adventure.
July 20, 2021
My kind if book
This is the perfect book for people who love fantasy, thrillers and humor mixed together. I loved all of the characters. But,
I wish I had a cat like Today.
This is the perfect book for people who love fantasy, thrillers and humor mixed together. I loved all of the characters. But,
I wish I had a cat like Today.
March 4, 2016
I've read both books in Tiffany Pitts's Thanatos Rising series, and I can honestly say that Pitts writes with a uniquely delightful literary voice. Her particular brand of contemporary sci-fi adventure somehow manages to present life-and-death situations alongside blithe imagination in a way that often seems to look askance at reality as if to say, "Really, reality? Really?"
I'm not sure if I'm making sense here, so to sum up my opinion more concisely: The second book in the series in the series, Wizzy Wig is a fun science fiction adventure that's certainly worth your time. Especially if you like cats. And strong characters of any gender. And reality-bending pizza.
Yeah, you read that right: reality-bending pizza. I won't spoil the details, but this book is a tale of multiple realities and how a tiny hole between them wreaks havoc upon a small group of friends, a nanotechnologically-augmented house cat, a sugar glider, and quite possibly one of the few point-of-view spider characters in fiction.
Pitts tells the story from multiple points of view, which is something of a necessity when dealing with characters able to force themselves into the bodies of their alternate-universe counterparts--or when entertaining us with the internal thought processes of a cat or a deadly (and puckish) Brazilian wandering spider. While the reality warps in Wizzy Wig were a tad confusing for me to keep up with, the characters themselves were in the same boat, so my confusion was theirs, but I grasped it all in the end.
Wizzy Wig is a ridiculous book, and I say that in EVERY complimentary sense of the word. Whether or not you've read the first book in the series, if you like light science fiction with a sense of humor, you'll find something to enjoy here.
Also, pizza.
I'm not sure if I'm making sense here, so to sum up my opinion more concisely: The second book in the series in the series, Wizzy Wig is a fun science fiction adventure that's certainly worth your time. Especially if you like cats. And strong characters of any gender. And reality-bending pizza.
Yeah, you read that right: reality-bending pizza. I won't spoil the details, but this book is a tale of multiple realities and how a tiny hole between them wreaks havoc upon a small group of friends, a nanotechnologically-augmented house cat, a sugar glider, and quite possibly one of the few point-of-view spider characters in fiction.
Pitts tells the story from multiple points of view, which is something of a necessity when dealing with characters able to force themselves into the bodies of their alternate-universe counterparts--or when entertaining us with the internal thought processes of a cat or a deadly (and puckish) Brazilian wandering spider. While the reality warps in Wizzy Wig were a tad confusing for me to keep up with, the characters themselves were in the same boat, so my confusion was theirs, but I grasped it all in the end.
Wizzy Wig is a ridiculous book, and I say that in EVERY complimentary sense of the word. Whether or not you've read the first book in the series, if you like light science fiction with a sense of humor, you'll find something to enjoy here.
Also, pizza.
November 1, 2015
The first book in this series, Double Blind, was fun and funny. This book was better. It was hilarious, fast-paced, and twisty as all get-out. I'm confident you can enjoy it without having read the first book.
When I first encountered this series, to be honest, I was a little skeptical based on the series title "Thanatos Rising." Thanatos, it turns out, is a cat, better known to his owners, er, subjects, as Toesy. Toesy is the true hero of the book - just ask him - and tied for second are his friend and neighbor, the recently liberated sugar glider Pansy, and the human Kix - or, as Toesy calls her, the Angel of Delivery. When Kix brings Jack a pizza of unknown provenance, Jack, a sweet and clueless nerd who has a blistering crush on her, tries to impress her by using it in an experiment to test the applications of quantum physics in general and the "paradox" of Schrodinger's Cat in particular - or, in this case, Schrodinger's Pizza. This is the first novel I've ever encountered in which the Fateful Question is, will this pizza have jalapenos or not? Also the first where half of the Fateful Question gets eaten by an annoyed neighbor.
