Burned out and jobless despite his best efforts, Vern returns home from the Bay Area to his mom and grandma's house in Florida, and his grandma announces she's found him a job at Qasar. With no more information than that, Vern shows up for his first day, and it's...weird. Instead of regular custodian duties, he finds himself mopping up intergalactic goo, and then hopping through the universe to clean up even bigger messes made by Qasar and Jess, in their pursuit of a new Earth. Vern's initial question - why not clean up the Earth we have? - resonates throughout the book.

Quotes

"But sometimes the smallest things have the largest impact." (Jess to Vern, 27)

"What is the point?" (Void dude to Vern, 46)

"It is not technology that is smart or not smart. Just as technology is neither good nor bad. The real problem is how it is used, how it can create, how it can destroy. It is merely an extension of those that use it." (Computer to Vern, 97)

"Do we deserve to suffer, just to be saved eventually?" (Grandpa/Void to Jess, 137)

"Seems to me like nobody really knows what the point is, but we just gotta make the best of what we've got, clean up what we can, and help folks when we can." (Vern to Grandpa/Void, 150) ( )