The Whyte Python World Tour
A Novel
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4.0 • 1 Rating
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
Rikki Thunder, twenty-two-year-old drummer for the scorching new ’80s metal band Whyte Python, is about to have it all: absurd wealth, global fame, and a dream girlfriend. But an unwitting role as an international spy? That was definitely not part of the plan.
"A rock-n-roll thrill ride... Heavy Metal icon Rikki Thunder's satirical memoir is sweeter than Cherry Pie and better than a prescription from Dr. Feelgood! You need to read it."—Ernest Cline
It’s Los Angeles, 1986, and metal rules the world. For aspiring drummer Rikki Thunder, life is beautiful, just like his hair—even if he is sleeping in a condemned paint store and playing with a band that’s going nowhere. But when Rikki gets a shot to join L.A.’s hottest up-and-coming club band, Whyte Python, his young life takes a mind-blowing turn. Soon he and his new band mates have a hit single rocketing up the charts, Whyte Python is selling out major clubs, and Rikki has a gorgeous girlfriend in the audience and in his life. He literally could not ask for anything more.
But good fortune can be deceiving. As the band gets a deeper taste of success in the US, the late-80’s Cold War is breathing its last gasps around the world. American music is blasting through the Iron Curtain and a youth revolution is taking hold—with a hair band unknowingly playing host to the final battle for the hearts and minds of young people everywhere. Rikki Thunder soon questions the forces that are helping to propel Whyte Python, and he realizes the stakes of his musical journey—to spread peace, love, and epic shredding across the globe—might be far more dangerous than he had ever imagined.
Crafted on the satirical knife-edge between high-suspense and head-banging hilarity, The Whyte Python World Tour is a raucous, uplifting, and refreshing debut. Travis Kennedy’s adrenaline-charged novel is delightfully steeped in ’80s music and cultural nostalgia, delivering one of the most entertaining reads of the year.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
During the waning years of the Cold War, the CIA—in the person of blonde, bodacious junior agent Amanda Price—gets into bed with an up-and-coming L.A. metal band as part of a covert op to foment pro-democracy rebellion behind the Iron Curtain, in Kennedy's bold if uneven debut. Undercover as Tawny Spice, staffer for a nonexistent music magazine, Amanda targets Rikki Thunder, a talented but emotionally starved drummer. Within weeks of their first hookup, Amanda manages to squeeze Rikki into the lineup of buzzy band Whyte Python. While Amanda and Rikki's faux-romance blossoms, behind the scenes there's a dead-serious CIA team toiling on every aspect of an operation designed to catapult Whyte Python to the top of the charts and send them on an arena tour of the eastern bloc. Newcomer Kennedy nimbly heightens suspense via numerous twists, including the apparent presence of a mole close to the band, without neglecting the story's ample comic possibilities. Still, the tone aims for something like the gonzo heights of Tim O'Brien's America Fantastica and comes up short. A diverting dive into the paranoid past, this picaresque rolls merrily along without ever really rocking.
