In Matt Ruff's 2023, the world has become a bit more interesting. Anti-human robots are being carefully marketed for a takeover of the world. The tower of Babel is being rebuilt in northern Manhattan. The black plague has devastated the world's African population. Gunships patrol the sewers of New York, hunting mutant great white sharks. Ecoterrorists have gotten tired of pussyfooting around, and now own their own submarines. And for some reason, the ex-wife of the world's richest man has been enlisted to find out who murdered a sleazy Wall Street trader, and why, with only the bottled ghost of Ayn Rand to help her. Of course, it's part of a global conspiracy. Of course, the fate of the world is at stake. Sewer, Gas & Electric is a smart, funny, energetic work of imagination packed full of good jokes and better characters whose paranoia becomes almost celebratory in its totality—and whose world is a great place to visit, although you certainly wouldn't want to live there. Ruff pulls off the nearly impossible with this, only his second novel, by giving the reader a comic story involving larger-than-life ideas and characters which can be taken seriously. The jokes are funny, too. Fans of odd sci-fi, or people who appreciate the weirder side of Pynchon and Vonnegut, must read this stunning book.