Rudy Rucker is a mathematician who writes books of popular science and science fiction. His SF swings widely and freely into the surreal and metaphysical upon occasion. In this story, his future is a fantasy land and his science is transformed by metaphor. In direct rebellion against the tradition of fantasy world-building, Rucker doesn't just paint the world of the story with a broad brush; he paints it with a broom. He simultaneously denies the necessity of rationalizing the world of the story while invoking the standard scientific technique of oversimplifying for the sake of mathematical argument (in this case involving topology — an interesting contrast to R. A Lafferty's story (pp.375-88). Fast and loose, wild-and-crazy fantastic, that's Rudy Rucker