Introduction: The world spins uncared-for through the cold, sparkling cosmos, abandoned by its Creator. To its surface clings humanity, the orphaned street-urchin of the universe. Like an unhugged child, it grows, but it grows… differently.For thousands of years it evolves, unmonitored. Unsupervised. Sometimes it produces good. Sometimes it produces evil. Mostly, it produces something in between.Eventually, it produces Lee, who, in turn, produces 90s-videogame-music-inspired novelty electronica and postmodern surrealist cuisine. His mum wants him to get a job.Around the same time, the world catches the attention of a passing Creator—the kind of warm-hearted, well-intentioned Creator who can’t see an orphaned street-urchin and just look the other way…A universe-spanning, time-bending adventure of danger, discovery and wonder ensues, in which Lee discovers that gods are real (and not necessarily omnipotent or benevolent), people are not always what they seem (in more senses than just the figurative), and veganism may be the only safe option… If this is your first foray into the genre of phi-fi—which it is, because I've just invented it—welcome!Phi-fi, or philosophical fiction, occupies a space somewhere in the same playground as sci-fi and fantasy. It imagines a world in which our greatest philosophical questions—What are we doing here? Who’s in charge of all this? Why’s everything so horrible? etc.—are answered.What you're about to read is the story that emerges from those answers.P.S. The burn is slow and the slice (of life) is thick. There are battles and high-speed chases and assassination plots, and they are wonderful, but there is also significant wordcount dedicated to, for example, cheese on toast.In fact, the cheese on toast scene is one of the best....