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3.47 AVERAGE
3.47 AVERAGE
Sawyer seems to have a lot of these interesting concepts and setups, but then his stories really go off the rails at the end. The overall idea of this one seems a little too pat, too black and white to me. I guess that's the point of the "quantum" states, there is no gradual spectrum; maybe I just disagree.
The writing: seemed designed to show off how smart, hip, and with it the author is, in an annoying way. And a writing tic that just bugs me is being so overly specific in his pop culture and brand name references. I don't care that the character is drinking a Coke Zero® and using his iPad® and listening to Taylor Swift®. It's totally unnecessary.
Maybe I'm just getting old.
The writing: seemed designed to show off how smart, hip, and with it the author is, in an annoying way. And a writing tic that just bugs me is being so overly specific in his pop culture and brand name references. I don't care that the character is drinking a Coke Zero® and using his iPad® and listening to Taylor Swift®. It's totally unnecessary.
Maybe I'm just getting old.
Has all the features of a great near-future sf novel. The only issue was that it was reductive in its treatment of psychological issues - like psychopathology and psychic evil can be reduced to a simple issue of quantum states. Fun thought game, but exceedingly elitist when put into practice.
Robert Sawyer's Quantum Night is a real page turner. Like much of his novels, it is a near-future science fiction work. This one is a tale of human consciousness, psychopaths, quantum physics that has plenty of relevancy to today's world.
Quantum Night was my first experience with this author’s work. I saw that it had mixed reviews on Amazon and Goodreads, but I did not let that stop me. The concept was appealing and I like to think that I went into this without bias.
I love all kinds of Science Fiction, but I am drawn to stories like this, because they can be so much more relatable than some others. With that said, I really thought I would enjoy this story, but as it turned out… it was just okay.
I give it three stars.
In the beginning, I was immersed in the story. It was well written and the “science” was intriguing (even if imprecise.) Then, at around 60% into the book, the momentum changed and the book went from enthralling to puerile.
As a fan of Science Fiction, I am used to being bombarded with different political, ethical, social, and philosophical views. (For some reason, the genre is jammed packed with the stuff.) Usually I can make my way around it, but this story was a bit too preachy for me. Why all the political shaming and pejorative remarks about the United States? I get that it’s fiction, but I felt like the author stayed up on the soapbox far too long. I think I felt this way because most of the story takes place in the near future (2020 I think) and is full of people or references that are relevant today. Yeah, the politics of the world are important and are a part of everyone’s lives, but I don’t want it in the fiction I choose to read (real life politics is depressing enough). Reading is supposed to be fun and thought provoking, but this book was neither.
Like I said, in the beginning, I was taken in. The three quantum states of humanity was a compelling idea. In the book, there are Q1s or the “philosopher’s zombie or p-zed”, Q2s or the “quantum psychopaths”, and Q3s or the “conscious with a conscience”. The author had a myriad of paths he could have pursued, but he chose the political angle.
The science, well I have no idea how sound the science is. Quantum physics and theoretical physics is beyond me. I busted my butt through The Principles of Physics I and II in college and was happy to get a B. I couldn’t even begin to understand the underlying science in this book. All the technical stuff went over my head, but so does “real” physics. It was superficially interesting, so I give it a pass.
The characters:
The protagonist, Jim Marchuk, wasn’t very likable. As soon as I started thinking that he wasn’t so bad, his Utilitarian views slapped me in the face and his “quantum psychopath” state is a murderous, uncaring, unfeeling jerk (so is his p-zed state.)
None of the characters were interesting or likable. I tried to like Victoria but she turned out to be shallow and we never get to know what happens to her in her “quantum psychopath” state or if she will stay there.
Kayla Huron, well… I won’t give much away, but let me just say… once a psycho always a psycho. Her choice in the end is unbelievable. I feel like the author threw it in just to piss the reader off.
I almost wished the story was told in Professor Menno Warkentin’s POV. One of the last things he says is “Dom and me, we’d been on to something huge” and he was right. I think I’d have much rather liked to read that story.
No one in this story has any redeeming qualities in any quantum state and the book asks for too much suspension of disbelief. It simply shouldn’t have ended the way it ended. Why do I say that? Spoilers ahead.
*******Spoiler Alert*******
Jim was a “p-zed” when he attacked Dom, he apparently broke his neck for no reason at all (I kept waiting on the revelation that somebody talked him into doing it… maybe Menno or Kayla.) All the looters and rioters are p-zeds led by psychopaths… so, it is likely that both presidents (Russia and the US) would still be capable of murderous acts or be coerced into acting, especially if they are both p-zeds now. Are all the politicians and government officials p-zeds after the shift? Pa–leeease!
So, there it is… 3 stars for getting my attention in the beginning and an interesting concept. However, Quantum Night just didn’t deliver in the end… if I can call it an end. If there is another installment, I think I will pass.
I love all kinds of Science Fiction, but I am drawn to stories like this, because they can be so much more relatable than some others. With that said, I really thought I would enjoy this story, but as it turned out… it was just okay.
I give it three stars.
In the beginning, I was immersed in the story. It was well written and the “science” was intriguing (even if imprecise.) Then, at around 60% into the book, the momentum changed and the book went from enthralling to puerile.
As a fan of Science Fiction, I am used to being bombarded with different political, ethical, social, and philosophical views. (For some reason, the genre is jammed packed with the stuff.) Usually I can make my way around it, but this story was a bit too preachy for me. Why all the political shaming and pejorative remarks about the United States? I get that it’s fiction, but I felt like the author stayed up on the soapbox far too long. I think I felt this way because most of the story takes place in the near future (2020 I think) and is full of people or references that are relevant today. Yeah, the politics of the world are important and are a part of everyone’s lives, but I don’t want it in the fiction I choose to read (real life politics is depressing enough). Reading is supposed to be fun and thought provoking, but this book was neither.
