During a cross-examination in
a murder trial, experimental psychologist Jim Murchuk realizes
he has a hole in his memory. He's lost six months of his life.
The search for that time brings back an old love he never
remembered, and with her, an exciting and frightening new
discovery about the nature of human consciousness. Told against
a backdrop of a world going violently mad, the novel was a
fascinating look at humans, morality, and the nature of consciousness.
Although the plot sometimes slips into the silly (where psychopathology
can and does get flipped on and off by things as simple as
routine surgery), the mixture of philosophy and science was
so compelling and thought-provoking that you tend to ride
along with the book simply caught up in the ideas Sawyer is
presenting, only to look back on it at the end and spot the
dips into the ridiculous. The main character, who ultimately
feels ready to play God for the world, is looked at by some
of the other characters as a painfully selfless man, but as
a reader, I found him disquietingly self-involved and emotionally
limited. He sees his own philosophical stance as deeply moral,
but it feels cold and more than a little frightening. Overall,
it's a scary book, both when it's trying to be, and when it
isn't. I'm not sure I'd like to live in the world portrayed
in Quantum Night, but I certainly found it compelling
to visit. |