April 2006

Over the Top: Tritcheon Hash by Sue Lange
Metropolis Ink, ISBN 0-9580543-8-X
Reviewed by Tiffany Jonas

Tiffany Jonas is the founder and publisher of Aio Publishing Company, LLC, a small private company devoted entirely to a literary breed of speculative fiction. She is a longtime follower of both literary and science fiction who freely admits she is extraordinarily picky when it comes to what earns a spot in her home library.

From the cover art, one could be forgiven for imagining the title character of this sharp, acerbic book as a lithe, ultra-modern action hero. The "action hero" part would be correct—but the "lithe" portion would be a little off. Tritcheon makes several references to her rather stubby physical build; at one point, she refers to herself as a "frog."

Still, in a sea of the badly rendered "realistic" art unfortunately native to our genre, and heaven forbid, Poser images, the cover art is a refreshing change, delightfully different if a bit low on content. (More than half of the back cover—valuable real estate indeed!—is devoid of anything but color and a few streaks resembling sparks.)

In the same way, Sue Lange's novel is refreshingly different—irreverent and told in a confident, sarcastic voice—but weak on science and credibility. In fact, perhaps not surprisingly given the sarcastic nature of her writer's voice, Lange seems to markedly thumb her nose at the science portion of the science fiction genre. Tritcheon Hash travels from not just star to star but galaxy to galaxy in a ship powered by a faster-than-light technology called a "lighterator." When Hash needs to make a quick exit but finds enemies have disassembled her FTL ship and mutilated its parts, she searches for an instruction manual to put the ship back together in a jiffy. Flying a ship designed and manufactured on another planet that no one from her solar system has visited before is a simple six-step process, starting with "Check levels of air, fuel, and food," and ending with step six: "Go."

The story revolves around the unlikely premise that sometime in the future, women become so frustrated with men and their wicked ways that the entire gender up and leaves the planet, relocating to another galaxy. One man from Earth and one woman representative of Coney Island, the women's planet, meet only once a year for a baby exchange. Now, centuries later, the men have ruined their planet. Half of Earth is uninhabitable and a thick layer of trash hovers in orbit, completely blocking out the sun. The men still want their women back, and the women want nothing to do with the men. The women may be softening, though: early in her career, test pilot Tritcheon Hash takes part in a radical new co-ed training program in which several men travel to Coney Island and are quarantined in dorm rooms during non-program hours. The story takes off when Tritch's upper-echelon contact, General Anschoss, heads a clandestine effort to investigate Earth for the purpose of considering reunification. The unlikely spy chosen for the mission? You guessed it.

The closest comparison I can make is this: Tritcheon Hash is an adrenaline junkie, as badly behaved Battlestar Galactica's Starbuck on uppers, yet all too human. (That's the new Battlestar Galactica, not the classic series.)

If coarse language bothers you, prepare yourself before you pick up the book. Little is sacred in this story. And politely put, I don't want to read about anyone digging into their rear end for a ferocious itch, whether it's written by China Mieville or Sue Lange. Unfortunately, in Tritcheon Hash, this delightful little nugget of a scene takes place only three pages into the book, and continues painfully for several paragraphs: not the charming introduction to a (sympathetic) character I'd wish. Maybe I'm different than you are, but if I weren't reviewing the book, I'd have quickly placed it back on the shelf and moved on. Writers, please take heed.

As long as I'm on the topic of shortcomings, this book does suffer from a handful: missing punctuation marks, some unwieldy chunks of exposition, a general who acts nothing like one (I can't imagine Captain Janeway taking that kind of familiar tone with an underling), a black-as-coal villain who lacks any shade of gray, and a first chapter that's a long, frustrating wind-up to nothing—though other than the hemorrhoid scene, it does familiarize the reader with Tritcheon.

Lange's strength is definitely her strong, irreverent voice, though as noted, she's prone to taking it a bit too far. One of the brightest spots in the book, a description of the tender relationship between Tritcheon and her wife as told from the point of view of the wife, comes almost too late in the story. The male character of Bangut is wonderfully described, as is Tritch's own anguish, and the ending takes a startling turn: heart-wrenching, cheeky, tender, and abrupt by turns.

If a sense of humor and a distinctive authorial voice matter to you, and credibility and delicacy do not, I comfortably recommend Tritcheon Hash as a unique, fun read.