At his prison, the National Executive Rehabilitation Facility (NERF), Asel meets Sylvan Lee McCree, former High Earl of Dixie-Datadog, a powerful Southern corporation. Despite Sylvan's unexpected dark coloring, Asel and he soon become friends. They share both an upbringing as children of corporate privilege, and a comedown at the hands of jealous rivals. Asel determines to escape NERF, and Sylvan agrees to accompany him. So they steal a truck and set off on a desperate trek, leading by narrative inevitability to a confrontation with the despicable leader of Disney-Dow.

On the way Asel and Sylvan encounter many strange folks in the poor and desolate stretches of the middle of what was once the US. The Techs-Mechs Rangers. The Oklahomer Wall. The beautiful but celibate and evil Nones of Our Lady of Reluctant Desire. A talking "bair". Truckers. A barmaid with a heart of gold. Mechanical people. And so on ...

Prince of Christler-Coke is fast-moving and full of clever detail. The dialogue is sharp, funny, true to the characters. Barrett has great fun, as does the reader, with slightly off-center place names -- New Whoreleens, Two-kum-curry, Sandy Monicker -- and with other changes such as food names. The plot is perhaps a bit rambling, with an honest but not spectacular conclusion (though a spectacular conclusion would not have been believable or "honest", most likely). Asel is likeable despite his unprepossessing origins, and his changes in viewpoint are gradual enough and incomplete enough to convince. The weird future is not terribly plausible but it's not really meant to be -- it's just for fun and satire. In short -- an enjoyable satirical SF novel, well worth the read.