AUTHOR: Daryl Gregory
This is the third book by Daryl Gregory that I've read, and as with the other two (Devil's Alphabet and Spoonbenders), this is both entertaining and thought-provoking, and populated with wonderful characters who seem fully realized, which is somewhat ironic given the premise of the novel: Seven years before the story begins, an Announcement informed everyone on Earth that they're living in a simulation/virtual reality, with annual reminders to make sure no one forgets.
As expected, everyone reacts in their own way to this news. Some commit suicide, seeing no reason to keep living. Others become convinced that most everyone besides them is a NPC (Non-Playing Character). Yet others spend time wondering what the point is of existence and can life have meaning.
The story focuses on a group of people on a cross-country bus tour of the US to see the Impossibles, phenomena that sprang up after the Announcement and have no basis in the laws of physics that anyone can find. Each person on the bus has their own reason to be on the tour, some clear to the reader at the start and others revealed slowly as the story progresses. There's also an unknown narrator who starts things off by introducing the tourists.
There are Dulin (the comic book writer) and his best friend JP (engineer, dying of a brain tumor) taking one last road trip, two nuns and a rabbi, a nurse and her wheelchair-bound mother, a pregnant young influencer, a podcaster (who wants to prove the Impossibles are a scam) and his teenage son, the tour guide on her first day on the job, the veteran driver, and a few others. The wild card is the professor who joins the group mid-tour while on the run from a group calling themselves the Protagonists who want to kill her because they believe she's a 'bot.
The character development is exceptional, and there's a good balance between action and philosophizing, humor and seriousness, that makes the book move at a nice pace. The ending is a bit ambiguous, though one that might hit readers differently; for me, I think that's kind of the point. I might prefer authors tie things up neatly, but I appreciate being left with questions to ponder.
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