This is a post apocalyptic tale where matter has been changed into a substance that can manifest human thought. The narrator is an unnamed male but we do learn the name of his best friend; Gonzo Lubitsch. Together they roam what is left of the world trying to survive. They have set up a Haulage & HazMat Emergency Civil Freebooting Company together to make ends meet.
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The characters are all hanging out in an unnamed bar when they hear that there are power failures across the populated safe zone and a news report shows that the Jorgmund pipe is on fire. The pipe is very important and protects those few people left in the world. When the characters see this they panic and think they're all dead.
The company owned by Gonzo and the narrator is hired by the people who run the pipe. These people are a private enterprise but also a government body. As the company sets off, the unnamed narrator begins to remember the day he met Gonzo and the starts thinking about his, and the rest of the worlds, past.
He recounts to the reader his time growing up with Gonzo; playing as children, their parents, and their first loves. The narrator goes off into the world by himself, gets trained by in ancient martial arts by Master Wu and then helps invent a weapon that causes "The Go-Away War".
The narrator tells us that the world has changed and that "The Go-Away War" caused the last few remaining people to seek shelter and live in the safe zone near the pipe. The pipe releases FOX which keeps matter in one state, but outside of the pipes range, matter does not obey the normal laws of physics. The "Go-away bombs" used in "The Go-Away War" erased all of the information matter had, changing it into "stuff". "Stuff" can take on any form it just needs information as instructions of what to become and the information needed can be plucked from anybodies head. "Stuff" remains as nothing until it comes in contact with a thought, then it because a physical manifestation of that thought.
As Gonzo's team drive towards the pipe the narrator is injured, but he isn't hurt. The other members of the team think that he is "new", meaning created from "stuff". It is then revealed that our narrator is the imaginary friend of Gonzo, this is why he has no name or history of his own.
The character is then shot and abandoned in the waste lands. He manages to get back to the pipe and live a relatively normal life with the help of a mime troop who were also created from "Stuff".
Gonzo fixes the pipe revealing that the engine that makes "Fox" is breaking down and going to be rendered useless soon.
Gonzo meets our narrator again, and they forgive each other. After years under the reign of the powers of Jorgmund the character decide to band together to destroy the pipe and bring about a new age for mankind.
Best part of story, including ending:
I enjoyed the wit of the character but found that the description was lacking at times.
Best scene in story:
I most enjoyed the descriptions of the world and how it had become just shanty towns around a pipe. I think the back story was interestingly told and had a lot of original ideas that had limitless potential.
Opinion about the main character:
I thought the unnamed narrator was funny at first but I grew tired of their jokes by the end of the book
