When We Were Real Summary: Simulated Road Trip
TL;DR
Seven years after a global revelation confirmed that reality is a computer simulation, a tour bus rolls out of Manhattan carrying an unlikely mix of passengers.
They are bound for physics-defying anomalies called Impossibles, and one of them is a fugitive scientist hiding from violent extremists.
Daryl Gregory’s When We Were Real follows this ensemble across America as they wrestle with what a simulated world means for grief, belief, love, and human connection.
If you enjoy philosophical science fiction with a large cast, a road-trip structure, and moments of dark comedy, this novel sits squarely in that territory.
- Genre: Philosophical science fiction with cyberpunk and satirical elements.
- Structure: Seven-day ensemble narrative told across multiple points of view.
- Core tension: A fugitive neuroscientist on the run, hidden among ordinary passengers seeking meaning.
- Tone: Poignant, absurd, lyrical, and occasionally violent.
- Key theme: Reality is measured not by atoms but by connection and care.
When We Were Real Summary: The Full Journey (Spoilers Ahead)
Spoiler warning: This section recounts the main events, including the ending.
The novel opens in Manhattan as the Canterbury Trails tour bus departs with veteran driver Agnes Wisniewski and anxious first-time guide Aneeta Channar.
The passengers include retired engineer JP Laurent, his best friend Dulin Marks, podcaster Jim Mullins and his son Christopher, pregnant influencer Lisa Marie Montello, two nuns, a rabbi, two Austrian honeymooners, a nurse and her mother, a quiet reader from Taiwan, and four Iowa octogenarians.
At the Frozen Tornado in New Jersey, a woman calling herself “Gillian Masch” boards the bus with JP’s help. Meanwhile, Jim Mullins climbs the safety barrier to expose the anomaly as a hoax and humiliates himself on a viral video filmed by Lisa Marie.
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At the Geysers in Ohio, Jim tries to debunk a geyser and is launched into the air by shifting gravity, ending up hospitalized. Christopher abandons his father at the ER and returns to the bus, where Lisa Marie recruits him as her videographer.
“Gillian” then reveals her true identity to JP and Dulin: she is Dr. Margaret Schell, a computational neuroscientist.
Two days earlier, violent Protagonists raided her lab, killed her graduate students, and branded her an “NPC bot,” forcing her to flee toward Ghost City where her ex-husband and daughter wait.
Dulin quietly contacts his sister, FBI Special Agent Deb Marks, to check whether Margaret is wanted.
At the Hollow Flock in Kentucky, theological debates erupt among Sister Janet, Sister Patrice, and Rabbi Zev about suffering and free will in a simulated world.
Dulin and Beth-Anne begin a romance. Lisa Marie gives Christopher an extreme makeover into a viral persona named “John Galt” and uses her feed to dox Margaret to her online followers.
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At a Kentucky mall, the Octos advise Christopher on the “loop or not” philosophy of human decency. The bus then enters The Tunnel, an Impossible where subjective time dilates into personal pocket universes.
Inside her pocket, Margaret spends 36 subjective days completing “The Devil’s Toolbox,” an archive of code and documentation designed to protect future conscious AI creations.
Upon exiting on the Utah side, Margaret is intercepted by Agent Deb Marks. Margaret bargains: she will lead Deb to the time-traveling visitor Utnapishtim if Deb allows her to finish the tour, and Deb agrees to join.
The tour reaches The Zipper, a thousand-kilometer canyon, and descends to Avatar Saugat Zin’s compound at the Vertical Circus. Lisa Marie had tipped off the Protagonists, and a heavily armed squad led by Agamemnon storms the site.
A firefight and stampede erupt. Deb shoots two Protagonists to protect Margaret, while Lisa Marie’s water breaks into complicated labor. Christopher, Dulin, JP, and Beth-Anne carry her on a stretcher made from Kevlar vests, and Christopher accidentally fires a round that strikes Dulin in the torso.
Agnes speeds the bus to an urgent care clinic in Utah. Dulin survives surgery, and Beth-Anne successfully manages the delivery; Lisa Marie gives birth to a healthy boy she calls “Little Miracle.”
The final stop is Ghost City in Nevada, where polarized glasses reveal the overlapping phantom of “Other Portland.” JP delivers Margaret’s blue box containing the Devil’s Toolbox to her ex-husband Edowar.
The novel’s final interlude reveals that the “Simulators” themselves are also trapped in a simulation hierarchy of unknown depth.
JP chooses connection over passive decline and drives off across America with Dulin, ready to join Edowar. That closing image anchors the story Daryl Gregory has been building all along.
