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.
“A rock ’n’ roll thrill ride. . . . The Whyte Python World Tour feels like a cross between a harrowing episode of Behind the Music and a Roger Moore–era James Bond flick. 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, bestselling author of Ready Player One
“Travis Kennedy is too fiendishly clever for his own damn good. As he’s perfectly satirizing the hair-metal scene on the very first downbeat, you’re strapping yourself in for a wild ride. . . and suddenly he spikes your drink and cranks the Marshall stack to 20. Outrageous fun. Outrageous twists. Just outrageous, period!” —Lincoln Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Sex, thugs, and rock 'n' roll! If Iron Maiden had made a James Bond movie it would have been Travis Kennedy's The Whyte Python World Tour, an antic thriller that spins the shiniest metal videos of the1980s with cliffhanging adventure movie in which an unsuspecting heavy metal band is infiltrated by the CIA and becomes a secret weapon in the final days of the Cold War. Heads are banged, fists raised, and the KGB and Stasi are no match for the power of rock 'n' roll.” —Peter Ames Carlin, New York Times bestselling author of Bruce and The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. “The Whye Python World Tour has everything: the glam rock satire of This Is Spinal Tap; the cloak-and-dagger thrills of Bridge of Spies; and a hero you'll want to climb over the hood of a car in a leopard-print bikini for. The only thing missing is a parental advisory sticker: WARNING: THIS BOOK ROCKS HARD.” —Kat Rosenfield, bestselling author of No One Will Miss Her
“Hilarious, fast-paced, and thoroughly debauched. The Cold War was a lot weirder—and funnier—than we knew.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Walkaway
“A heavy metal drummer is recruited by the CIA to help topple the Eastern Bloc with the power of rock.... This offbeat gem does for metal dudes what Daisy Jones & the Six does for the yacht-rock crowd. A nostalgic, headbanging comedy about rock ’n’ roll refugees.” —Kirkus Reviews
"Kennedy nimbly heightens suspense via numerous twists... without neglecting the story’s ample comic possibilities.... A diverting dive into the paranoid past." —Publishers Weekly
TRAVIS KENNEDY's work has been featured in the Best New England Crime Stories and Best American Mystery Stories anthologies, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He is the Grand Prize Winner of ScreenCraft’s 2021 Cinematic Book Contest for “Sharks in the Valley,” to be published as Welcome to Redemption. He lives in Scarborough, Maine, with his wife and their two children. The Whyte Python World Tour is his debut novel.
View titles by Travis Kennedy
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.
Reviews
“A rock ’n’ roll thrill ride. . . . The Whyte Python World Tour feels like a cross between a harrowing episode of Behind the Music and a Roger Moore–era James Bond flick. 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, bestselling author of Ready Player One
“Travis Kennedy is too fiendishly clever for his own damn good. As he’s perfectly satirizing the hair-metal scene on the very first downbeat, you’re strapping yourself in for a wild ride. . . and suddenly he spikes your drink and cranks the Marshall stack to 20. Outrageous fun. Outrageous twists. Just outrageous, period!” —Lincoln Child, #1 New York Times bestselling author
“Sex, thugs, and rock 'n' roll! If Iron Maiden had made a James Bond movie it would have been Travis Kennedy's The Whyte Python World Tour, an antic thriller that spins the shiniest metal videos of the1980s with cliffhanging adventure movie in which an unsuspecting heavy metal band is infiltrated by the CIA and becomes a secret weapon in the final days of the Cold War. Heads are banged, fists raised, and the KGB and Stasi are no match for the power of rock 'n' roll.” —Peter Ames Carlin, New York Times bestselling author of Bruce and The Name of This Band Is R.E.M. “The Whye Python World Tour has everything: the glam rock satire of This Is Spinal Tap; the cloak-and-dagger thrills of Bridge of Spies; and a hero you'll want to climb over the hood of a car in a leopard-print bikini for. The only thing missing is a parental advisory sticker: WARNING: THIS BOOK ROCKS HARD.” —Kat Rosenfield, bestselling author of No One Will Miss Her
“Hilarious, fast-paced, and thoroughly debauched. The Cold War was a lot weirder—and funnier—than we knew.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Walkaway
“A heavy metal drummer is recruited by the CIA to help topple the Eastern Bloc with the power of rock.... This offbeat gem does for metal dudes what Daisy Jones & the Six does for the yacht-rock crowd. A nostalgic, headbanging comedy about rock ’n’ roll refugees.” —Kirkus Reviews
"Kennedy nimbly heightens suspense via numerous twists... without neglecting the story’s ample comic possibilities.... A diverting dive into the paranoid past." —Publishers Weekly
TRAVIS KENNEDY's work has been featured in the Best New England Crime Stories and Best American Mystery Stories anthologies, Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and McSweeney's Internet Tendency. He is the Grand Prize Winner of ScreenCraft’s 2021 Cinematic Book Contest for “Sharks in the Valley,” to be published as Welcome to Redemption. He lives in Scarborough, Maine, with his wife and their two children. The Whyte Python World Tour is his debut novel.
View titles by Travis Kennedy
