The Subtle Art of Folding Space

by John Chu, Katharine Chin (Narrator)

The Subtle Art of Folding Space, is the exhilarating debut science fiction novel from Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author John Chu channels unhinged physics, generational trauma, and the comfort of really good dim sum. This isn't your usual jaunt through quantum physics.

Most Ancipated Books of 2026—Esquire
Best New Science Fiction of 2026— New Scientist
Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books to Look Forward To In 2026—Literary Hub
Most Anticipated Sci-Fi and Fantasy Books of 2026—Book Riot

Ellie’s universe—and this one—is falling apart. Her ailing mother is in a coma; her sister, Chris, accuses her of being insufficiently Chinese between assassination attempts; and a shadowy cabal of engineers is trying to hijack the skunkworks, the machinery that keeps the physics of each universe working the way it’s supposed to.

Daniel, Ellie's cousin, has found an illicit device in the skunkworks—one that keeps Ellie's comatose mother alive while also creating destabilizing bugs in the physics of this universe. It's not a good day.

If she can confront her mother’s legacy and overcome her family’s generational trauma, she just might find a way to preserve the skunkworks and reconcile with her sister…but digging into her family’s past is thornier than it seems, and the secrets she uncovers will force Ellie to choose between her family and the universe itself.

A Macmillan Audio production from Tor Books

Genres: Science Fiction, Fiction, Fantasy, Adult, Audiobook, Science Fiction Fantasy, Adult Fiction

8 pages, Audible Audio

Expected publication April 7, 2026

About the author

John Chu is a microprocessor architect by day, a writer by night. His fiction has appeared or is forthcoming at Boston Review, Bloody Fabulous, Asimov's Science Fiction, Apex Magazine and Tor.com. His story "The Water That Falls on You from Nowhere" won the 2014 Hugo Award for Best Short Story.

Reviews

[John Wiswell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not enough SciFi contends with how hard people work to keep everything from falling out of the sky. Chu steps up to that challenge with a spirited exploration 'behind the scenes' of how fragile our world is (and the maintenance it requires). It bends physics and genres alike. It's a book we need right now. I know people are going to be giddy when they crack this one open.

I received a free copy of this book from the publisher.

[Ricarda]

I'm not that much of an avid scifi reader, but OMG that cover. I love it.

[Rachel (TheShadesofOrange) · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 Stars
I make a policy to read and review as many new science fiction releases as possible each year. So naturally I was excited to pick this up, especially with such a delicious cover.

Unfortunately I found this one much weaker than I hoped. The story just felt very… silly which is not my personal preference. I understand that this one was intended to be a fun science fiction novel but the tone just didn't work for me. I found the characters a bit over the top and not particularly realistic.

I wanted to love this one but unfortunately it just didn't work for me as much as I wanted. There were some interesting ideas that I would love to see explored in a different narrative.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

[Chantaal]

Absolutely gutted that this is a DNF for me at about 24%. I had this pretty high up on my 2026 anticipated list, mainly because I've really enjoyed Chu's shorter work.

I think this DNF comes from a combination of two things: the wildly inventive but also brain hurting physics of the world building, and the family dysfunction and trauma. Mainly that second part. I can live with world building that my brain doesn't quite understand, but the relationship between the main character and their sibling was just...too much for me to handle emotionally. Way, way too much.

This book absolutely has its audience and it fully deserves to reach that audience. This one didn't work for me, but John Chu's writing is so strong that I will absolutely checking out whatever he writes next.

Many thanks to NetGalley and Tor Books for the eARC. The Subtle Art of Folding Space will be released on April 7th, 2026.

[Kat · Rating 4 out of 5]

I received a free copy from Tor Books via Netgalley in exchange for a fair review. Release date April 7th, 2026.

I was struck by this book's gorgeous cover, as well as the crunchy premise that invites comparisons to Everything Everywhere All At Once. In The Subtle Art of Folding Space, Ellie is dragged back into the world of the maintainers that fix the plumbing of the multiverse by her abusive sister as her mother is dying. With the help of her enigmatic cousin Daniel, Ellie is swept into an investigation into the maintainers' many secretive factions, which threatens the stability of the multiverse.

This book is set in a magical realism flavored world where ordinary people know about the skunkworks as an obscure factoid, but people rarely bother to learn if their parents weren't already maintainers. Like attending Chinese school to learn Mandarin as a schoolchild when neither of your parents speak it. The fact that nobody bothers to learn these skills when it literally allows its practitioners to teleport stretches the bounds of belief a bit. But it allows Chu to casually slide the most bonkers bits of worldbuilding into the plot completely deadpan, which I adored. Particularly in the writing of Cousin Daniel, who's been saturated in the eccentric world of the skunkworks for longer than Ellie. Daniel is furiously and somewhat unsuccessfully Clark Kenting it, while hiding a deep streak of ruthless competence and an outrageously eclectic skill set which manifests at convenient times. He's very much the sort of character Diana Wynn Jones would write.

