“You Shall Know Our Velocity” is not full of surprises. In fact, you know the main character dies at the end in the first sentence, which starts on the very cover of the hardcover edition.

The lack of surprise, though, does nothing to detract from the unique style with which the novel is written. Velocity is the follow-up to Dave Eggers’ widely acclaimed first novel, “A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius.”

Unlike his first novel, “Velocity” is not autobiographical in nature. Will Chmielewski is the main character, and he and his friend Hand travel around the world in one week, stopping in cities like Dakar, Casablanca and Tallinn handing out money to poor people.

The money they are handing out is what remains of the $80,000 Will received for essentially screwing in a light bulb. The silhouette of him doing so was featured on the packaging of light bulbs for a large company.

Will doesn’t believe the money is really his, so he decides to travel with Hand, who only has one week away from his job managing a casino, to purge himself of the money. They hand it out to people who give them directions, tape it to the sides of huts with the message, “Rock You Like a Hurricane” on the envelope and generously tip every person that serves or assists them in any way.

Will and Hand meet many interesting people, some pathetic and sycophantic and others extraordinarily genuine. They play basketball into the night with a bunch of teenagers in Senegal and steer their rental car with their tongues in Estonia. At one point, Will attempts the stunt of jumping into a moving horse-drawn cart from their vehicle.

“You Shall Know Our Velocity” reaffirms Eggers’ status as an intelligent and serious prose writer. In many respects the novel is similar to his first, but it is obvious his writing has grown and matured with this second work.

What is most poignant about “Velocity” is the style of writing: chaotic, unpredictable, and hilarious. For example, Will has whole conversations with people on the street in his head:

“— What are you doing with these men?

— I have my reasons

— You need not be with these men. We will help you.

— Your help is not welcome

— Our help is free of obligation. You must choose us.”

Eggers will also enter a flashback without any sort of transition, then re-enter the current storyline as if nothing had happened.

Subtle and comical allusions to other works and writers, such as Hemingway, are embedded within the book.

Here is an almost invisible allusion to “The Old Man and the Sea”: “On the shore we dried in the sun. Far away, a fishing boat with an old man pulling from its side a huge fish, or a part of it. It looked like a swordfish, huge chunks torn from its sides.

‘Scavenger fish,’ Hand said. ‘They bite and disappear down.’

‘Poor man.'”

Despite Eggers’ genius at innovative description, some parts of “Velocity” drag on. By the last city they visit, it seems as if the author was searching for more things to include.

With this, the book is a bit unbalanced, in that the first few days of their travel are accorded more description than the last, leading me to think Eggers started out, realized it would be too long of a book if he kept up the same lengthy description and wrote the rest to be sparse in terms of narrative.

I anxiously awaited the release of “You Shall Know Our Velocity” and read it twice.

It would suffice to say that I was not disappointed, and I’m equally anxious to see more from one of the most innovative writers of our time.