by John Barnes
First published 2004
John Barnes sits across from his old college buddy Travis Bismark, listening to another outrageous tale from Travis's work as an industrial spy. This time the story involves a device called the Gaudeamus machine that makes teleportation and time travel possible by bending the laws of physics. Someone has stolen it twice. Travis describes chasing leads through Colorado and New Mexico, encountering a graduate student who works as a prostitute and deals telepathy drugs that let her extract classified information directly from clients' minds. Each new character and situation becomes more bizarre than the last, all connected by a mysterious internet meme. Barnes offers his own commentary as both science fiction writer and drama teacher while Travis unfolds his incredible case. Their conversations happen over coffee and beer, surrounded by their circle of eccentric friends. The boundary between what might be real and what sounds like science fiction keeps shifting as Barnes finds himself drawn deeper into a story that challenges everything he thought he knew about the line separating ordinary life from the extraordinary adventures he writes about.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, mystery, contemporary
Vibes: fast-paced, intimate, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: enemies-to-friends, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Colorado, New Mexico
Period: 21st-century
320 pages · Hardcover · Tor Books