Charles Soule’s brilliant and thought-provoking novel, “The Endless Vessel,” is quite impossible to place squarely into any genre box. The novel is, in fact, at least three novels in one.

Plot number one is, perhaps, best labelled a unique combination of science-fiction, crime, and suspense. Its protagonist is Lily Barnes, a scientist whose mission is to solve the overwhelming universal problem of climate change and the resulting all-too-near destruction of our planet. She becomes aware of a mysterious small machine which, by itself, appears to have the capacity to solve the deadly effects of global warming. When the opportunity to examine the machine arises, she jumps at it, begins to analyze the strange instrument, drops it on the floor, thereby extensively damaging it, and promptly steals it with the hope that she can find a way to fix it. She is now a criminal, and her eerie adventure begins.

But Lily’s problems comprise only one part of plot number one. That plot also includes two (or more) extraordinary villains: one human, one immaterial. The latter “bad guy” is The Grey, an incurable illness which is striking people all over the world. Humanity is falling victim to a universal depression so profound and all-encompassing that everyone who is afflicted becomes a non-functioning entity. And scientists and medical experts are helpless in the grey face of the disease. It will eventually mean the end of the human race.

The only person who conceives of a way to end the suffering is the other fascinating villain. She is Aunt Jane, a cult leader whose solution is to gleefully literally destroy — blow up — all of our most cherished institutions. Her twisted, magnificently cruel logic has led her to the conclusion that through her destruction of everything we have loved and everything we have looked forward to loving, the whole world will be forced to live joyfully in “the now” and will therefore not think about the future, the past, The Grey, or the ravages of climate change. So the novel begins with her crew joyfully burning down the Louvre, a perfect model of her targets.

Now, just as Lily begins to make a bit of progress in her effort to understand and find the source of the miracle machine, and just as WE begin to understand the horrifying effects of Aunt Jane’s crusade, Soule transports us without warning to the world of plot number two, the lives and loves of a charming and successful couple named Apollo and Molly Calder, owners of a textile mill in Concord, Massachusetts — in the year 1789. And “The Endless Vessel” becomes an historical fiction, an eternal romance, and a sea-going adventure.

Once again, several characters play huge roles in this story-within-a-story, including more brave heroes and dastardly villains, but the single most important one besides the Calders is Paul Brooks, master of a scientific laboratory on the Mill’s premises — and a lovely representative foreshadowing of the fantastic/scientific path on which the novel will eventually travel. Mr. Brooks is an inventor, an engineer, a genius; and his creativity and determination make the Mill and the entire area which surrounds it the technological marvel of its age. The Calders build a whole town around their new electrically charged Mill complex, and with the grudging help of Benjamin Franklin and the voluntary and enthusiastic help of Franklin’s assistant, Anne Beaton, all the Calder projects become the acknowledged wonder of Concord and the inevitable object of jealousy, bigotry, hatred, and the anti-progress obsession of the traditionalists — particularly the religious traditionalists — of the community. And then, the unthinkable happens: Apollo Calder is struck by a brain aneurysm, and he dies. The bereft Molly is now the controller of their holdings, the leader of the company’s employees; and she is the individual at the very heart of the Calder mission to bring progress and the message of human generosity and decency to the people of the world.

But her personal mission has expanded and changed drastically and seemingly half-crazily. Her over-arching desire is to bring her beloved husband back to life. To begin her journey toward that end, she must first escape the hatred that she, her husband, and their employees have engendered because of their amazing but strange technological achievements and works. To do so, she makes use of a ship she and her husband had built, gathering her trusted and brilliant workers and barely escaping the wrath of her enemies.

She names her ship the Lazarene, evoking, of course, the single most important symbol of redemption and rebirth her world has ever known. And so we arrive at plot number three: the story of the endless vessel. Fittingly, the protagonist of plot number three, a science-fantasy morality tale, is the Lazarene, along with its eventual seafarers, Mary Calder’s collection of the most brilliant and humane individuals in the world — scientists, doctors, musicians, artists, inventors, teachers — the very finest of everyone she can gather to fulfill her life’s missions. The ship is the all-human equivalent of Noah’s Ark, the essence of the will to survive, the determination to bring to the world the peace and happiness for which all good people long. They will spread the ideas, ideals, discoveries, and inventions — like the anti-global-warming machine — that will encourage and enable the progress and evolutionary advances of humanity. Furthermore, they will open new doors, doors to new worlds, parallel universes that will enable people of THIS world to fulfill their dreams and even to answer universal questions that have characterized the human quest for our true reality, who and what we have been, are, and are becoming — including the rebirth of those whom we’ve loved. The Lazarene itself, alive and active from the eighteenth century right up until this very day, represents the essence of everything humanity has striven to achieve.

So finally we reach the climax and denouement of all three plot strands of the novel, all wrapped up in one touching, emotion-laden conclusion, the details of which must remain a mystery to the readers of this review because the consequence of revealing more details would inevitably be spoilers galore. But we can reveal that the ending deals effectively with the very ingenious resolution of Mary Calder’s desperate search for the “cure” for death as well as the fate of each of the important characters, both heroic and villainous. And it also clarifies the important themes and motifs that run through the unwindings of each of the plots. Those themes, as in all fine literature like “The Endless Vessel,” are, of course, every bit as significant as those fascinating plot threads. Most importantly, Soule demonstrates, clearly and convincingly, the absolute premise and promise that real peace and real happiness can be achieved, but only if we recognize, once and for all, the oneness of the human race and the universe, the unalterable truth that global harmony can exist only insofar as our personal commitment to unity can carry us. We are ALL stardust; one creation; one race. And until and unless we accept that reality, we are doomed to our own dissolution and destruction. We are The Grey.

Also important here is the reality that in our oneness, each of us is composed — in some measure — of the stuff of goodness and decency, generosity and kindness. But we are also composed — in some measure — of the stuff of greed and graft, gore and… garbage. (Fittingly, one monstrous character in the novel is the Garbageman; and HE is manufactured by the GOOD guys!) We are all God and Satan. And the only way for the positive to triumph in that eternal inner conflict, that most human of all paradoxes that rends our bodies and souls, our personal endless vessels, will be the power to successfully contend with that conflict for as long as we exist. Our survival, says Soule, depends entirely on the will to ensure that victory.

And what is true for human beings is equally true for our technologies, our discoveries, our inventions. The good and the evil are all uncomfortably but securely wrapped up in the same amazing, complex, contradictory packages: the wonders of powerful automobiles (gas OR electric!) that can carry us overland across the country in ever-decreasing record times; the marvelous machines that can fly us through the skies at even MORE absurd speeds; and the even MORE marvelous machines that can fly us through outer space at still MORE absurd speeds; the wireless telephones that can provide us with more information than we’ll ever be able to absorb; the nuclear power that provides us with boundless immediately available efficient energy; computers and internet access that can accomplish intellectual feats faster than any human brain and virtually instant world-wide communication; computers-to-come that will render today’s models computer snails; artificial intelligence that will dwarf our own….

But then — the technologies, discoveries, and inventions that pose deadly dangers and lead to horrifying evils: autos; airplanes; rockets and missiles; smart phones; nuclear power; the internet; quantum computers; AI….

All of us and all we do are all-in-one; top to bottom, good to bad, positive to negative. No hero perfectly great, no villain perfectly evil. And every character and every event in “The Endless Vessel” encapsulates, dramatizes, and entirely contains those hard and often extraordinarily harsh realities, realities waiting right there for us to accept and embrace — for our very survival.

Please note: This review is based on the finished hardcover provided by Harper Perennial, the publisher, for review purposes.