On the trail of a missing con man, our private eye hero uncovers a vast conspiracy that stretches from the dawn of time to the Omega Point—and finds himself central to the whole enigmatic game. Surrealism with a beating heart and a merry soul. Paul Di Filippo’s latest romp takes us elsewhere, else-when, and back to now. Featuring a world-weary private detective who finds—as we all hope to do—life’s lost pearl within reality’s battered rind. Co-starring coats of sentient slime (one good, and one evil), a regained wife named Yulia, and—what is Aeota?