REVIEW: Quantum Night by Robert J. Sawyer

So I mentioned reading it yesterday, but just finished so I thought I’d share my review as posted on GoodReads. They have a FABULOUS new (well, teehee, new to me!) feature – they can auto-create a blog post for me out of my GR reviews. This is great news because it means I won’t forget to move my reviews onto here! They aren’t usually the lengthy things that I used to write as blog posts, but at least it’s some thoughts on what I read. They’ll start auto-creating with the next book – I didn’t know it was available until after I started this post. But hopefully it’ll mean more coming from me on a regular basis… Two caveats: first, I don’t do plot reviews typically – to me, a review isn’t a summary or book report, it’s what I liked or didn’t and why. So if you’re looking for a plot summary, I’m not your best source – although if you have direct plot questions, I’m happy to try to answer them if you leave a comment. And second, I don’t review everything I read and I sometimes comment on things I don’t read, because (a) I like knowing what people didn’t like as well as what they did and (b) I forget what books I’ve started and discarded, teehee, so need notes to remind myself! Happy reading…

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Quantum Night
by Robert J. Sawyer

NB: There’s been some controversy over this one in the reviews/comments I’ve seen, but here are my two cents.

I don’t know that Quantum Nightis so much a book you “like” – there’s zero sense of “gee, cool, I feel great after reading that, how pleasant that story was!” – so much as a book you find thought provoking and conversational or not. It was the most violent and disturbing of his that I’ve read so far, although given subject matter that’s de rigeur I guess. But still, I do always enjoy his writing style and the way he makes scientific concepts more accessible – even if, as with this one, I find his conclusions disconcerting and uncomfortable… This confirmed for me that he’s an excellent storyteller though, because I did find it hard to put down even when I was uncomfortable. He finds ways to share his theories of what the world is vs. what it could be through fiction, and while I’m always aware of what he’s doing and what his overall sociopolitical philosophy is, whether I agree with it or not, I always find myself thinking about things a bit more after reading him – and I still always manage to get lost in the story. To my mind, that’s an impressive accomplishment for any author…

Incidentally, if you like Robert J. Sawyer or thoughtful sci-fi, a few of my other favorites of his are reviewed here.