While the frenetic complexity of the worldbuilding is fun, the heart of The Subtle Art of Folding Space is about abuse. I'd say Ellie's much older sister Chris and her constant assassination attempts were comically villainous, if it wasn't for how throughly she has Ellie sucked into it. My personal definition of abuse is that it's when someone you love has you convinced that you deserve to be hurt. Chris has, very painfully, convinced not only Ellie but also their entire social and familial circle that Ellie is the disreputable black sheep and Chris the golden child. This extends from strongly implying that Ellie abandoned their dying mother to convincing their entire family that Ellie isn't fluent in Mandarin. Meanwhile, Ellie vainly hopes that she can fix their relationship if she can just be nice enough to Chris. It's a bit painful to watch her take the very tentative first step towards saying screw Confucius and cutting her sister off over the course of the book.

An absolutely effervescent gem of worldbuilding where the universe is run by pipes that go gloop gloop and quantum physics is a bug fix installed last century, shot through with a deeply felt and very messy family drama that makes the arcane question of saving the world much more immediate. The book ends with obvious hooks for a sequel, and I'm very excited to see where Chu takes this series next. Recommended.

[James · Rating 4 out of 5]

WARNING: This book will make you hungry, and also maybe a little confused but mostly hungry!

Ellie is a maintainer, responsible for preserving the delicate infrastructure that enforces the rules of her universe. Unfortunately, rival forces are at work, her mother is dying, and her sister is...a complicated individual. When her cousin Daniel finds a particularly unusual discrepancy, Ellie's issues with her family take on a new danger, and all that's at stake is the structure of the universe.

It's always been a little weird to me how often fiction glorifies sibling relationships, particularly between sisters, so I find myself drawn to the few books that feature siblings at their most ruthless (Gifted & Talented by Olivie Blake comes to mind). Chris being super messed up makes their dynamic more interesting, because yes Chris is the person who knows Ellie best but that also enables her to hurt Ellie the worst. Daniel, Belt, and Adhi were all delightful, super colorful characters as well. It's basically impossible to review to book without specifically shouting out the world-building, most of which definitely went over my head but it's just gorgeous and really unique feeling.

I'm all for books just boldly doing something wildly different, but it's a big plus that this book happens to also be really good and succeeds in what it's doing (though what exactly that is, I couldn't tell you)!

Thank you to John Chu and Tor Books for this ARC in exchange for my full, honest review!

Happy reading!

Pre-review: Another gift from Tor, you guys are the loml <3333

[har [busy.]]

got the audiobook arc for this gorgeous book so i'm sat!

[AltLovesBooks · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is more like a 3.5 rounded up for the fun I had with it. This is a messy book though, so please know that before diving in sight unseen. My husband asked me what this book was about when we were standing in line for something, so I took a crack at summarizing it for him. Here's my best attempt:

So, there's an underlying system behind everything called the Skunkworks. And when I mean everything, I mean really everything, for this universe. It also connects with other universes, to further complicate things. Ellie is one of the people tasked with keeping the Skunkworks going, along with her cousin Daniel. Ellie's mother is dying though, and Daniel's keen sense of the Skunkworks obligates him to show Ellie that a strange setup was created to keep her mother alive (barely, in pain). This setup is also impacting the Skunkworks in other, less obvious ways, creating bugs and glitches in the system that manifest themselves as issues with universal physics. Ellie chooses to dismantle this system, alienating her from her sister Chris, her family, and other maintainers of the Skunkworks in the process. Ellie wants to make things right with Daniel's help, but it involves digging around to discover who set up the system in the first place and uncovering uncomfortable family truths in the process.

So, right off the bat, I want to say that I had a lot of fun with this book. Ellie and Daniel are great together (as cousins, weirdos), and their interplay made up most of my enjoyment of this book. Alongside their antics is the rest of the book though, and I had problems with it. I couldn't figure out if I'm too dumb for whatever science the author was presenting here, or if that's what the author was counting on so I wouldn't ask too many questions. Because there's a lot of at least science-adjacent terminology and situations here, and I came out the other side not entirely sure if I grasped what I had just read.

