Book Review: Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken

Quantum Garden follows up on The Quantum Magician by throwing a new and pressing problem at Bel: the destruction of his own people

Being a Homo quantus, even one that has pulled the biggest con job in history, rescued a fleet, stolen a pair of time gates, reunited with the love of his life, and gotten rich, is not easy. The problem for Belisarius Arjona is that this has made it clear to the powers of the 26th century that the Homo quantus, thought to be a harmless, dead-end experiment, were in fact very dangerous. Dangerous enough to wipe their colony from existence. Luckily for Bel, he has a pair of time gate wormholes. But how to rescue his people and keep it from happening again? Bel is going to have to pull off an even bigger heist this time. A heist in time itself…

This is Quantum Garden, the second novel in Derek Künsken’s Quantum Evolution series, following on The Quantum Magician. I am re-reading this series in audio, narrated by T. Ryder Smith.

For those who haven’t read the first even once: to catch you up, there are a few gene-engineered variants on humanity in this 26th century setting where wormholes have been used to explore and settle nearby solar systems, but two main political polities, the Union and the Congregate, are in a warming cold war. One of the gene-engineered variants of humanity is the Homo quantus, who have been designed and bred to try and “see the future” through a more intimate connection to quantum states. This design has turned out to be not as useful as people thought, and so the couple of thousand Homo quantus peacefully live on an asteroid, doing mathematics and theory and living quietly. Belisarius (or Bel for short) is the wild exception (aside from the aforementioned love of his life, his partner Cassie), and that is why he was recruited for the heist in the first book.

But after the events of the first book, the danger and potential of the Homo quantus is now clear, and in a world where the two interstellar superpowers are in a deadly cold war, the quantus are a threat to be removed from the board. So Bel and Cassie, fresh off their heist, witness the destruction of the asteroid that houses their people, and then resolve to save those people as best as they can: by using the time gates.

And so a story is told. This is a novel with a lot more philosophy of quantum states, history, and grandfather paradoxes than the first novel. It is in this novel that the author really delves into what some of the newest generation of the Quantus project, like Bel and Cassie, can really do, and the consequences of those actions. The observer effect of quantum superposition states and information theory come into play right from the get go. After seeing the asteroid from a far distance blow up, Bel’s immediate reaction is NOT to go in and look for survivors, because that would resolve reality and constrain the possibilities of those actions. Instead, Bel uses the time gates to go and travel in time to warn his people to evacuate before the deadly attack. Bel didn’t see the evacuation because he was too far away to, and thus it COULD occur.

That is not enough, of course (they could just be found and destroyed again), so Bel has to go much further. The quest to find a safe and isolated location for the Homo quantus has Bel having to go cap in hand to the officer whom he double-crossed in the first book, and taking a perilous journey back in time to get the resources he needs in order to put the Homo quantus beyond the easy reach of the rest of humanity.

This launches the book into a nest of ideas and concepts that are the real heart of the book. Bel discovers not only where the time gates that he stole in the first book came from, but the secrets of the intelligent lifeforms that live around it on a desolate colony planet. Bel’s discovery of the vegetable intelligences and their true relationship to the time gates and to quantum reality itself are part of the wonder and discovery (and origin of the title) of the book.

The other half of the meat of this book is a lot of speculation and thought and consideration of grandfather paradoxes and time travel as a concept. We got a bit of that in the beginning with Bel’s rescue of the Homo quantus, but given that an older version of a character sends Bel and his team to this colony planet to eventually meet her younger self (as she in fact remembers that Bel did it), this leads to a whole nest of paradoxes, closed time loops and more. They soon learn that trying to escape messing with history is far harder than they realize, and the consequences of doing so are debated again and again. There is a lot less action than in the first book, and a lot more philosophy.

The novel focuses on Bel and Cassie as our primary characters, and once again Bel has a team. He does once again hire pilot Vincent Stills, a Homo eridanus who has been designed to live in a high-pressure environment. Stills is foul-mouthed and foul-tempered, but he is one of the most memorable secondary characters in the author’s oeuvre, and the narrator brings him to glorious life. And he really is as good a pilot as he thinks he is. Sadly, the explosive expert Marie, a particular favorite of mine from The Quantum Magician, does not make a return this time.

