The Zap gives . . . and the Zap takes away. Because of the very nature of the Zap--the big thermonuclear bomb that had scrambled and rearranged the neurons of everyone's brains--there was no way of telling what it had taken from them all. The past was a jumbled mass of tantalizing glimpses and agonizing blanks. But the Zap's gifts were many and varied . . . The Readers got the rare and often dangerous ability to make sense of the writings of the past . . . The Memors got perfect recall--of everything they'd heard since the Zap . . . The Bush Punks got a chance to live free and easy--and die the same way . . . The God Weirders got religion--if you could call it that . . . The Blimpers got a purpose--a purpose that could save them, or destroy them all. Now Holmes, a Reader, was in the perfect position to tip the scales for or against survival--if only he could figure out which side was which.