The Rapture Of Release — H.C. Turk

On her way to an offworld vacation, Melody Spell is violently kissed by an alien who thrusts something down her throat: the key to a lost planet. Following a star map, Melody is eaten by a megabug, kidnapped by space pirates, and has to face down metaphysics at the border of life and death. Accompanied by a half-dead alien, Melody strives to remove the key before it kills her—again.THE RAPTURE OF RELEASE is a magical space opera that provides readers with an enthralling experience beyond the norm, exactly equal to the book's unique, stylish energy. *Two hundred years from now, Melody Spell (25) plans to visit relatives on Riius Zed. In the Wyoming spaceport, she learns that the planet Eden Only (home to aliens called Pales) has vanished. Seeking an illegal vacuum boat to save money, Melody disturbs an alien (a Renewal) who screams, You have killed me! then forces Melody to swallow an object. The Renewal is then killed by Headhands (magical aliens who carry their heads in their hands). The ship's pilot, a Pale named Eight-Strength, directs Melody to his boat. The final passenger is a disguised, murderous Headhand. As the vacuum boat achieves deep space, the Headhand and a Terran politician kill each other over Eden Only's disappearance. The planet has been magically hidden by Headhands to punish the Pales for humanely reattaching many Headhands, resulting in Renewals. Discovered within Melody is Eden Only's simulacrum, which dictates the planet's position in the universe. The sim can only be retrieved with magic, a post-science the Headhands are perfecting.Melody and Eight travel second space, guided by a magical map that is the dead Renewal's reconstituted body. After experiencing a floating palace, an inside-out planet, people-eating goldfish, and confronting the corpses of everyone she will meet in the future, Melody comes to the end of the map. In order to save his home world, Eight sells Melody to the Headhands, who will remove her skull. This decapitation will provide Melody with galactic enlightenment, or mundane death.