Pitts' use of multiple loose third-person points of view allows her to bring her hilariously quirky voice to a wide variety of situations, and assemble a delightfully twisty plot. In the hands of a less writer, it might result in shallow characters, but she deftly conveys the emotions and personalities of her cast through their actions and where they focus their attention, with only the occasional dip into their thoughts. I may have to read the book again to figure out how she did that so well.
When I first encountered this series, to be honest, I was a little skeptical based on the series title "Thanatos Rising." Thanatos, it turns out, is a cat, better known to his owners, er, subjects, as Toesy. Toesy is the true hero of the book - just ask him - and tied for second are his friend and neighbor, the recently liberated sugar glider Pansy, and the human Kix - or, as Toesy calls her, the Angel of Delivery. When Kix brings Jack a pizza of unknown provenance, Jack, a sweet and clueless nerd who has a blistering crush on her, tries to impress her by using it in an experiment to test the applications of quantum physics in general and the "paradox" of Schrodinger's Cat in particular - or, in this case, Schrodinger's Pizza. This is the first novel I've ever encountered in which the Fateful Question is, will this pizza have jalapenos or not? Also the first where half of the Fateful Question gets eaten by an annoyed neighbor.
Pitts' use of multiple loose third-person points of view allows her to bring her hilariously quirky voice to a wide variety of situations, and assemble a delightfully twisty plot. In the hands of a less writer, it might result in shallow characters, but she deftly conveys the emotions and personalities of her cast through their actions and where they focus their attention, with only the occasional dip into their thoughts. I may have to read the book again to figure out how she did that so well.
November 3, 2015
Toesy, the extra large cat with super powers,(otherwise known as Thanatos) is back with a new sidekick in this amusing sequel to Double Blind. Although it’s not imperative to read Double Blind first, it does help give the foundation of the characters, and explain Toesy’s powers. Not to mention it’s also a fun amusing book. Back to Wizzywig- Jake has messed up the universe big time while trying to impress Kix, the pizza delivery girl. Now she’s being stalked, and it’s up to Toesy and his new sidekick Pansy to save the day, and put all the pieces back together in their correct order. While it’s science fiction and most of what happens is (most likely) impossible, it’s so well written that you start to believe anything is possible! A fun and entertaining book.
November 2, 2015
This was a perfect book to entertain me on a rainy day in a remote mountain cabin. The short chapters and concise writing keep the story at a fast pace. Once again, I found myself laughing out loud (or at least gleefully grinning) - particularly at the antics of Toesy (Thanatos) and his new antagonist, Nick Miller. Having read Double Blind, I was familiar with most of the central characters to Wizzy Wig. But it's a very different story, and not necessary to read Double Blind to enjoy Wizzy Wig. Although I strongly recommend you also read Double Blind… because it's also terrific fun! Personally, I think both books have the potential to be adapted into wonderful Sci-Fi Comedy movies.
November 6, 2015
Fast-paced and funny, Wizzy Wig picks up where Double Blind left off, continuing the adventures of Jake Denny and the recently deified cat Toesy (aka Thanatos). Short chapters whip between character points of view as a science experiment sends characters through portals and into alternate universes.
One of Pitts' strengths is getting inside the heads of her animal characters. This time, not only do we hear Toesy's thoughts, but also those of a spider named Diabo and a Sugar Glider named Pansy. Somehow these characterizations are completely believable, and are my favorite part of the book.
One of Pitts' strengths is getting inside the heads of her animal characters. This time, not only do we hear Toesy's thoughts, but also those of a spider named Diabo and a Sugar Glider named Pansy. Somehow these characterizations are completely believable, and are my favorite part of the book.
April 9, 2016
I loved this book so much I actually looked forward to riding the bus. If anyone reading this has experienced the erratic schedule and questionable (and largely unsanitary) ambiance provided by city public transit, you know this is a glowing endorsement. I don't know how Pitts makes her critters so fantastic, but that spider was the best yet. This book is a winner.
February 8, 2016
The second book in the series sees our little group of friends continuing on with their crazy scientific adventures. A fun read.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews