It is 1949... when a glance from a starlet named Marilyn Monroe can and does change men's lives.
And it is 2010... when the pouty smile of a teenage prostitute on Sunset Boulevard can throw history into a tailspin.
And it is 2026... when one drop of an illegal perfume called Moon Over Eros threatens to unleash a sexual pandemonium that might destroy the world.
It is Mysticus, an interweaving of three storylines that recount the tortured life of Ronald Shepard - from lonely boy to eccentric orthodontist to reclusive billionaire - and the four women who take him from ruin to redemption. The story begins with nine-year-old Ronald as the son of servants to millionaire Simon Rice, the only residents of a private island off the coast of South Carolina. Here Ronald crashes headfirst into power, greed, ambition, and an obsession with sex that will control his life - for it is here that Ronald meets Marilyn Monroe, a goddess of seduction whose presence sweeps through the book like an avalanche. And it is here that Ronald's mother and father embark upon their own tragic paths, little realizing the devastation they will wreak upon their son's fragile psyche.
Interlaced with this story is the story of middle-aged Ronald's encounter with Cassandra DeRoy, a Sunset Boulevard hooker whose dizzying resemblance to Marilyn leaves him teetering on the edge of sanity. The two weeks they spend together plumbing psychosexual depths will bring several other innocents to ruin.
The third narrative is that of sixteen-year-old Ginger Todd as she hitchhikes illegally across the bleak America of 2026, in search of the parents she has never known. Her odyssey, propelled by a desire for revenge and fueled by a banned and mind-altering perfume, introduces her to the madhouse SADfacs (substance abuser dependency facilities), Kervorkian Serenity Centers, a roving band of mystics known as Kerouacs, and a counterfeit democracy swollen out of control. Here too she meets an elderly Ronald and his lifelong companion Ricardo, a telepathic fetus in a jar.
The result of this wild ride about the healing and destructive powers of love, and the consequences of sex, wealth, and power, is a novel that, said one critic, "a reader will not put down...thinking it is like anything else she has read. Randall Silvis takes chances with his writing and the result is exquisite, palpable and, yes, mystical."
Genre: Fantasy
And it is 2010... when the pouty smile of a teenage prostitute on Sunset Boulevard can throw history into a tailspin.
And it is 2026... when one drop of an illegal perfume called Moon Over Eros threatens to unleash a sexual pandemonium that might destroy the world.
It is Mysticus, an interweaving of three storylines that recount the tortured life of Ronald Shepard - from lonely boy to eccentric orthodontist to reclusive billionaire - and the four women who take him from ruin to redemption. The story begins with nine-year-old Ronald as the son of servants to millionaire Simon Rice, the only residents of a private island off the coast of South Carolina. Here Ronald crashes headfirst into power, greed, ambition, and an obsession with sex that will control his life - for it is here that Ronald meets Marilyn Monroe, a goddess of seduction whose presence sweeps through the book like an avalanche. And it is here that Ronald's mother and father embark upon their own tragic paths, little realizing the devastation they will wreak upon their son's fragile psyche.
Interlaced with this story is the story of middle-aged Ronald's encounter with Cassandra DeRoy, a Sunset Boulevard hooker whose dizzying resemblance to Marilyn leaves him teetering on the edge of sanity. The two weeks they spend together plumbing psychosexual depths will bring several other innocents to ruin.
The third narrative is that of sixteen-year-old Ginger Todd as she hitchhikes illegally across the bleak America of 2026, in search of the parents she has never known. Her odyssey, propelled by a desire for revenge and fueled by a banned and mind-altering perfume, introduces her to the madhouse SADfacs (substance abuser dependency facilities), Kervorkian Serenity Centers, a roving band of mystics known as Kerouacs, and a counterfeit democracy swollen out of control. Here too she meets an elderly Ronald and his lifelong companion Ricardo, a telepathic fetus in a jar.
The result of this wild ride about the healing and destructive powers of love, and the consequences of sex, wealth, and power, is a novel that, said one critic, "a reader will not put down...thinking it is like anything else she has read. Randall Silvis takes chances with his writing and the result is exquisite, palpable and, yes, mystical."
Genre: Fantasy
Visitors also looked at these books
Used availability for Randall Silvis's Mysticus