Rocket Roll

On her way to an offworld vacation, Melody Rich is violently kissed by an alien who thrusts something down her throat: the key to a lost planet. Following a star map, Melody is eaten by a megabug, kidnapped by space pirates, and has to face down eternity at the border of life and death. Accompanied by a half-dead alien, Melody strives to remove the key before it kills her—again.

ROCKET ROLL is a literary-mystiphysical space opera that provides readers with an enthralling experience beyond the norm, exactly equal to the book's unique, stylish energy.

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Two hundred years from now, Melody Rich (25) plans to visit relatives on Riiuus 3. In the Wyoming spaceport, she learns that the planet Eden Only (home to aliens called Pales) has vanished. Seeking an illegal vacuum boat to save money, Melody disturbs an alien (a Renewal) who screams, "You have killed me!" then forces Melody to swallow an object. The Renewal is then killed by a Headhand. The ship's pilot, a Pale named Eight-Man-Of-Strength, directs Melody to his boat. The final passenger is the disguised Headhand.

As the vacuum boat traverses the ether lanes, the Headhand and a Terran politician kill each other over Melody's part in Eden Only's disappearance. The planet has been "hidden" in second space by Headhands, who live separated from their heads. The Pales of Eden Only were punished for having humanely reattached many Headhands (Renewals). Discovered within Melody is Eden Only's simulacrum, which cannot be retrieved by normal means. This simulacrum dictates the planet's position in the universe.

Melody and Eight travel second space, guided by the map that is the dead Renewal's reconstituted body. After being eaten by a huge megabug, kidnapped by space pirates, struggling with evil rocket ships, and facing down eternity at the border of life and death, Melody comes to the end of the map. In order to save his home world, Eight sells Melody to the Headhands, who will remove her skull. This decapitation will provide Melody with galactic enlightenment, or mundane death.