If the name TenNapel rings a slight bell, it is as the creature of such inventive and offbeat video games as the Earthworm Jim series, Neverhood and Skullmonkeys. Take that same kind of humor and add a giant space eel, demon cats (complete with demon cat pee), a six-foot humanoid beer-drinking, toilet-using mantid named Blue, the Shroud of Turin, a couple of rednecks, an insane, effeminate British scientist ghost, an athiest scientist with a pastor father, a Goth girl with an amblyopic eye and an atrophied hand, a Kung Fu-fighting symbiotic alien, and you’ve got a few of the pieces that make up this most unusual story. The X-Files? Pre-school fodder! Men In Black? As bland as mashed peas compared to Creature Tech.

For all its oddness, however, the inner logic is so consistent and the character motives so plausible and believable that the reader easily accepts the outlandish occurrences. TenNapel is a master storyteller, populating this bizarre tale with well-rounded and interesting characters one easily connects with. The pacing is impressive and always entertaining and the author is able to invoke various emotions from the reader with ease and grace, often shifting gears drastically but never jarring one from this unique world.

The story is fairly straightforward. Dr. Michael Ong is a world-renown scientist working for the government researching their massive collection of paranormal possessions, one of which is an authentic Shroud of Turin. In the lab the demented ghost of Dr. Jameson opens a box containing an eight-foot slugbeast (and matching parasite) which distracts everyone long enough for him to steal the Shroud. The slugbeast is killed and the alien face-hugger-like parasite attaches itself to Dr. Ong’s chest, forcing him into a symbiotic relationship. This is not without benefit to Dr. Ong as this creature joins his nervous system, at times controlling his actions and giving him superhuman reflexes and strength. Using the Shroud, the ghost of Dr. Jameson resurrects himself and unleashes an army of mutant demon cats upon the small town as he attempts to bring back the giant space eel he unsuccessfully tried to control one hundred years before. Okay, maybe it’s not so straightforward.

Woven into this is a love story between Dr. Ong and Katie, the wispy Goth girl and subplot of self-discovery, all told in a very funny, sweet, touching, very strange, yet very authentic manner.