Can a Rush-quoting computer geek save the planet?

That's the question posed by A Farewell to Kings, a "HyperNovel" set in the then-future (2000) but promoted on a site that's mired in '90s-era design. Despite the foreboding broken-image boxes, most of the links in the bottom-right corner of the page, where Christopher P. Simmons "a.k.a. StarGlider" inexplicably stuffed all his content, still work. You can read 22 chapters, all of which begin with Rush lyrics and some of which come with embedded graphics:

And here are some random excerpts from the HyperNovel itself; let's get to know our protagonist, Michael Gavon!

"Amazing how much it looks like the cover of "2112". By now, very few people who can read or hear didn't know that Michael was a hopeless Rush-allusionist."

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"20 minutes from home, sensing a deep hurt that he didn't cause, Michael slipped into his Deanna Troi personae."

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"He crawled out of his formal wear. He feigned modesty and chilliness, but was really slipping the Ring back into his drawer without her noticing. He quickly climbed into sleepy clothes, cutoff sweat pants and a really large Rush T-shirt with elbow length sleeves. No silk shorts, no tiger stripe G-Strings, no leather, no nothing. "How do you want me?""

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Going above and beyond any reasonable standard for fan-friendliness, Rush drummer/primary lyricist Neil Peart not only read A Farewell to Kings but also took detailed notes, which he delineated in a five-page letter. "I have the technology to fake these, but they are genuine," the author promises. Thank you for not betraying our trust, StarGlider!

- Andrew "Garbage Day" Miller