A 2016 Science Fantasy novel by Aaron J. Lawler.
Fifteen-year-old Nice Guy Fitz Faraday loses his mother after a long battle with a terminal illness, dumping Fitz in an Orphan's Ordeal.
As the titluar protagonist he is thrust into a Reality Warper role, facing many conflicts with his two best friends, making a group of three:Two Guys and a Girl (The Hero, The Lancer, and The Heart).
He becomes the ward of his grandmother and eccentric aunt, who live in the apartment above the family business, A Fair Day Bakery. Struggling to cope with these turn of events, he becomes more involved with his mentor, the Professor Oliver Crowley who is a nearly impossibly smart guy; and was dismissed by the university for his unorthodox experiments in parapsychology. Fitz soon learns the secrets of these experiments as he begins to feel reality-bending side effects.
Crowley is murdered by his former colleagues, witnessed by Fitz and his best friend, son of the town drunkard and junkman, Hollis Scout. Also present that night is the school bully, Eddie Thompson, who is framed for Crowley's murder. Although Fitz and Hollis vow to keep this information to themselves, Fitz is plagued by guilt. As the real world collapses around Fitz, the imaginary does as well. He soon learns that he can manipulate thoughts and bring them into reality using Crowley's miraculous device – the cognitive resonator. Hence Crowley being an Omnidisciplinary Scientist, Reluctant Mad Scientist, and Absent-Minded Professor, and studies a Fantastic Science.
With Hollis' help, Fitz begins to use his gifts to perform impossible feats going against the laws of physics, by sculpting the golden dreamsands surrounding people. This aura – which Crowley called the field of Id – can not only be transformed into objects like biplanes and enormous fists, but Fitz loses control bringing fantastic creatures to life. His eventual girlfriend, the new girl who moves in at the beginning of the story, fears Fitz might becoming too reckless. Josey Campbell, the daughter of anthropologists and writers, helps Fitz understand the power he wields.
The trio of friends use Crowley's journals and files to destroy the original cognitive resonator, prove Eddie Thompson's innocence, and defend the field of Id from Crowley's villainous dean and colleagues.
Tropes:
- All Men Are Perverts: Fitz gets caught gawking at Josey through her bedroom window. It's an accident, but it's one heck of a MeetCute.
- Alliterative Name: Fitz Faraday.
- Big Bad: Walter Branham. He is an educated and cultured, and although a teacher, he is portrayed far more as a Sinister Minister, black flowing robes and all.
- Boys Like Creepy Critters: Fitz is fascinated by the critters he shapes out of the Id.
- Bully Brutality: Eddie is guilty of this in Fitz's past, and gives us a glimpse in the opening scene when he knocks Fitz off the bus.
- Chekhov's Skill: Pinball and Rubick's Cubes - they help Fitz intuitively understand how to shape the Id.
- Cool Old Guy: Professor Crowley in some ways, other ways, not so much.
- Delinquents: Hollis is seen to be this, especially with the episode where he is falsely accused of stealing.
- Damsel in Distress: For a brief moment Josey fits the bill, when the Id-monster is about to crush her. She soon shows that she does not like this role, preferring Affirmative Action Girl or at least Plucky Girl, especially in the fight scenes.
- Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Everyone is stunned when Fitz hurls Eddie across the hallway.
- Disappeared Dad: We are told Fitz's mother has passed away, and given only a brief glimpse into what happened through a flashback. What happened to his father — and for that matter what happened to Hollis' mother is never explained, although the author promises to address these ideas in the sequel.
- Disappointed in You: This is a reoccurring theme between Fitz and his grandmother.
- Eating Lunch Alone: Fitz ends up here when he ruins things with Josey. It inspires his big speech
- Eldritch Abomination: The Id Monster. It doesn't drive people insane, but it's quite capable of shredding anything that gets in its way.
- Fluffy the Terrible: The Id-monster is named Snugglepuff or Snuggy for short.
- Free-Range Children: To the extent that although the parents might worry, the children always seem to be escaping their clutches.
- Freudian Trio: Hollis (ego), Fitz (id), Josey(superego). Or perhaps better, explained as the three of children are working through their Id, both metaphorically and literally (its literally "shaping the Id").
- Full-Name Ultimatum: Fitz's grandmother and aunt call him: FitzGerald Michael Faraday
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: Fitz and Hollis fit this trope, and it is hinted at that they always have.
- Historical Domain Character: Nikola Tesla's ghost appears at the end, perhaps because of Fitz's imagination and the rumors of Tesla's ghost living in Crowley Manor? Although this is never stated.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Fitz. He's quite often moody and full of too much angst Jerkass, but all of these instances spring from thoughtlessness rather than any actual malice. When it comes down to it, he actually has a very powerful conscience and never wishes any serious harm on anyone. Perhaps, most telling is that he is willing to defend the town bully TheBully
- Mental Picture Projector: It does so much more! The Cognitive Resonator runs on Applied Phlebotinum and is a Speculative Fiction answer to seeing and bring thoughts into reality. Its one part Magical Security Cam and one part Swiss-Army Weapon thanks to the Mad Scientist Professor Crowley. It gives the operator Imagination-Based Superpower, Swiss-Army Superpower, Your Mind Makes It Real, to varying degrees.
- Mutual Envy: Both Fitz and Hollis glorify one another and the GrassIsGreener applies.
- No Man Should Have This Power: Professor Crowley regrets building the Cognitive Resonator.
- Parental Substitute: Fitz lives with his maternal grandmother and his maternal aunt after the death of his mother.
- The Peeping Tom: Inadvertently, Fitz gets caught gawking at Josey.
- Prince Charming Wannabe: Doug Wilson, who truly has no role other than to make Fitz jealous, is this for Josey, after their breakup.
- Reed Richards Is Useless: Understandably, Professor Crowley is reluctant about his Cognitive Resonator, which brings thoughts to reality. But the machine has so many implications in terms of psychology, pathology, therapy and the like, he would have more money than Scrooge McDuck, The Richest Duck in the World
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Had Crowley decided to destroy the Cognitive Resonator early on, the entire story could have been avoided, including his own death.
- Shouldn't We Be in School Right Now?: The kids seem to be absent from school A LOT and without any consequences.
- Technology Porn: Both the Cognitive Resonator, and the Professor's mansion.
- You Are Not Ready: The kids decide this is true, and destroy Crowley's mansion as well as the original Cognitive Resonator.
