Phisto is a fanciful mélange of a flamboyant poet/performance artist, a
brilliant video game developer, a woman looking for meaning in the San
Francisco’s Tenderloin, irascible digital characters, magic mushrooms, a
talking mouse, and a trail that might end in Oz.
After the poet Maddy disappears, Jack, her partner, sees her disappearance
as another entry in their competition. He uses his gaming platform, Phisto,
to look for clues to her disappearance in avatars of the last four people she
talked to but the avatars quickly pose problems when they become conscious
and demanding. Talia Morris has a talk line where she comforts the homeless,
prostitutes, alkies, and runaways in San Francisco’s Tenderloin. When
she finds one of Maddy’s old flyers promoting a reading, she becomes as
obsessed as Jack with finding Maddy.
The seriocomic search for Maddy poses questions about the nature of quests, personal identity in the digital age, the meaning of consciousness, and meaning in our lives.
You can order Phisto from Amazon here, or from most bookstores.
