This book will feel familiar to Transmetropolitan fans, but it's not a retread. Rather, I get the sense that the author wasn't satisfied with how Spider Jerusalem was received -- too self-congratulatory, too easy to superfically identify with? -- and is now trying again; a little closer to the present and a little closer to the bone. Doktor Sleepless is self-admittedly a fiction created to make a point; John Reinhardt tells us this on the first page. I know I'm projecting, but I hear Ellis's voice shouting "...and listen this time goddammit!"