I also found Ellie and Chris's relationship problematic at best, but maybe that was the point. Ellie's blinders regarding Chris are astronomically large, and I was frustrated at several points of the book where Daniel and others would try and get her to confront the fact that Chris was not a good person, and Ellie would refuse. By the end of the book I think a resolution was supposed to happen, but even that felt unfinished, leaving me unsatisfied with things as they stood.

But in spite of the glaring flaws above, I really did enjoy reading this book. I'm not sure I can point to why, but I did. There's a lot of familial guilt to unpack here, and Daniel makes a good foil to Ellie, and I enjoyed them together.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eCopy in exchange for an honest review.

[Chrissie Whitley · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars

The Subtle Art of Folding Space is one of those big-idea sci-fi novels that feels both wildly imaginative and slightly unruly at the same time.

If you’re the kind of reader who can let complex fictional science and multiverse mechanics wash over you without needing to fully diagram them, this could be a really fun ride. If you need the physics to lock cleanly into place in your mind, you may find yourself fighting the current.

The premise is genuinely compelling — fractured universes, a shadowy engineering cabal, a device that keeps a comatose mother alive while destabilizing reality itself. But beneath the unhinged physics is a much more grounded story about grief, generational trauma, cultural identity, sibling strain, sacrifice, and the complicated inheritance of family. Those emotional undercurrents are where the novel feels most confident.

At times, though, the execution felt chaotic and imbalanced. The vision is there — ambitious, multi-faceted, thoughtful — but the structure could have used tightening. Some of the jagged corners might have benefited from a steadier editorial hand, smoothing the pacing and clarifying the mechanics so the emotional stakes could shine more consistently.

Messy? Yes. But also earnest and imaginative. I didn’t love it, but I’m glad I read it — and I’m curious to see what Chu does next.

I received this book for free from the publisher via NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This affected neither my opinion of the book nor the content of my review.

[Amy (amyrose.reads) · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you so much to the Macmillan Early Listeners Program for this review ALC!

Typically, I’m not a sci-fi person, but this cover drew me in! I mean, hello, it is GORGEOUS!

This was an interesting read, especially with all of the talks of what may be holding our universe together. Ellie seems like a character who has an intimate knowledge of both the physics studied and the physics she understands in her role maintaining everything behind the scenes. I enjoyed those elements a lot, even though they absolutely took a little bit more brain power on my part to understand.

It was also nice to see all of the relationships between characters. Granted, I was consistently feeling like Ellie’s relationship with her sister was a bit naive. Like she continued to want a relationship with an abuser, which does feel like realism. One element of relationships that I didn’t necessarily love was how her descriptions of her cousin, Daniel, always felt like there was a little bit of a sexual undertone to them. Like oh he’s so strong and la la la la la. That was just a little confusing for me.

I think the narrator did a great job of representing all of the characters in clear ways. I really appreciated that as a listener.

This book will absolutely push me to try out some more sci-fi soon!

[Katie (Katieeatsbooks) · Rating 3 out of 5]

03/16/2026-03/20/2026

Thank you Tor for the gifted physical proof of “The Subtle Art of Folding Space” by John Chu

⭐️⭐️⭐️💫
(Coming 04/07/2026)

I felt really confused in the first few chapters. When they say quantum physics are amiss they mean it. You're brought through both the construction, deconstruction and the process of bug work in the steamworks of this universe. 🧪

You are taken through the process of discovering what happened to Ellie's mother, why Daniel creates food when he digs into the process of finding bugs, why Chris keeps trying to off her sister and keep their mom in a channeled stasis, and who has created a potential bug/channel in the steamworks and why.

Quantum Physics is broken down over and over, simplified and used as a way to move both a person and the surroundings around them. ⚙️

DO READ IF YOU LOVE:
- Science (Sci-Fi)
- Physics (especially quantum physics)
- Generational Trauma (but also do you love it or just relate to it??)
- Phenomenal Dim Sum (and if you don't wtf??)
- Wild Ride fast paced novellas

[Cara Lynn · Rating 3 out of 5]

First of all I LOVE this cover!!

This is certainly a strange book. It is a blend of sci-fi and magical realism that focuses on grief, family, physics, coming to terms with abusive relationships, and the power of food to bring people together. Ellie's feeling of grief and the desire for connection and belonging felt almost tangible, and that was the part of the book I connected with the most. The mouth-watering descriptions of food also made me feel like I was in the middle of the scene myself. Over the last few years, my foodie friend has made me see how much food can be a point of connection and I definitely saw that in this novel as well. The descriptions of Skunkworks were also fascinating, even if I felt a bit confused by the physics of it all at some points...
My main criticism of the book is that I didn't love the writing style and it felt rather dry. I also felt at some points that the plot was a bit all over the place, but I still really enjoyed the plot overall.

