It's no wonder he hates it here. Spider Jerusalem, journalist and heroof sorts in Warren Ellis' Transmetropolitan, wades through a sewer ofpoverty and high-tech despair daily in his efforts to understand and report onAmerica. In The New Scum, Ellis contrasts the powerful, in the form ofpresidential candidates, with the powerless, who are begging and hustling on thestreets. The satire is savage and rarely subtle, but the author takes care toshow some human warmth lest the comic descend into the nihilism it warnsagainst. The plot, largely secondary to the characters and background events,focuses loosely on Jerusalem's assignment to interview the two candidates, eachpsychotic and unfit for any office. His bodyguard and personal assistant,meanwhile, discover the terrors of pleasure in a post-nanotech world withunlimited credit. The election-eve climax fully captures the anxiety anddepression that come from having no real choice in matters of great importance.Either Ellis or his creation deserves a Pulitzer. --Rob Lightner