Rudy Rucker has seen the future…and it is extreme. The Godfather of cyberpunk—a mad scientist bravely meddling in the outrageous and heretical—Rucker created Bopper Robots, who rebelled against human society in his award-winning classic Software. Now, in 2953, "moldies" are the latest robotic advancement—evolved artificial lifeforms made of soft plastic and gene-tweaked molds and algae, so anatomically inventive and universally despised that their very presence on the planet has thrown the entire low-rent future into a serious tailspin. So the moon is the place to be, if you're a persecuted "moldie" or an enlightened "flesher" intent on creating a new, more utopian hybrid civilization. Of course up there, there are other intergalactic intelligences to contend with—and some not so intelligent—who have their own agendas and appetites. This is scientific fabulation at its most brazenly inventive—funny, cutting-edge, and deeply informed. No writer alive puts it all together like Rudy Rucker.

Artificial life forms made of soft plastic and gene-tweaked mold and algae, moldies are evolved robots in the year 2053—anatomically inventive and universally despised. In a sleazy, low-rent future, sexual fraternization with moldies is strictly taboo—a societal sin that is of no concern whatsoever to Randy Karl Tucker. A Kentucky boy who has seriously strayed from the Heritagist religion1s stern teachings about the evils of artificial life, Randy feels a definite something for Monique, moldie bookkeeper and maid at the Clearlight Terrace Court Motel But Monique1s sudden and inexplicable abduction from the planet—coupled with unsettling revelations about Randy's own dubious origins—is dragging the degenerate flesher and all those around him into an ugly, conspiratorial mess…even as it pulls an unsuspecting humanity ever-closer to a stunning encounter with intergalactic intelligence.