In terms of the audiobook specifically, I really enjoyed the narration. (In the interest of transparency, I should probably note that I listened to the book on 2x speed.)

Thank you to NetGalley for sending me this audiobook in exchange for an honest review. All options stated are my own.

[Matthew Newport · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you NetGalley and Tor Books for sending me a free copy for review.

The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu is a science fiction adventure featuring a nasty sibling rivalry and the best descriptions of food I’ve read this year.

The skunkworks are a system of data and pipes that maintain the physics of every possible universe. Ellie and her are trained to keep the skunkworks operating correctly. Daniel, Ellie’s cousin, discovers a major inconsistency in the skunkworks. They work together to repair the irregularity that may be the work of covert skunkworks engineers. At the same time Ellie is dealing with her mom being in a coma and the fractured relationship with her sister Chris.

The character work in Chu’s story is strong. Ellie’s sister Chris is unhinged. The sisters’ relationship is toxic and complex. My favorite scenes in the novel feature both of them. The complex family dynamics blended with a fantastical adventure reminds me of the fantastic film “Everything Everywhere All at Once”.

Chu includes many mouth-watering descriptions of Chinese food. This is easily the best food writing I’ve come across this year. Food plays a major role in Daniel’s verifying work in the skunkworks. The way Daniel’s culture merges with his work is charming.

I did struggle to follow the mechanics of the skunkworks. The science fiction portion of the book was hard to follow and at times it felt like the skunkworks plot didn’t connect to the strong themes of the story.

[Julie • bujo.books · Rating 1 out of 5]

Thank you so much to Netgalley and the publisher, Tor, for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review! Release date April 7th, 2026.

Ellie's family all work on the skunkworks, the thing that creates the physics for the universe. Her mother, a famous builder of the skunkworks, recently passed away after a long time in a coma. She was in that coma because of some fix someone put in the skunkworks, which Ellie found and removed. Now there's something wrong with the physics of the universe; Ellie and her cousin will have to try to figure out what's wrong with it while dodging 4ssassination attempts from Ellie's sister.

This was one of my most anticipated releases of the year - beautiful cover, fantastic synopsis, award-winning author. Unfortunately, this is likely to be one of my least favorite books of the year. I haven't DNFed a book in over 2 years. Last year, after I read one of my least favorite books of all time and didn't DNF it, I promised myself I would start DNFing. I would've to this, were it not for review and it being on my phone, meaning I could read it without eating into my normal reading. If I had picked this up at the library, I would've put it back on the shelf after the first page.

I'd like to start out with the fact that the synopsis from the publisher is WRONG. It's flat out incorrect. It says that Ellie's mother IS in a coma, that a wrench in the skunkworks is KEEPING her alive. That is incorrect. Ellie has already removed the device in the skunkworks BEFORE THE BOOK BEGINS and her mother is ALREADY DEAD. The thing I was excited about in this book was her having to choose the universe over her mom and deal with her complicated legacy. In reality, Ellie is mostly just going from skunkworks worker to worker with her cousin trying to figure out who put the thing there. The book has very little to do with the mom at all. I'm disappointed that the team here got the synopsis and focus of the book so wrong because it led me to believe this would be something I would like.

This book was, frankly, nonsense to me. I read the whole thing and it made zero sense. I've seen some people say that it was too physics-y, and as a person with an engineering degree who took extra physics for fun, I'll tell you that the confusion of this book has nothing to do with the "science". Other than mentioning quantum mechanics and quarks abstractly, this has no science to it. That's not the complaint: the complaint is that the book does not explain what the world is even remotely. There is next to no explanation as to what these characters do in the skunkworks, and figuring out who broke it is most of the plot, so the "investigation" makes no sense. The characters have different magical powers that are never explained and are introduced apropos of nothing. Suddenly, the main character can summon fire in her hands - why? Is that normal? A lot of the plot of this book is her sister trying to kill her, as she has tried for years, now with car bombs. What is the situation in this world that this seems to be semi-normal? Why are there like four car bombs throughout the book, why doesn't she try other ways? How does she know where the main character is regardless of what car she's in? How can David make random schematics of bombs they haven't seen appear in the air? How are they disarming them? Why do I have to read this same scene like five times? Why are there no other characters that we see make big hyperbolistic actions like this? The fact that nothing in this book is explained makes it so that plot and stakes mean nothing. You don't understand the problem, let alone the solution or the steps they take to get there or the forces we basically never see that we are up against. It's massively ironic that a book that makes sure you get a paragraph-long description of what a table looks like (this happens with mulitiple tables) neglects to explain an iota of the world.

