In "this rich, dense, playful novel of philosophical, historical, and metaphysical inquiry . . . lovers, actors, and Pagan gods face the consequences of a new invention that reveals the polarity of sex uniting all the universe's particles and upends all post-Pagan theology (-¿The BookLife Prize by Publishers Weekly)." A computer scientist has developed a sexual truth-seeking path-finder that sniffs out past lives. He is singled out by his own invention and cultivated by a power elite to be the Return of the Christ. To sacrifice him would reboot world religion and introduce extraterrestrial powers to supplant democracy. It's a world where we build an armor of credit. We wear it like an invisible suit of linked coinage and rise in society as cybertypes, sacrificing our souls by increments of increasingly effortless everyday actions, marshaled by watching ourselves in an evermore heroic narrative, in bespoke episodes of an ultimately empty feedback loop¿-¿the Orpheus Chronicles. As our authentic soul energies are sucked away, the planetary weather systems slide towards chaos. Runes encoded in a monument to Shakespeare come to life. Gods from the Bard's comedies inspire polyamorous love to find a way for the powers of nature to rebalance the world in time. But will one last day be enough? (Includes 25 illustrations of Shakespeare monument runes.)