A KING OF CARTOONS

In this SF novel, a philanthropist falls into a baffling world of shifting realities and struggles to disentangle dreams from real life.

Abraham Keen helms a charity that offers aid to unhoused people, but the mayor and the police of Old York (the former New York in a dystopian America) write off the “subterraneans” as an inconvenience. And they’re soon looking at Abraham for all the wrong reasons. They claim his estranged teenage son, Joe, belongs to a terrorist group, and they want Abraham’s help in snaring its “religious lunatic” leader, the mysterious Liberator. To get answers, Abraham heads to Venice, the HQ of House of Never —the company behind reality-augmenting pills to which Joe is addicted. Sadly, Abraham finds only trouble and soon has no choice but to escape into his apparent memories. It’s relentlessly confusing; he’s caught up in a war that ended a decade ago. Is he really Abraham Keen or is the life he’s known merely part of his “false dreams?” Woodward’s novel thrives on perplexity. Characters Abraham meets either know nothing, purposefully withhold relevant details, and/or are exceedingly strange, like the genetically modified pig soldiers. That, however, doesn’t dampen this entertaining plot. There’s Candyland, for one, a “mini country” within Florida where villages, towns, and even citizens are made of sweets. The emergent-chip tech that gives candy people their personalities does the same for animals, and much of the cast includes immensely likable and loyal anthropomorphic pigs. While Abraham faces indisputable villains, like House of Never agents, his motivation is less certain. Nevertheless, his search ignites a climax that’s both sharp and gratifying.

An involving, deliberately hazy tale with a radiant, multispecies cast.