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But whatever. I loved Xanther. Parentheses aside, I loved her story — the weirdness and hauntedness of it, the nail-biting drama of the storm and the cat, and Danielewski's absolute commitment to telling Xanther's story exactly the way he wanted to tell it. There were moments when she was on the page that transcended all the trickery (multiple fonts, yawning white space, lovely full-color splash pages, color-coded corner tabs) and achieved a kind of magical fusion of style and substance, offering a fresh hit of wonderment and inspiring a (not entirely grudging) respect for the highwire game Danielewski is playing here.

Because bear in mind that while The Familiar is not that fabled post-novel novel, it might come closer than any other attempt (save, perhaps, Danielewski's 15-year-old debut novel, House Of Leaves, a similarly looping, typographical monster). Which means that, depending on the way you look at such things, it either fails less than every other book of its type, or succeeds more consistently.

And the craziest thing? This book, which is subtitled One Rainy Day In May, is just volume one of a promised 27-book series.

No, you shut up. I'm serious. 27 volumes. One Rainy Day In May is, in essence, just the first, shattered chapter of something for which the word "epic" is laughably inadequate. The L.A. drug gang, the aliens, the renegade computer scientists in their trailer in Texas and, of course, Xanther and the cat are all going to be back.

And there's a part of me that, despite everything, is really curious about what happens next.

Jason Sheehan is an ex-chef, a former restaurant critic and the current food editor of Philadelphia magazine. But when no one is looking, he spends his time writing books about spaceships, aliens, giant robots and ray guns. Tales From the Radiation Age is his newest book.