[a:Robert J. Sawyer|25883|Robert J. Sawyer|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1224975910p2/25883.jpg] consistently amazes me by the strong science he weaves into his enthralling stories. The science never gets in the way of the characters or the plot, but is always essential to the plot. Quantum Night is like that, in spades.

Without committing any spoilers, I can tell you that there are aspects of this story that feel way too real in this worrisome election year. ( )

I remember was Sawyer was a good writer - unfortunately, now he seems to mostly lecture about his own philosophy, loosely disguised as fiction. ( )

Well I finished it in a couple days because it was an easy read, like all Sawyer. None of the characters really stood out to me as being interesting or different...they were all kind of bland. I do love reading stuff set in Canada, and though Sawyer really lays his political biases on super-thick, I agree with them so it was all good. I liked the ideas, but this book seemed more like a vehicle for the ideas than an actual narrative. There was a lot of explaining, and some stuff happened, and then it ended, and I wasn't really sure why a lot of it happened. Like, why did Jim have a son with Down's Syndrome? Was it just to prove that he really "walked the walk" when it comes to utilitarianism? He didn't interact with son for the whole book. Also the p-zeds are supposed to be indistinguishable from Q3 people but, aside from a few loved ones, a lot of the people that main characters assumed to be p-zeds acted like sheep. And the moment that Jim started to think that his sister was a p-zed, she was joining in with a violent mob, and Jim was surprised that she would do such a thing...presumably because she's not shown that kind of inclination before, so it seems like she's actually acting different from normal which doesn't make her indistinguishable right? The stuff about psychopathy was interesting but I didn't feel like it really added anything. In the end it did feel like Sawyer was trying to explain the terrible things in the world and for that he needed psychopaths and followers so he wrote a story that could include them both. But again, the ideas were great and I found myself thinking about the nature of consciousness after I put the book down, and it was quite engrossing! ( )

Really interesting book. I loved the philosophical discussions in the book, and if the entire book is treated like a thought-experiment, then it's fantastic.

I fear, though, some may miss the point. RJS does a great job of introducing new philosophical dilemmas wrapped in a narrative. This book is no different. Doesn't quite have the character development of a character novel, but achieves its goal of discussing what makes us human. ( )

Robert J. Sawyer’s Quantum Night


Sawyer wrote this novel in an overly political way while through in some smattering of science and pseudo-psychiatric theater to create a simple world where people are one of three categories. Interesting premise, but since people are quite complex you can’t really categorize them that way. That’s one problem with the psychiatric mind is that it is more interested in labeling rather than curing the problems of the mind.

But I digress.

Jim searches for his missing memories and just as in an old pulp fiction novel he finds those six months and is shocked by what he has done.

Solution: Change the course of humanity upward to avoid World War III. Girlfriend only cares about her daughter becoming a philosophical zombie (lots of these terms peppered throughout the book) and so screw humanity, let me save my daughter!

Philosophical conundrums abound in this book. Should we save all of humanity for the sake of one? Or should we sacrifice the one for the common good, even if you become a real jerk in the process?

I’m sure Quantum Physics can be used for better things that screwing with the minds of the 7 billion peoples of Earth.

Sawyer tends to politicize the whole thing – Putin, a US President with expansion ambition annexing Canada, a near start to World War III and three people who use a billion dollar device to change the course of humanity at the cost of a life. Sounds too good to be true.

It is.

Sawyer’s last two novels have not be on par with his earlier novels, and I’m not sure why. WWW Trilogy was cool. Loved Fast Forward and others.

3 stars.


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