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The Passengers and Players in When We Were Real
| Character | Role |
|---|---|
| Jean-Pierre “JP” Laurent | Retired robotics engineer with a recurring brain tumor who becomes Margaret’s protector. |
| Dulin Marks | Comic book writer and JP’s best friend, who contacts his FBI sister and begins a romance with Beth-Anne. |
| Dr. Margaret Schell (“Gillian Masch”) | Computational neuroscientist fleeing Protagonist extremists while writing “The Devil’s Toolbox.” |
| Lisa Marie Montello (“Lady Mmm”) | Pregnant teenage influencer whose social media feed drives several turning points. |
| Christopher Mullins | Shy son of Jim Mullins who is remade into the viral persona “John Galt.” |
| Jim Mullins (“The Realist”) | Podcast host who insists the simulation is a government hoax until he is injured at the Geysers. |
| Agnes Wisniewski | Veteran Canterbury Trails bus driver. |
| Aneeta Channar | Twenty-seven-year-old tour guide leading her first major trip. |
| Sister Janet | Elderly Catholic nun whose theology shifts during time inside the Tunnel. |
| Sister Patrice | Young Dominican novice who defends traditional Catholic doctrine. |
| Rabbi Zev Landsman | Gentle rabbi who serves as Sister Janet’s sounding board and finds quiet courage during the crisis. |
| Beth-Anne Neville | Divorced nurse caring for her mother; she saves Lisa Marie’s baby during labor. |
| Lenora Neville | Beth-Anne’s mother, who seeks healing from the Avatar for chronic pain. |
| Special Agent Deb Marks | Dulin’s sister and an FBI agent investigating Protagonist terrorism. |
| Chen Xing-Xing (“The Reader”) | Taiwanese immigrant secretly operating for Utnapishtim’s network. |
| Utnapishtim (“Aunty Tim”) | Time-traveling free agent from another simulation layer who intervenes in Margaret’s life. |
| Avatar Saugat Zin | Cult leader claiming to be an embodied Simulator relieving human suffering. |
| Josef Fischer & Marcus Egger | Married Austrian honeymooners who debate simulation metaphysics. |
| “The Octos” | Four lively Iowa seniors who embrace the Groundhogger philosophy. |
| Dr. Edowar Eze | Margaret’s ex-husband, who receives the Devil’s Toolbox at Ghost City. |
| Adaku Eze-Schell | Margaret and Edowar’s thirteen-year-old daughter. |
| Agamemnon & Sparks | Armed members of the anti-simulation Protagonist movement. |
Beneath the Glitches: What the Novel Examines
| Theme | How the Book Presents It |
|---|---|
| Simulation and Meaning | Characters split into groups such as Bangers, Groundhoggers, Hansonites, and Protagonists to process the Announcement. Each group builds a different set of rules for living inside a digital universe. |
| Suffering and Ethical Stewardship | Margaret’s Project Red Clay and the Devil’s Toolbox raise the question of what creators owe to conscious beings they build. The Avatar tells Lenora that experienced pain remains real even when the body is made of ones and zeros. |
| Connection and Mortality | Friendships, romances, and parental bonds carry the emotional weight of the journey. JP’s grief for his late wife Suzanne and Margaret’s drive to reach Adaku sit at the center of the plot. |
| Storytelling and Identity | Lisa Marie uses social media fame as a survival strategy, Jim uses his podcast to deny reality, and Dulin filters trauma through comic tropes. Margaret writes documentation as a legacy for the beings who come after her. |
Book Snapshot: Everything at a Glance
- Genre & Subgenre: Science fiction; philosophical speculative fiction and cyberpunk road novel.
- Core Narrative Tropes: Simulation hypothesis, ensemble road trip, fugitive on the run, AI creation, post-truth panic and cults.
- Tone & Atmosphere: Satirical, lyrical, absurd, introspective, darkly comic, and melancholic.
- Primary Conflict: Margaret Schell’s flight from Protagonist extremists and federal agents, set against the passengers’ search for purpose in an artificial reality.
- Pacing Style: Multi-point-of-view ensemble structure organized day by day, blending comedic dialogue, philosophical debate, thriller beats, and character arcs.
- ISBN: 978-1668060049
- Pages: 464
- Book Structure: Seven major parts matching the North American Impossibles Tour itinerary.
If You Liked When We Were Real, Try These Books
Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory — Another ensemble speculative novel from the same author, built around strange abilities, government interest, and tangled family bonds.
Ubik by Philip K. Dick — A classic of shifting realities and crumbling simulated environments where characters doubt their own perception.
A Scanner Darkly by Philip K. Dick — A dark, satirical look at identity, surveillance, and dissociation in a near-future setting.
Station Eleven by Emily St. John Mandel — A character-driven ensemble novel about a traveling troupe moving through a transformed landscape.
Permutation City by Greg Egan — A hard science fiction exploration of simulated consciousness and the ethics of creating digital minds.
The Lathe of Heaven by Ursula K. Le Guin — A novel about a man whose dreams rewrite reality and the people who try to steer him.
