Yeah, after reading about half the book, I can safely say it's not an RPG, at least not how I typically understand one to be. In the first thirty pages, "the fiction" must appear at least twice per paragraph. This is an exercise in collaborative story telling, not really a game. Some of the ideas are actually pretty good (abstracting combat, how skills are handled), but the GM seems neutered to the point that they're nothing more than an adversarial player of sorts, and without a true referee I can't consider this an RPG. It's only a game in the loosest sense, considering the goal is not to overcome obstacles, but only to have obstacles out in front of the characters and see what happens. Failure is just as valuable as success if it brings about something interesting. Again, that's a fine goal for a novel, but pretty awful for a game.
I might steal some of the mechanics, so at least it's not a total waste of money.