The Last Book in the Universe
Encyclopedia
The Last Book in the Universe (2000) is a science fiction
novel
by Rodman Philbrick
. Set in a cyberpunk
dystopia
, its protagonist
and narrator is a teenage boy named Spaz who suffers from epilepsy
.
future city, called The Urb, which has been disturbed by an tbhend known as "The Big Shake". The Urb is plagued by poverty, thieves, gang warfare, and the use of mindprobes, which are analogous to hard drugs and which enable users to temporarily escape their harsh lives through images. Books are a thing of the past and reading and writing are lost arts which the vast majority of the population ignores. Genetically improved
people, called "proovs," live across the world in a city called Eden, with a beautiful society, food and water.
Spaz is a 15-year-old boy whose adoptive family has abandoned him because they feared the symptoms of his epilepsy
. Spaz runs errands for Billy Bizmo, the leader/boss of his "gang", in a section of The Urb. On one of his errands, Spaz is sent to rob Ryter, a very old man who possesses the lost arts of literature
. Spaz soon meets Little Face, a five year old orphan with no one to care for him and through out the book only says chox because he doesn't know how to speak, and Lanaya, a proov who charitably gives out food. At first, Spaz is very hostile towards Ryter, but Ryter understands Spaz's situation and does his best to help him, offering no resistance when Spaz arrives to steal Ryter's meager possessions . Eventually Spaz learns that Bean, his beloved stepsister, is dying. Ryter and Little Face accompany Spaz on a journey to find Bean. The trio starts by traveling through a large, broken water pipe that leads to other latches. Along the way, they pass through latches controlled by various other bosses, having adventures along the way. At one of the latches which is ruled by the Monkey Boys gang, they find that the leader Mongo the Magnificent is dying and Ryter convinces the Tek boss to take his place. At the next latch the group sees the entire latch burning and find Lanaya being attacked. She is rescued by Spaz and Ryter and she joins them on their journey. They start traveling towards the latch where Bean lives. Eventually the story's heroes find Bean, who is dying of leukemia
. Lanaya decides to take Bean to Eden, along with Spaz, Ryter, and Little Face, and soon they arrive at Lanaya's contributors', or parents', house.
At this point in the novel, it is shown that Lanaya is a special proov who has been bred to eventually lead Eden, and so she has rights and privileges that other proovs do not. They take Bean to a proov hospital and she is cured of her sickness using genetic surgery
. Ryter and Spaz, and Little Face enjoy the paradise of Eden, being unfamiliar with grass, a blue sky, fish in a stream, and apples, among other things. Some time later Ryter, Spaz, and Bean are thrown out of Eden because the elders who rule over Eden decide they are unacceptable, even though Bean is extremely smart, having beaten one of Lanaya's contributors in chess multiple times. The elders of Eden refuse to accept that someone from the Urb could naturally be better than a proov in any way. Little Face is secretly adopted by Lanaya's contributors. Lanaya reveals to the elders that the mindprobes, which cause so much damage to the people who use them, come from Eden, and so all the mindprobes throughout The Urb are deactivated, causing rioting and anarchy outside Eden. Bean is deposited at her home, and Ryter and Spaz are returned to theirs. Back at Spaz's home latch Ryter is blamed for the deactivation of the mindprobes and is brutally killed, while Spaz has an epileptic seizure
. Before his death, Ryter tells Spaz that he is the last book in the universe. Billy Bizmo, the leader of Spaz's latch, tells him that he is his father and that his mother died at his birth.
The story ends with Lanaya sending Spaz a message about how it's getting better in Eden and how she believes they can fix it all in time. Spaz takes on the name Ryter, continuing his work, writing the last book in the universe. The book was denied use in a California school because the area had been having gang problems.
Science fiction
Science fiction is a genre of fiction dealing with imaginary but more or less plausible content such as future settings, futuristic science and technology, space travel, aliens, and paranormal abilities...
novel
Novel
A novel is a book of long narrative in literary prose. The genre has historical roots both in the fields of the medieval and early modern romance and in the tradition of the novella. The latter supplied the present generic term in the late 18th century....
by Rodman Philbrick
Rodman Philbrick
Rodman Philbrick is an author of novels for adults and children. He was born in Boston, Massachusetts, in 1951, and currently lives in Maine and Florida. Since 1980 he has been married to Lynn Harnett, who sometimes co-writes with him. They have no children. He has also written using the pen names...
. Set in a cyberpunk
Cyberpunk
Cyberpunk is a postmodern and science fiction genre noted for its focus on "high tech and low life." The name is a portmanteau of cybernetics and punk, and was originally coined by Bruce Bethke as the title of his short story "Cyberpunk," published in 1983...
dystopia
Dystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
, its protagonist
Protagonist
A protagonist is the main character of a literary, theatrical, cinematic, or musical narrative, around whom the events of the narrative's plot revolve and with whom the audience is intended to most identify...
and narrator is a teenage boy named Spaz who suffers from epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
.
