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A review by stephenmeansme
The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken
4.0
This was good! Not quite a 5-star banger like NINEFOX GAMBIT, but close, with a world that I really want to read more stories about.
The basic plot is that Belisarius Arjona, a homo quantus genetically-modified human with spooky quantum brain powers, who's also a con man, gets hired by a scrappy rebel navy with some secret-weapon spaceships to get across a heavily-fortified wormhole gate. So Belisarius assembles a crew and gets to work - it's only a matter of who's double-crossing who, and how, and why.
So that's pretty good fun. What's also interesting is that this is a pretty religious book, too, and not just because one of the characters is an AI who thinks he's a reincarnated Catholic saint. Rather, the different human subspecies―the homo quantus savants, the homo eridani "mongrels", and the homo pupa "Puppets" (truly fucked up and creepy, once you get there)―represent different philosophical and spiritual attitudes towards life. Quantus are ascetics, contemplating the universe in rapture; Eridani are nihilists, understanding that they were created in desperation and that their life essentially sucks until they die; Puppets are what happens when a religion is made flesh, and the scriptures are literally random utterances. (And more! It's actually really disturbing!) I hope Künsken explores these themes in his other works.
On the downside, the writing is somewhat uneven, which hurts the pacing, and (for example) keeps the climax from feeling as climactic as it probably should have been. I think the "explore/reveal the world" parts were in tension with the "sci-fi heist" parts: they demand different tempos, and I don't quite think the narration pulled it off. Still, I knew what was going on even if I didn't "feel" it (with the severe exception of the Puppets, creepy as heck), and it made me want to return to this setting.
4 stars.
The basic plot is that Belisarius Arjona, a homo quantus genetically-modified human with spooky quantum brain powers, who's also a con man, gets hired by a scrappy rebel navy with some secret-weapon spaceships to get across a heavily-fortified wormhole gate. So Belisarius assembles a crew and gets to work - it's only a matter of who's double-crossing who, and how, and why.
So that's pretty good fun. What's also interesting is that this is a pretty religious book, too, and not just because one of the characters is an AI who thinks he's a reincarnated Catholic saint. Rather, the different human subspecies―the homo quantus savants, the homo eridani "mongrels", and the homo pupa "Puppets" (truly fucked up and creepy, once you get there)―represent different philosophical and spiritual attitudes towards life. Quantus are ascetics, contemplating the universe in rapture; Eridani are nihilists, understanding that they were created in desperation and that their life essentially sucks until they die; Puppets are what happens when a religion is made flesh, and the scriptures are literally random utterances. (And more! It's actually really disturbing!) I hope Künsken explores these themes in his other works.
On the downside, the writing is somewhat uneven, which hurts the pacing, and (for example) keeps the climax from feeling as climactic as it probably should have been. I think the "explore/reveal the world" parts were in tension with the "sci-fi heist" parts: they demand different tempos, and I don't quite think the narration pulled it off. Still, I knew what was going on even if I didn't "feel" it (with the severe exception of the Puppets, creepy as heck), and it made me want to return to this setting.
4 stars.