The setting appears to be an alternate universe that rhymes with 1980's America. The location is somewhere in Freemerica, a place where "the Party" has somehow gained influence and is complete with Orwellian telescreens serving up propaganda from Ronald Reagan and Oliver North. Norman Lux is a Freduit monk on his way to becoming an ordained priest for Fred Christ, a savior who was "noosified", but not resurrected. During his studies he develops symptoms of "the Pains", a metaphysical concept implying that a soul has gone bad and it is he who is chosen to save the world.
Norman feels that he is an aspect of Fred's thought, in our universe I believe that would mean an expression of God. The Party secretly has Fred Christ's frozen head stored using the technology of cryonics and is attempting to thaw it, a resurrection of sorts. The Party spokesman says that there will soon be something big coming out of university labs, and that there will be immortality to all who accept the Party as their personal savior. Norman is given the task to council a prisoner who created a mind-reading machine that the Party wants because it is key to their plans to thaw Fred Christ's head, but does not know where it is. This brings Norman to eventually meet with Xristi Friedman, a biologist who once was the girlfriend of the prisoner and has been extorted to use her specialized skills in cryonics to assist the Party with the thawing.
"The Pains" isn't as rich with science as John Sundman's other books, but there is a good explanation why cryonics has problems. And there are some interesting passages about an actual Finnish mathematician named Karl Sundman who solved the 3-body astronomy problem and discussion about using analog computers to solve problems in chaotic systems. There is reference to a "Santa Soga school" whose theories suggest that information percolates up from deep levels of abstraction, but I can't find any reference to the theory on the internet, at least not associated with the name Santa Soga. In the discussion about this one of the characters asks if all is meaningless in this philosophy, which I find interesting because linguists have been searching for a transformational grammar, something to make words out of meaning, to no avail for a few decades now. There is a passage depicting the output of the mind-reading machine that is random words, and it is an interesting concept suggesting strong linguistic relativity, or language and cultural-filtering, is what shapes our reality.
Near the end Norman realizes that Fredianity is a fraud, but then he is left with the dilemma that he does indeed have the pains, a Fredian concept. And then something happens. I do not understand the ending, but anything this deep deserves 5 stars. And really, should I be expecting to get all the answers from a science fiction book? I think not.
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