One other thing that is quite refreshing, like in the first novel, and helps the author’s space opera stand out, is that it is not the too-common “America in space” that for so long dominated the genre. The author’s future has the Anglo-Spanish main culture that Bel was created from, but there is also a strong element of French and French culture in his universe (How *that* happened is explored in his later prequel series The House of Styx). So, yes, in case you were curious, Stills can and does swear in English, Spanish *and* French.

The book definitely has a bit of middle-book vibe in some respects, when we cut away from Bel’s point of view to that of his antagonists, the Scarecrow. And even by the end of the novel, it is clear that the simmering conflict is going to blow up in the third book of the series. This is not a placeholder book, but it does have some of the limitations of a middle book, which is possibly why the author went with this bottled time travel narrative. The book does improve on some of the not-fully-realized potential of the first novel; that’s clear on this audio re-read.

This is definitely not the place to start with Künsken’s work. Even if you really were more jazzed by these quantum theories and time travel speculations, jumping in here would remove most of the context to the space opera universe that the author has created. I do appreciate that the author, off the heels of his first novel, did not simply have Bel “pull another con,” and instead has him engage with the consequences of his actions from the first book, while introducing a whole set of complications, both theoretical and practical, to his continued well-being. I applaud the author’s willingness to expand his horizons, and look forward to continuing my re-read of the series.

Highlights:

• Improvement on the first novel, especially exploring the potential of the setting
• Less action, more philosophy
• Middle book in a series.
• Excellent narration by T. Ryder Smith

Reference: Künsken, Derek. Quantum Garden [Rebellion Publishing, 2019].

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

My 2019 review of The Quantum Magician is here. That book was previously reviewed by Adri Joy as well.

Second Opinion: The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken

Derek Künsken’s The Quantum Magician is a highly entertaining far future heist novel with excellent worldbuilding and character voices that make for an entertaining read.

It’s the 25th century and Humanity has spread out to the stars. Thanks to some often highly suspect genetic experiments, Homo sapiens is not the only branch of humanity extant. One branch, the Homo Quantus, has an ability to process information and see things on a quantum level, which makes them fascinated with the search for knowledge and unlocking information. Belisarius, or Bel as he usually is referenced throughout the novel, is atypical for a Homo Quantus. For him, an ivory tower life of research is not suited to him. No, he’d rather be pulling off cons, and he has a whopper of a one involving a fleet, a fantastic space drive, several others of the branches of humanity, and of course a plan within a plan for his heist.

This is the story of Derek Künsken’s The Quantum Magician.

The novel’s strength lies strongly with the world that the author presents. It’s a world very much in the model of novels like the works of Hannu Rajaniemi, there is a high density of new concepts, worlds, polities, future history, technologies and ideas packed in a relatively slim novel. There is a very international feel to humanity in the 25th century that isn’t just “America in space” that a lot of authors  fall into the trap of. Francophone polities feature strongly in the novel, for instance, and there is a multilingual feel to the depicted future that I really appreciated and really liked.

The author also does a great job with the con artist himself, Bel. Making him an atypical, and sometimes labeled as a “failed” Homo Quantus means we get the best of both worlds, especiallty once Bel gets another Homo Quantus on his team. We see what a Homo Quantus should be like, and how Bel stretches as a rope between baseline humans, and the more typical members of his species. He comes across as a mostly very human character, but with his occasional descents into a fugue state, shows just how far along a new evolutionary path that he has gone. This is also true of the other human species we see, the Homo eridanus, who live in cold, pressurized environments, and the Puppets, small bodied humanoids who have been genetically engineered to worship a particular group of humans. Kunsken takes this extremely touchy and prickly idea and looks at it from an ethical point of view in a nuanced and thoughtful way.

The heist itself is best described in general and vague terms,especially the heist within the heist. Bel is approached with being asked for help in moving a fleet of advanced warships through a tightly controlled wormhole. Bel’s payoff for this would be a ship outfitted with the groundbreaking space drive that the fleet itself has. Such a craft would be worth millions, even split with a team. The author gives us a cross section of humanity in the 25th century with Bel’s team: An enthusiastic explosives expert. The aforementioned second Homo Quantus. A sweary Homo eridanus. A Puppet, and a descendant of the humans who created the Puppets (the territory that the fleet must move through is controlled by the Puppets, making them the “inside men” of the operation). An artificial intelligence of a very idiosyncratic sort.

