Portrait of the Artist, With Spoon

Star-building otters whose flesh is incandescent plasma . . . dancing yaks who fight demons with TV screen eyes . . . telepathic kangaroos who sail across the sky . . . rainbow-maned Lions who sing with the voices of men. . . These were only a few of the creations of the artist they called "the Maker." Author, scholar, CGI wizard, the Maker was loved by millions, hated by millions more--millions who knew nothing about him. For the Maker was a man of mystery. No one knew anything about his past, or what he looked like, or where he lived . . . or of his secret plan to turn the middle of North America into a desert. But to a lonely girl without a home, the Maker was the goal of a life-long quest. And neither world-wide disaster nor death itself would keep her from finding him at last--or from asking him a single, simple question. The answer she would receive would change her life forever--and change as well, perhaps, the course of history. . . .