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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I was blown away by this book. Quantum superposition and the anthropic principle as a plot device? Sign me up. The world was convincing and felt realistically gritty, and Nick was relatable even through the unwilling changes wrought by his "neural mods". Hard science fiction usually has to choose between asking the deep questions and telling a good story; I'm so glad to have found an author who can do both at once.
adventurous
challenging
emotional
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
challenging
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
This was lots of fun. The story is told in a four-star way, but it has so fucking many great concepts: Having a fuckton of software for your brain, and the implications of loyalty software, of cours. But mostly the idea that humans are unique in collapsing the wave functions of possibilities, and basically the implications of xenocide that come with it. Wow. And the implications of learning to suppress that reflex, and having human made quantum computing in the brain. ♥
Detective Nick Stavrianos is every cynical noir detective and he's looking for a catatonic girl who went inexplicably missing from a mental institution. He won't be able to find her for quantum mechanical reasons. It's a fascinating set-up for a story, but so much of the mind-boggling quantum physics don't pair well with detective cliches, however upended and subverted they are (Nick being cynical and pragmatic because neural programming is suppressing his emotions and not because he's just that desensitized was a really nice touch).
I'd love to talk to someone who understands the proposed science in this book better than I do, because I gave it a lot of credit simply for attempting to grapple with ideas like wave-collapsing and the results of actually wielding such science as a practical and narrative tool. But once the story swelled out of a single eigenstate, I felt disconnected from it, like the act of trying to wrap a linear narrative around the notion was futile.
I don't know if a toning down of the science or an elevation of the narrative would've helped, but so many things seemed woefully underexplored in favor of things like Nick picking a lock while he's smeared across different eigenstates. There are so many things going on in such a short book and they all hook together in such brief spaces—a shadow organization, neural programming that changes personalities, an unexplained "bubble" existing around Earth, the social and religious responses to said bubble, and all of that is outside the main concern of experiments to harness the wave-collapse and smearing. It feels like a messy book, and maybe that was intentional, but to juggle so many things I would've liked the writing, characters, and universe to be much, much weirder.
I'd love to talk to someone who understands the proposed science in this book better than I do, because I gave it a lot of credit simply for attempting to grapple with ideas like wave-collapsing and the results of actually wielding such science as a practical and narrative tool. But once the story swelled out of a single eigenstate, I felt disconnected from it, like the act of trying to wrap a linear narrative around the notion was futile.
I don't know if a toning down of the science or an elevation of the narrative would've helped, but so many things seemed woefully underexplored in favor of things like Nick picking a lock while he's smeared across different eigenstates. There are so many things going on in such a short book and they all hook together in such brief spaces—a shadow organization, neural programming that changes personalities, an unexplained "bubble" existing around Earth, the social and religious responses to said bubble, and all of that is outside the main concern of experiments to harness the wave-collapse and smearing. It feels like a messy book, and maybe that was intentional, but to juggle so many things I would've liked the writing, characters, and universe to be much, much weirder.
Brilliant
If you liked this, try The Flicker Men for another take on the same concept. Greg Egan's books and short stories are mind blowers. Check them all out.
If you liked this, try The Flicker Men for another take on the same concept. Greg Egan's books and short stories are mind blowers. Check them all out.
adventurous
challenging
informative
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated