The Wasp Child
-
- $3.99
-
- $3.99
Publisher Description
Caught between two worlds. Wanted in neither.
Kesh is afraid-of his classmates, his allergies, his odd sense of smell, and his prospects for the future.
Born into Meridian Colony, where corporate values dictate human worth, Kesh longs for escape. He gets what he asks for in the worst possible way when his classmates kidnap and dump him in the middle of an alien rainforest. Alone.
Faced with certain death, Kesh encounters the sansik, giant insects native to the planet. Though the sansik seem to care for him, their pheromones set off a horrific metamorphosis in Kesh. Claws sprout from his fingertips. A monstrous exoskeleton grows beneath his skin. And then the bugs do the unthinkable: trade him back to Meridian, where life as a living scientific curiosity awaits him, a bleak future void of autonomy.
Caught in a tug-of-war between Meridian's laboratories and a harsh alien world, Kesh has to make a choice: convince his people to accept him, or break free and face an uncertain future alone in an alien world.
"A well-written story of transformation that's both emotional and thought-provoking."-Kirkus Reviews
"Roll over, Kafka, now there's something xenomorphier."-Curtis C. Chen, author of the KANGAROO novels.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Rasmussen's debut novella, a clever but clumsy dark sci-fi spin on Kafka's The Metamorphosis, paints a familiar picture of a misfit preteen. In the research colony of Meridian, Kesh, a strange fosterling, is bullied by his classmates for being unable relate to the adults who are trying to raise him and struggling with his schoolwork. After cruel fellow students dump him in the eerie rainforest surrounding the colony, Kesh is rescued by a queen sansik, a huge, intelligent native insect, who takes him back to her hive and slathers him with a foul-smelling goo that begins his transformation into the parasite wasp he's secretly been all along. With the help of "Queenie" and Aster, his only human friend, Kesh navigates his bizarre coming-of-age; unable to exist between the human and sansik worlds, he must find his way to adapt to life with alien beings rather than commercially oriented humans. Horrific buggy details occasionally make this sincere parable stomach-turning reading, but there's no denying the atmospherics. It's imperfect, but entertaining.
