From Booklist
Frek's pretty much an ordinary kid on an Earth with a collapsed biosphere controlled by NuBioCom. Then he receives a message that the Anvil, an alien's ship, is coming for him. Outside the house, the Gov's agents set up shop to watch for the Anvil. Under his bed, Frek finds a cuttlefish that tells him he's going to save the world. The agents find it, too, and chemically interrogate Frek, ruining his short-term memory. Frek and Wow, his dog, run away, and then Frek is taken aboard and away on the Anvil, traveling the galaxy with the alien, who wants exclusive rights to humanity's "branecast." Branecasting is popular with a number of other species, and humanity is the hot new thing on it. By fortuitous accident, Frek becomes humanity's agent with the Planck brane entities who run the whole shebang. Of course, branecasting is far more sinister than mere observation, for it allows a viewer to manipulate those who are branecast. Rucker fills out a bizarre future with a myriad details.
Regina SchroederCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Product Description
The SF novel of wild and crazy ideas is back: everything is different again n the year 3003, nothing in the world is the same, except maybe that adolescents are still embarrassed by their parents. Society and the biosphere alike have been transformed by biotechnology, and the natural world is almost gone. Frek Huggins is a boy from a broken family, a misfit because he's a natural child, conceived without technological help or genetic modifications. His dad, Carb, is a malcontent who left behind Frek's mom and the Earth itself several years ago. Everything changes when Frek finds the Anvil, a small flying saucer, under his bed, and it tells himhe is destined to save the world. The repressive forces of Gov, the mysterious absolute ruler of Earth, descend on Frek, take away the Anvil, and interrogate him forcefully enough to damage his memory. Frek flees with Wow, his talking dog, to seek out Carb and some answers. But the untrustworthy alien in the saucer has other plans, including claiming exclusive rights to market humanity to the galaxy at large, and making Frek a hero. Frek and the Elixir is a profound, playful SF epic by the wild and ambitious Rudy Rucker.
