Summary

In Chapter 1, Helen “Hel” Nash arrived at a house in the Brownsville area of Brooklyn to meet its owner, Dwayne Sealy. The house was Dwayne's grandmother's, and she recently passed away. She was a hoarder, so the house was crammed full of junk. Hel was interested in the house because in the alternate universe where she was from, it belonged to Ezra Sleight, a science fiction writer, famous in particular for his book The Pyronauts. In this universe, Ezra died in 1909 at age ten, never having written a word. In The Pyronauts, aliens came to earth and solved all of its problems—famine, disease, international discord. But they inadvertently brought with them a parasite that ravaged the world's plant and animal life. It was the job of pyronauts like protagonists John Gund and Asyl to travel on foot, setting fire to the flora...