This is one of the strangest books I've read in years, not only from the standpoint of plot, but also from the uneven writing style. If the first 50 pages seem Baroque, overwritten, and almost intentionally opaque, it's not just you, and it doesn't stay like that throughout: it evens out into a solid, although very odd, story. At times this reminded me of Pullman's His Dark Materials trilogy, and at other times, of Chabon's The Jewish Policemen's Union, but mostly it felt like an arctic steampunk version of Pynchon's Crying of Lot 49. When you read Pynchon, or Eco, you have a feeling that there's an enormous amount of stuff going on and you're just seeing the tip of it. With Eco, you know that's the case, and with Pynchon you're pretty sure he's just faking it, but never *quite* sure. Aurorarama fits right between those, with a sense of structure underlying the drug-fuelled hallucinations, magic, supernatural, and general strangeness. The book is claimed to be for young adults, but I honestly don't know for what demographic it would have the most appeal: the vocabulary is straight out of Pynchon, and the emotional distance and opacity of the writing isn't encouraging to uncommitted readers. But it is a rewarding book, finally, despite the work it requires.