This is an interesting book, because it's about a man who thinks of himself as a failure who gets his hands on a device... that is made by a race of failures. An entire species that thinks it fucked things up enough that it committed suicide. No-one knows why. Or how.

The writing's hard to get through, but that's kind of the point. It's not an easy book. It's a book that hates you and doesn't want you to read it.