And Bel has a plan within a plan for this gathered team to gain something even more out of the situation. And as you might expect, this being a heist novel, once the heist gets going, things do not always go smooth, and not always falling to Bel’s backup plans. Improvisation and a bit of scrambling to salvage a bad situation is a feature of even the most perfectly executed heist, and the Quantum Magician leverages that for excellent plotting.

I consumed the book in audio format, narrated by T Ryder Smith. I think he did a fantastic job as a narrator. He ably captured the different characters with distinct intonations, cadences and expressions of modulation. In some cases, like Stills, I can’t imagine how I could mentally improve on reading the Homo Eridanus’ dialogue in my mind much better than how Smith as a narrator brings him to life. The other characters, too, really are rewarded by the narrator’s audio work.  The complex jargon and ideas come across well, and I was consistently entertained throughout.

My major criticism of the novel is something that a lot of SF heist novels share and that is the need for a long ramp up before the actual heist can get itself up and running. How the author manages to show us how the team is put together and why we should care about them even as we don’t know much about the other team members takes a very deft touch. In a couple of cases, the author manages to bring us into the character’s world and personality rather quickly, but for a couple of the members of the team, they just don’t quite leap off the page. This does hurt the novel in the second half, as the heist proceeds, since it means there is a bit of unevenness in how I was invested in the various parts. of the team and the scheme.

Overall, however, The Quantum Magician is a promising debut, and it appears to be the first in a series, with The Quantum Garden coming in October. Based on this first novel. I would be happy to read it. I would be happier still to listen to it, should T Ryder Smith provide the narration again in an audio format.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses : +1 for an intriguing and interesting future world. +1 for the goodness of a heist chassis for the SF novel.

Penalties : -1 for a few of the heist members and their subplots being less well imagined and presented than others.

Nerd Coefficient: 7/10. an enjoyable experience, but not without its flaws

Adri's Math: 5/10

***

POSTED BY: Paul Weimer. Ubiquitous in Shadow, but I’m just this guy, you know? @princejvstin.

Reference: Künsken, Derek: The Quantum Magician [Solaris, 2018]

Microreview [Book]: The Quantum Magician by Derek Künsken

The Quantum Magician is a grim but enjoyable heist, though it never quite builds its post-human worldbuilding elements to their full potential.

It's funny that, despite listing "found families" among my favourite tropes, this doesn't often translate into found family's grouchy, backstab-prone cousin, the heist story. It might be the much higher trust deficit and that's usually present in a team put together explicitly to do a single job, or the fact that characters trend towards chaotic neutral and don't tend to smooth out each other's rough edges in the same way. Or, maybe I just don't like the actual heist-y part of a heist, which sort of functions as a reverse mystery: by definition, we know in advance who did it, we're just not sure about the how. It's quite rare for the goal in a heist to be something an audience a priori cares about, so it's down to the author to invest us in some combination of characters, mechanics or worldbuilding so we want to follow our not-heroes through the inevitable failures, double-crosses and eleventh-hour plan revisions to get their job done.

The Quantum Magician goes in hard on many elements of its worldbuilding, putting us in a far future spacefaring society with some recognisable but unusual political powers. Bel's client, Iekanjika, works for the Sub-Saharan Union, a small player in galactic terms, approaching him to move 12 warships through a puppet-controlled wormhole. Bel very quickly realises there's something "off" about these ships, which shouldn't exist in the first place and employ highly advanced technology beyond what most of the major players in the galaxy are using at this point. The first ten percent of the book puts us through some early sleuthing and action scenes which showcase Belasarius' abilities as a homo quantus: a member of a post human species able to enter mentally altered states known as savant - where the individual maintains their identity but has significantly higher data processing capacity, at the expense of interpersonal abilities - and fugue, which suppresses their identity entirely. These different brain states take a great deal of additional energy and there are clear physiological tolls to entering it, with fugue state in particular inducing levels of internal heat which homo quantus are only partially adapted to cope with. Bel, we learn, is a highly unusual Homo Quantus, both in terms of his abilities, which don't function as intended, and because he has left the rest of his people and struck out on his own in the galaxy, turning his back on the knowledge-seeking purpose his species were created for.

