<p>A terrifying, surreal space-age odyssey, <i>The Soft Machine</i> initiated Burroughs'' Cut-Up Trilogy that includes<i> Nova Express </i>and <i>The Ticket That Exploded</i>. The book draws the reader into an unmappable textual space, where nothing is true and everything is permitted, to make a total assault on the colonising powers of planet earth that have turned us all into machines.<br><br>Edited and introduced by renowned Burroughs scholar Oliver Harris, this new edition clarifies for the first time the extraordinary history of <i>The Soft Machine</i>''s writing and rewriting, demolishing the myths of Burroughs'' chance-based writing methods and demonstrating for a new generation the significance of his greatest experiment.</p>