Like I said, in the beginning, I was taken in. The three quantum states of humanity was a compelling idea. In the book, there are Q1s or the “philosopher’s zombie or p-zed”, Q2s or the “quantum psychopaths”, and Q3s or the “conscious with a conscience”. The author had a myriad of paths he could have pursued, but he chose the political angle.
The science, well I have no idea how sound the science is. Quantum physics and theoretical physics is beyond me. I busted my butt through The Principles of Physics I and II in college and was happy to get a B. I couldn’t even begin to understand the underlying science in this book. All the technical stuff went over my head, but so does “real” physics. It was superficially interesting, so I give it a pass.
The characters:
The protagonist, Jim Marchuk, wasn’t very likable. As soon as I started thinking that he wasn’t so bad, his Utilitarian views slapped me in the face and his “quantum psychopath” state is a murderous, uncaring, unfeeling jerk (so is his p-zed state.)
None of the characters were interesting or likable. I tried to like Victoria but she turned out to be shallow and we never get to know what happens to her in her “quantum psychopath” state or if she will stay there.
Kayla Huron, well… I won’t give much away, but let me just say… once a psycho always a psycho. Her choice in the end is unbelievable. I feel like the author threw it in just to piss the reader off.
I almost wished the story was told in Professor Menno Warkentin’s POV. One of the last things he says is “Dom and me, we’d been on to something huge” and he was right. I think I’d have much rather liked to read that story.
No one in this story has any redeeming qualities in any quantum state and the book asks for too much suspension of disbelief. It simply shouldn’t have ended the way it ended. Why do I say that? Spoilers ahead.
*******Spoiler Alert*******
Jim was a “p-zed” when he attacked Dom, he apparently broke his neck for no reason at all (I kept waiting on the revelation that somebody talked him into doing it… maybe Menno or Kayla.) All the looters and rioters are p-zeds led by psychopaths… so, it is likely that both presidents (Russia and the US) would still be capable of murderous acts or be coerced into acting, especially if they are both p-zeds now. Are all the politicians and government officials p-zeds after the shift? Pa–leeease!
So, there it is… 3 stars for getting my attention in the beginning and an interesting concept. However, Quantum Night just didn’t deliver in the end… if I can call it an end. If there is another installment, I think I will pass.
Is Robert Sawyer a time traveler? Because this novel, published last year, kind of feels like the news I see on TV today! A racist, psychopath, becomes president of the US and starts changing immigration laws? Yep, happening now, predicted in the book. But it's so much more! Loved the story. Ethics, psychopaths, mind-zombies, it all feels to real!
I'm a big Robert J. Sawyer fan. I got hooked with the Neanderthal Parallax which was a fascinating adventure in ripping holes in time/space. I've also read a few of the other books he's written here and there. So when I was at the library I stopped to check by his name and found this gem. I went into it knowing nothing about what to expect. And I was pleasantly surprised with the general premise of the book. The best way to describe this is that we all fit neatly into 3 mental states (which correspond to 3 personality types) and then he uses the macro story to tie it in neatly with things present in our current world like herd mentality, political psychopathy and social media. In the end of the novel there are multiple pages of reference reading that ties his theoretical fictional story into a world-based feel and I appreciate that. The story is plausible. The science appears plausible. And the characters are, despite all of them shifting around mentally here and there throughout, are all believable and enjoyable. So if you are into RJS's other stories I think this one fits nicely into his style And it swaps between 1st and other POVs too which is interesting to boot! 4 stars simply because I think the ending felt like 315 pages of build up and 20 or 30 pages of conclusion which I had hoped would have been less of an abrupt conclusion. But it wasn't terrible...
A compelling read, I managed most of it in one sitting. Dense with science,with a reading list in the back. The repetitive references to various previous (actual) studies in the story were distracting. Timely and prescient- politics and consciousness, convoluted but wordy.
It was OK, read on the request of a friend. I often had the feeling of the book being written, in the same sense that one gets watching amateurs act - you see a person acting, rather than an actor embodying the character. You can feel the artifice.
There's a lot that is gotten right in the research, but what yelled out was the mistake of identifying Pavlov's dog with consequences. Pavlov described Classical Conditioning, which does not depend on consequences - an Intro to Psych lecture! That called to questions so much more that was grounded in fact and psych history. I felt that the rest of the psych history was pretty accurate, with representations only mildly taking license about Milgram, Zimbardo, and others. I also thought there were some missed opportunities, but the story had to keep moving and enough background was enough.
There's a lot that is gotten right in the research, but what yelled out was the mistake of identifying Pavlov's dog with consequences. Pavlov described Classical Conditioning, which does not depend on consequences - an Intro to Psych lecture! That called to questions so much more that was grounded in fact and psych history. I felt that the rest of the psych history was pretty accurate, with representations only mildly taking license about Milgram, Zimbardo, and others. I also thought there were some missed opportunities, but the story had to keep moving and enough background was enough.
The first Sawyer book I read that made me request many more from the library, and unfortunately this is the best one. Maybe the author learned from all the previous permutations how to add an interesting backstory and somewhat multi dimensional characters. However there are ideas in this book that have been explored in previous books I've read since which is always annoying to me. It's like these books take five basic scientific ideas and remix them in some way cranking out another somewhat decent sci fi quick read. I still think this one would be my top rated, no matter what order I read them in.
Typically, Sawyer uses a fictional narrative, based on science, to explore big philosophical questions. I always enjoy reading his opinions, and this book is no exception. Unfortunately I frequently find the fictional narrative difficult to believe, and was again disappointed with this book.