It's an humorous extravaganza, set in a future when machines conjure up novels, and so-called "writers" are only their maintenance. These machines, called "world mills" will soon face a revolt led by Heloise Ibsen, the fiancee of the protagonist, writer Gaspard de la Nuit. From there will follow a glorious romp with cynical editors, old brains in a capsule (the Silver Eggheads, yeah), zany revolutionaires and sexy robots. In this novels the robots are two species, one male and one female, and they actually have sex! (Read the book to see how they do it.)

This book is exquisite, written in a mildly decadent style, with the robot friend of the protagonist that dreams to be "dressed in black lacquer with a silvery thread," the "Silver Egghead," the brains, that conjure novels to defy Finnegan's Wake, and the editors that discuss kinky pleasure robots. This is a marvelous satire of science fiction clichès, and a really funny book, even with some dark overtones (the creation of the Silver Eggheads, very Mary Shelley-esque).