This sense of manufactured purpose also plays a part in the stories of the other two post human species introduced in The Quantum Magician. There's homo eridanus, a species adapted to live in a high pressure underwater environment after a terraforming accident, but whose racial psyche involves a lot of deep self-deprecation and disgust for their own position. And then there's homo pupa, known as "Puppets", who have a rather larger role to play in the book. Half the size of most baseline humans and genetically engineered to be perfectly servile to another race, homo pupa have channelled that biologically motivated religious awe into a culture which has murdered or enslaved their former owners and now maintains a deeply disturbing relationship to freedom, bondage and torture in general. The sections of the book involving the Puppets - and there are many, as they control the territory Bel is trying to heist is way through - were by far my least favourite elements of the book, veering quickly into gratuitous torture and gore with little narrative payoff. It doesn't help that two of the least compelling characters in the heist team get assigned to this subplot, meaning I was already starting from a position of indifference when it came to all the grim escapades in this plot thread.

As you might expect, all three post-human species are represented in Bel's heist team, alongside an AI which believes it is the reincarnation of Saint Matthew (to the complete despair of the bank which programmed it), and a couple of baseline humans. Despite having fairly interesting backstories by virtue of the unconventional worldbuilding, the personalities here were pretty classic for the genre: there's the leader, the war-weary veteran on his last job, the amiable arsonist, the unemotional, technical one, the highly-strung one, the naive one who is doing it for love, the sweary one... you get the idea.

Kunsken also builds a very dude-heavy team, made more frustrating by the fact that 50% of the team's women are Bel's love interest (note: he only has one love interest); despite having multiple post-humans and an AI, there is also no non-binary representation. Once again, I have to own my personal biases here: having such a huge majority of men inevitably limits my interest in the characters as a whole. In addition, having so many characters with biologically defined quirks ironically makes it harder for an author to sell them on their personality quirks, and if you don't find yourself intrinsically invested in the tragic post-human condition in general, there's not much going on at the character level that's going to improve your connection. The exception, for me, was Stills the homo eridanus, whose contributions to the team come with a boatload of swearing and self-loathing and some classic but charming bonding with Marie, the amiable but morally adrift demolitions expert. I might consider a sequel if it were just Stills and Marie flying a dual pressure ship while swearing at each other and blowing things up, like some kind of literary version of the FTL video game? That might be a long shot though.

There's a lot going on in The Quantum Magician, from individual character arcs of varying compexity to geopolitics to thematic elements about purpose and religious observances of such. Ultimately, none of the elements really rise above "solid": there are things in The Quantum Magician because they are necessary to set up the conditions for a heist, and other things that exist as background in a world that's bigger than the plot of just one heist, and there's just enough of both of those that everything basically works. I missed all those hard-to-define touches that make a secondary world "pop", and despite all the creativity in the mechanics of the worldbuilding, it all fell a bit flat for me.

And so, alas, The Quantum Magician didn't do much to overturn my scepticism about heists. Fans of the genre will likely find an readable adventure here, and there's some interesting ideas about the future of the human race and what we might evolve ourselves into, even if these possibilities are inevitably taken towards the grimmest outcomes possible by characters it's not easy to care about. If the premise appeals, and you don't mind reading yet another story about dudes, don't let me stop you. As for me, I'm going to go back to my found family space stories and keep waiting for the daring heist adventure that changes my mind.

The Math

Baseline Assessment: 6/10

Bonuses: +1 The sweary one and the amiable arsonist are the actual greatest

Penalties: -1 Of all the intriguing places you could have gone with this post-baseline human society, you had to set it on that planet? -1 Outside the sweary one and the arsonist, characters are hard to connect with

Nerd Coefficient: 5/10 "problematic, but has redeeming qualities"

POSTED BY: Adri is a semi-aquatic migratory mammal most often found in the UK. She has many opinions about SFF books, and is also partial to gaming, baking, interacting with dogs, and Asian-style karaoke. Find her on Twitter at @adrijjy.

Reference: Künsken, Derek. The Quantum Magician [Solaris, 2018]