In a novelistic romp that is by turns hilarious and brilliant, Coming Soon!!! is the tale of two writers: an retiring novelist setting out to write his last work and a young writer of hypertext intent on toppling his master. Inspired by a gently sinking showboat replica called The Original Floating Opera II, which is grounded on a shoal somewhere in the Bay as a hurricane (and Y2K) approaches, they race each other to write a novel about a floating opera - a reprise of the fictional mentor's first novel, of Barth's own first novel, of Edna Ferber's literary monument Show Boat and the musicals and films it spawned. In the heat of their rivalry, the writers navigate - and sometimes stumble over - the fault lines between print and electronic fiction, mentor and mentored, postmodernism and modernism. Coming Soon!!! is an extraordinary addition to, and in many respects a commentary on, Barth's distinguished career, a series of books that has shaped contemporary literature.