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3.79 AVERAGE
3.79 AVERAGE
I've never read a novel that tackles quantum superposition head-on before. Quite a jolt to the system. And quite a tall order to write something like that and make it entertaining. For the most part I think Quarantine worked, and I was certainly entertained throughout. The more familiar early parts of the story were excellent. Had it continued in its initial guise - in near-future mystery/thriller territory - I would have no doubt thoroughly lapped it up. Once the story took a hard left turn into a more science-dominated story I started to feel uneasy as to whether there'd be a satisfying ending. The subject matter is almost inherently incompatible with satisfying story arcs and, for me, this one didn't quite stick the landing.
I wonder if the uninitiated would be able to cope with some of the concepts this covers. Perhaps I'm being unfair but I believe a lot of people would need a primer before tackling the book. I'm not sure I agreed with some of the suppositions made by the narrative too. Of course the author's choice on how to present the uncollapsed states and the rules-of-the-game could be endlessly debated. The protagonist's understanding of how it all works was never called into question at all though, there were no contrary ideas expressed which was a bit of a missed opportunity. Regardless there was a lot to like about Quarantine and I'll be seeking out more books by Greg Egan.
I wonder if the uninitiated would be able to cope with some of the concepts this covers. Perhaps I'm being unfair but I believe a lot of people would need a primer before tackling the book. I'm not sure I agreed with some of the suppositions made by the narrative too. Of course the author's choice on how to present the uncollapsed states and the rules-of-the-game could be endlessly debated. The protagonist's understanding of how it all works was never called into question at all though, there were no contrary ideas expressed which was a bit of a missed opportunity. Regardless there was a lot to like about Quarantine and I'll be seeking out more books by Greg Egan.
The idea from “Blood Music” explored in more detail. Interesting use of multiverse in a thriller setting.
I will admit I had to fight very hard to not nod off at several points while reading, mostly during the explanations of how wave collapse works. I understand that some readers may not be familiar with how all of that works and need the background, but for me it was so slow and boring and tedious my eyes were closing on their own. Some might say I actually fell asleep and only another version of myself read those pages, but I am the one that was left with the memories of the narrative...
I will admit I had to fight very hard to not nod off at several points while reading, mostly during the explanations of how wave collapse works. I understand that some readers may not be familiar with how all of that works and need the background, but for me it was so slow and boring and tedious my eyes were closing on their own. Some might say I actually fell asleep and only another version of myself read those pages, but I am the one that was left with the memories of the narrative...
adventurous
challenging
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
I liked the ideas of the book, but the ending was quite disappointing for me.
The ideas in this book using quantum mechanics are wild and although I’m not sure that I understood half of it, I really enjoyed it. I’m not usually into the whole noir/detective/cyberpunk genre but it really evolved into something much greater. The science in this book is VERY hard, maybe the hardest I’ve read, but I liked Egan’s writing and felt that it wasn’t too hard to follow, even if a lot of the quantum stuff went way over my head. The characters were a bit shallow but that wasn’t the focus so it didn’t bother me. Will definitely check out more Egan.
I loved how the ideaspace kept expanding so rapidly. Also, it's pretty amazing that this was written in the 90s. There's loads of anachronisms that somewhat date this novel, but at the same time, its main idea and parts of the world still hold up well.
La parte no hard scifi es especialmente entretenida, pero cuando se ponen a divagar con estados cuánticos y demás temas, el ritmo decae preocupantemente.
También es verdad que se vendía únicamente como thriller futurista, y la vena hard me pilló por sorpresa.
También es verdad que se vendía únicamente como thriller futurista, y la vena hard me pilló por sorpresa.
Starts out as a nice near-future cyberpunk neural-hacking noir detective story but soon falls down an increasingly mind-bending rabbit hole of weirdness of the sort you pick up a Greg Egan book for, as he takes quantum mechanics to one of its many insane logical conclusions. Not my favourite of his works, but good enough for me to add the subsequent books in this apparently very loose "subjective cosmology" trilogy to my to-read pile.
Mindbendingly cool exploration of identity and influence in a world of mental software and parallel universes. Served to fill in some of my intuition gaps about quantum states and wave collapse, albeit with lots of speculative scifi stapled on.