This book definitely tackles some big questions: What is consciousness? What is reality? And what sort of graphical user interface could we impose on them that would let us control them more easily? One cannot really expect Thomas to offer any real answers to the first two questions, since these are (and perhaps always will be) presently a bit beyond the scope or science and philosophy. But, as a thought experiment itself, this book offers some "food for thought"...one way to imagine what it might be.

Unlike Thomas' previous novel, PopCo, "The End of Mr. Y" does not have much explicit mathematics in it. There is some vague discussion of "higher dimensions", and a bit of mathematics flies by as one enters the Troposphere. But, mathematics plays an understated, major role. As we learn near the end of "The End...", mathematics is to our perceived reality as "machine code" is to a computer. On the one hand, this means that no matter how things might seem, underneath it all, everything is just mathematics (just as a user of a computer might think in terms of cursors and windows and menus, but inside it is nothing but Boolean logic and a bunch of 0's and 1's). More interestingly, however, it also means that people who really know mathematics well (like Albert Einstein or the heroine of the novel) can change reality.

In the sense that this book toys with the idea that mathematics is the real reality, it reminds me of The Mathenauts. And, in the sense that it shows mathematical discoveries changing the nature or reality, it reminds me of Unreasonable Effectiveness. (And, of course, occupying other people's minds always makes me think of Being John Malkovich.)

But, this book is certainly not a copy of any of those. As the quote on the cover claims, "Not only will you have a great time reading this book, but you will finish it a cleverer person than when you started."

Warning: In case you are considering assigning this book to students to read, you should be aware that some of it may be perceived as being offensive to some readers. There is certainly lots of explicit language as well as explicit (and occasionally violent) sex. Moreover, the idea that God (and gods) are not our creators, but entities without power in "the real world" that come into existence when we pray to them is an idea which may offend readers depending on their own religious beliefs and open-mindedness.