His father is a mountain and his mother is a washing machine... So reads the bio of our protagaonist.

Some SF&F starts off with a premise you have to wrap your head around; others posit a logical extension of society's growth; still others inject new ideas into the genre; and yet others give us a sociological landscape to wander through. Doctorow gives us all of these.

Leaving aside the parental issues, and the Russian Nesting Dolls as a triad of brothers, and heck, the girlfriend with the wings (not to be confused with the early girlfriend murdered by the personification-of-evil brother who has returned from the dead after his own brothers kill him), Doctorow paint us a canvas of a society scarcely different from today's and proceeds to guide us through his artwork with a tale of evolutionary communications development, horror done as well as King, a heroine rescued from abuse and a hero just trying to make his way through a society he understands no better than Camus' "Stranger".

Hmmm... That does sound like a lot to dig though, but Doctorow works his magic well enough to make it more of an adventure than a trek. Granted, the flashbacks and scene shifts take a chapter or two to get used to, but they do serve to move the story forward and keep the reader from getting too bogged down in any one area. Highly recommended for anyone looking for 'new' Science Fiction.
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Hardcover: 320 pages
Publisher: Tor Books (June 16, 2005)
ISBN: 0765312786