Another Review at MyShelf.Com

Quantum Night
Robert J. Sawyer

Ace Books
March 1, 2016 / ISBN 9780425256831
Fantasy

Reviewed by Jan Fields

 

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.

Reviewer Janis Fields is the author of over two dozen books for children and adults including Threads of Deceit, Ghost Light Burning, Wellspring of Magic, and Emerald Dragon.
Reviewed 2016
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