First published in Great Britain in 2019
by Electric Monkey, an imprint of Egmont UK Limited
The Yellow Building, 1 Nicholas Road, London W11 4AN
Published by arrangement with HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers, New York, New York, USA
Text copyright © 2019 Michael Grant
The moral rights of the author have been asserted
First e-book edition 2019
ISBN 978 1 4052 94669
Ebook ISBN 978 1 7803 17687
A CIP catalogue record for this title is available from the British Library
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
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To my two Katherines
I lose sleep at night wondering whether we are intelligent enough to figure out the universe.
I don’t know.
—Neil DeGrasse Tyson
“The justifications of men who kill should always be heard with skepticism,” said the monster.
—Patrick Ness, A Monster Calls
Contents
1 SEX, PASTRIES, AND THE LAWS OF PHYSICS
3 BOLDLY GOING WHERE NO 3-D PERSON HAS GONE BEFORE
5 HOW DO YOU GET TO CARNEGIE HALL?
22 NORMAL IS NO LONGER WITH US
29 . . . EVER SURVIVES CONTACT WITH . . .