A disturbed billionaire and a deranged president jeopardize the future of the world with nanotechnology in this science fiction adventure.
“Rudy Rucker should be declared a National Treasure of American Science Fiction. Someone simultaneously channeling Kurt Godel and Lenny Bruce might start to approximate full-on Ruckerian warp-space, but without the sweet, human, splendidly goofy Rudy-ness at the core of the singularity.” —William Gibson
It begins the day after next year in California. A maladjusted computer industry billionaire and a somewhat crazy U.S. president initiate a radical transformation of the world through sentient nanotechnology, sort of the equivalent of biological artificial intelligence. At first, they succeed, but their plans are reversed by an autistic boy named Chu. The next time it isn't so easy to stop them. And the human world changes permanently.
Most of the story takes place in our world after a previously unimaginable transformation. All things look the same, and all people feel the same—but they are different (they’re able to read one another’s minds for starters). Travel to and from other nearby worlds in the quantum universe is possible. Our world is visited by giant humanoids from another quantum universe, some of whom mean to tidy up the mess we’ve made . . . or maybe just run things.
“Rucker takes on the hot topics of nanotechnology and the transformation of humanity with exuberance and irreverent wit. . . . Wildly inventive, tossing out ideas on the cutting edge of science with attention to their most offbeat consequences .” —The Denver Post
“Rucker puts the weird in science. String theory might as well have been invented to give rise to mind-benders like this book.” —Cory Doctorow
“[Rucker’s] devoted fans and dazzled newcomers to him will revel in his willingness to push technological extrapolation to its soaring limits.” —Booklist
