A solid cast of well-developed characters, including a “super-tall” royal Texan family, stars in this thrill ride of a novel teetering between sci-fi adventure and alternate historical epic. Set in a time after the fall of the evil Texas Empire at the hands of the United States government, average Joe Warren King discovers that his geeky loner little brother has been kidnapped, and his mother inexplicably urges him to flee to Canada. Instead, Warren travels to California, a former Texas Empire territory, where he comically tries his hand at sleuthing to track down his genius brother, Isaac, who seems to have been actively testing their DNA for a mysterious “blue chromosome.” Warren soon learns that the people who abducted his brother are after him too, and it is all tied to the blue chromosome and his sudden realization that his body is giving off a powerful electrical charge that he can’t explain. At a measured pace, the engrossing history of this parallel world is revealed, along with the politics and legends that accompany the now extinct royal Texan Wildes family -- a beautiful, physically homogenous, and abnormally tall clan believed to have preternatural abilities, and perhaps a connection to Warren himself. Easily shifting between characters’ perspectives, and relentless in its action, well-placed humor, and suspense, this manuscript is a delight.
$20
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