Plot summary

Told from the point of view of Professor Bill Reynolds, a scholar in the fictitious discipline of 'micropaloentology', this novel is set in the 24th and 25th Centuries, when the solar system

Solar System

The Solar System consists of the Sun and the astronomical objects gravitationally bound in orbit around it, all of which formed from the collapse of a giant molecular cloud approximately 4.6 billion years ago. The vast majority of the system's mass is in the Sun...

 has been colonised. Reynolds is writing a thesis

Thesis

A dissertation or thesis is a document submitted in support of candidature for an academic degree or professional qualification presenting the author's research and findings...

 on fame

Celebrity

A celebrity, also referred to as a celeb in popular culture, is a person who has a prominent profile and commands a great degree of public fascination and influence in day-to-day media...

 and in his research discovers a dissertation on comedy submitted by Carlton, a robotic secretary for two stand-up comedians on an interplanetary comedy circuit. Most of the action in the novel follows this trio's adventures during the time when Reynolds believes Carlton was developing his theories. During this time, Carlton and his owners, Alex Muscroft and Lewis Ashby get caught up in a series of disasters including loss of work, parental responsibility and close scrapes with terrorists, the law, other entertainers, and a refugee crisis.

Carlton seeks to understand the nature of comedy and human laughter, and attempts to describe humor as a mathematical formula.

Characters

Professor Bill Reynolds: The story's narrator, who is writing a thesis on fame.

Carlton: A "Bowie" robotic secretary owned by a comedy duo. He is of a now-obsolete series based on David Bowie

David Bowie

David Bowie is an English musician, actor, record producer and arranger. A major figure for over four decades in the world of popular music, Bowie is widely regarded as an innovator, particularly for his work in the 1970s...

, with one green and one blue eye, with Carlton's particular model, the 4.5, being based on Bowie circa 1985

Let's Dance (David Bowie song)

"Let's Dance" is the title album track on David Bowie's album Let's Dance. It was also released as the first single from that album in 1983, and went on to become one of his biggest-selling tracks....

. He is studying his owners as part of his research on comedy.

Alex Muscroft: The comedian who bought Carlton, and sees him like a person much more than most of the human cast, having a concern and affection for him not commonly shown towards robots. Short with short red hair, a ruddy complexion in appearance, loud and personable in temperament. Carlton describes him in his thesis as having the boisterous troublemaking slapstick qualities of his "Red Nose" comic archetype.

Lewis Ashby: Alex's comedy partner, he is tall, skinny, has thinning black hair and is gruff and introverted. Carlton describes him in his thesis as having the grave deadpan and somewhat cruel qualities of the "White Face" comic archetype.

Katy Wallace: A mysterious woman who befriends Alex.

Tay: Lewis's daughter

Keppler: Owner of the space liner the Princess Di

Brenda Wooley: An aging pop-star who is still popular in the outer Solar System, and Keppler's wife.

The Amazing Keith: A comedy-magician whose act utilizes explosives.

Boo: Another comedian, he appears to be somewhat mad, providing a contrast to the story's other somewhat more professionally-minded comedians.