This novel is a lot of fun, due in large part due to Ruff's considerable powers of imagination. It reads a little bit like Vonnegut, but the prose is more conventional and the fictional world more thoroughly developed. Ruff nods several times to Pynchon, and Pynchon supplies a nice cover blurb, but I disagree with the reviewer who said that fans of Pynchon and David Foster Wallace would enjoy Ruff's novel. Pynchon and Wallace write considerably more complex (and interesting) prose. I think Ruff is more of a cross between Vonnegut and Neal Stephenson. In the final analysis, any writer who beats up Ayn Rand the way Ruff does in this novel (that is, thoroughly and intelligently), earns good marks. I enjoyed SG&E much more than Fool on the Hill, and I hope Ruff's next novel isn't quite so long in the making.