In a time and place that is not quite ours, Cathay vies for supremacy with Atlantis, and humanity is being increasingly replaced, for the most part, with self- perpetuating chimeras of various strange sorts. Ratgirls, for example, die to give birth to vast litters which eat their corpses from inside--which is no fun if, like Frezetta, you happen to be a ratgirl, as well as the descendant of millennia of European aristocracy. She has a partner in crime, a walking corpse likeable save for his need for fresh human brains if he is not to rot where he stands; he used to be someone else, and at times he almost remembers who that was. Together, they race around this bizarre world somewhere sideways of us, stealing antique ceramics, defrauding rulers of City states and fighting death duels with giant robots. Somewhere amid all the horror, there is a way out, a one- way trip to the Moon, and they are looking for their fare. Calder takes the old pulp novelette form, an ideal template for loveable rogues working caper after caper, and puts his own perverse spin on it; Frenzetta is delightful sick fun. --Roz Kaveney