Plot summary
The story is set in a post-disaster, dystopiaDystopia
A dystopia is the idea of a society in a repressive and controlled state, often under the guise of being utopian, as characterized in books like Brave New World and Nineteen Eighty-Four...
future city, called The Urb, which has been disturbed by an tbhend known as "The Big Shake". The Urb is plagued by poverty, thieves, gang warfare, and the use of mindprobes, which are analogous to hard drugs and which enable users to temporarily escape their harsh lives through images. Books are a thing of the past and reading and writing are lost arts which the vast majority of the population ignores. Genetically improved
Genetic engineering
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification, is the direct human manipulation of an organism's genome using modern DNA technology. It involves the introduction of foreign DNA or synthetic genes into the organism of interest...
people, called "proovs," live across the world in a city called Eden, with a beautiful society, food and water.
Spaz is a 15-year-old boy whose adoptive family has abandoned him because they feared the symptoms of his epilepsy
Epilepsy
Epilepsy is a common chronic neurological disorder characterized by seizures. These seizures are transient signs and/or symptoms of abnormal, excessive or hypersynchronous neuronal activity in the brain.About 50 million people worldwide have epilepsy, and nearly two out of every three new cases...
. Spaz runs errands for Billy Bizmo, the leader/boss of his "gang", in a section of The Urb. On one of his errands, Spaz is sent to rob Ryter, a very old man who possesses the lost arts of literature
Literacy
Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...
. Spaz soon meets Little Face, a five year old orphan with no one to care for him and through out the book only says chox because he doesn't know how to speak, and Lanaya, a proov who charitably gives out food. At first, Spaz is very hostile towards Ryter, but Ryter understands Spaz's situation and does his best to help him, offering no resistance when Spaz arrives to steal Ryter's meager possessions . Eventually Spaz learns that Bean, his beloved stepsister, is dying. Ryter and Little Face accompany Spaz on a journey to find Bean. The trio starts by traveling through a large, broken water pipe that leads to other latches. Along the way, they pass through latches controlled by various other bosses, having adventures along the way. At one of the latches which is ruled by the Monkey Boys gang, they find that the leader Mongo the Magnificent is dying and Ryter convinces the Tek boss to take his place. At the next latch the group sees the entire latch burning and find Lanaya being attacked. She is rescued by Spaz and Ryter and she joins them on their journey. They start traveling towards the latch where Bean lives. Eventually the story's heroes find Bean, who is dying of leukemia
Leukemia
Leukemia or leukaemia is a type of cancer of the blood or bone marrow characterized by an abnormal increase of immature white blood cells called "blasts". Leukemia is a broad term covering a spectrum of diseases...
. Lanaya decides to take Bean to Eden, along with Spaz, Ryter, and Little Face, and soon they arrive at Lanaya's contributors', or parents', house.
At this point in the novel, it is shown that Lanaya is a special proov who has been bred to eventually lead Eden, and so she has rights and privileges that other proovs do not. They take Bean to a proov hospital and she is cured of her sickness using genetic surgery
Human genetic engineering
Human genetic engineering is the alteration of an individual's genotype with the aim of choosing the phenotype of a newborn or changing the existing phenotype of a child or adult....
. Ryter and Spaz, and Little Face enjoy the paradise of Eden, being unfamiliar with grass, a blue sky, fish in a stream, and apples, among other things. Some time later Ryter, Spaz, and Bean are thrown out of Eden because the elders who rule over Eden decide they are unacceptable, even though Bean is extremely smart, having beaten one of Lanaya's contributors in chess multiple times. The elders of Eden refuse to accept that someone from the Urb could naturally be better than a proov in any way. Little Face is secretly adopted by Lanaya's contributors. Lanaya reveals to the elders that the mindprobes, which cause so much damage to the people who use them, come from Eden, and so all the mindprobes throughout The Urb are deactivated, causing rioting and anarchy outside Eden. Bean is deposited at her home, and Ryter and Spaz are returned to theirs. Back at Spaz's home latch Ryter is blamed for the deactivation of the mindprobes and is brutally killed, while Spaz has an epileptic seizure
Seizure
An epileptic seizure, occasionally referred to as a fit, is defined as a transient symptom of "abnormal excessive or synchronous neuronal activity in the brain". The outward effect can be as dramatic as a wild thrashing movement or as mild as a brief loss of awareness...
. Before his death, Ryter tells Spaz that he is the last book in the universe. Billy Bizmo, the leader of Spaz's latch, tells him that he is his father and that his mother died at his birth.
The story ends with Lanaya sending Spaz a message about how it's getting better in Eden and how she believes they can fix it all in time. Spaz takes on the name Ryter, continuing his work, writing the last book in the universe. The book was denied use in a California school because the area had been having gang problems.