Otherwise, Ellie is a character with very little personality. David is very strangely the focus of this, and the way he keeps getting described as super buff and hot is weird considering its from his cousin's point of view. I thought the dialogue felt really stilted. I was looking forward to how this was going to address the complicated relationship Ellie had with her mother, but that was basically absent from the book. There's a couple of nods to it, but it's mostly talking about the abuse her sister heaps on her. This wouldn't be bad if it wasn't for the car bomb of it all - yet again, that part makes no sense. We also only see her in two scenes, which is weird.

What did I like about this book? The descriptions of food were nice, although they happened a lot at the beginning of the book and nothing in the back half. There was one scene, the first time we see Ellie and Chris together, that was a good drama in between a gaslightee and gaslighter. That's it.

Overall, this book made didn't make sense to me at any point. This author is known for short stories, and must not be used to having to actually explain the story, which was sorely needed. Really questioning what the editing team was doing here.

[Michael S · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Subtle Art of Folding is, at its heart, a fun character story.

Note: My review is based on the audiobook ARC/ALC, so please excuse any character names that may be spelled incorrectly.

Meet Ellie, a sweetheart of an engineer. Ellie has the spunk and competence of Constance Verity, and the ability to understand other people's true nature of a potato. Don't you worry, Ellie, you can change them! She will use the power of delusion to make things better.

Ellie's main source of drama, outside the big conspiracies and plots in the story, which are surprisingly good, is the heaping pile of garbage that is her sister, Chris. This sister would make a great personal assistant at a large company, given her constant scheming and backstabbing.

Alongside Ellie is her mountain-of-a-cousin, Daniel, who is as brilliant as he is intimidating. And then Daniel's boyfriend, who pops in as the voice of reason.

The multiverse aspect changes from unexplained science (e.g., fantasy) to science through the book. Instead of front-loading the system, the author sprinkles details in. Right up until the end, a piece that I had been pondering got explained. At first, I suspected we had hand-wavium going on, where the theoretical science is waved away like magic. But, in this book's defense, much more was explained as it went along.

The book has a solid amount of plotting to keep an epic fantasy lover engaged, with enough time travel/multiverse elements to draw in many more readers.

An enjoyable read.

4 stars. Was it perfect? No. Was it worth reading? Absolutely.

Many thanks to Macmillan Audio and NetGalley for providing an audio ARC of The Subtle Art of Folding Space in exchange for a fair and honest review.

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

NetGalley provided me early access to the audiobook, which I was excited to try based on the premise and cover. The narration was good, supported by rich character descriptions that brought each person to life — some more successfully than others. From the timbre of a character’s voice to the drape of their clothes, the physical descriptions were vivid, yet little was offered little in the way of backstory to provide context for their behavior or circumstances.

The author’s ability to paint a scene is undeniable: the rooms, clothes, the flavors of each dish are all vividly drawn — but this stands in contrast to the lack of effort applied to the mechanics of this world. Where many sci-fi authors clearly research their science subject to lend plausibility to their worlds, this book felt like the opposite — no real attempt to earn the reader’s buy-in. The family drama reads like Big Little Lies: overwritten and overwrought, yet never quite justifying the intensity. In this case, focused on murder games and the inter-dimensional physics maintained or molested by a group of otherwise ordinary folks who date and brunch like the rest of us.

Ultimately, this book didn’t work for me. It has so much potential, but the execution felt clumsy. Perhaps others will have fewer hangups.

[unstable.books · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Subtle Art of Folding Space is a wildly inventive novel that bends both physics and emotion into something both intimate and strange. On the surface, its a story about quite literally folding space (not outer space but the spaces around us) and theoretical possibility, but beneath that, it is about trauma, culture, and the ugly nature of family dysfunction. Chu effortlessly balances the cerebral with the deeply human. The science is playful and also chaotic, but never overshadows the emotional core. Instead, it enhances it, turning abstract concepts into metaphors for grief, family, and identity. The result is a narrative that feels as grounded as it is expansive. At times a bit unhinged and nonlinear, the novel trusts the reader to follow. And what you will find a story that is gut-wrenching and mind-bending, proving that even in a universe that can be folded, some things remain beautifully and stubbornly constant. Thank you TOR for sending me aa gifted advance copy. You can pick this up when it hits bookstores April 07, 2026!

[♡Lala · Rating 2 out of 5]

•𝐀𝐋𝐂 𝐑𝐞𝐯𝐢𝐞𝘄•


[The Subtle Art of Folding Space]
🔥 Release Date: April 7th, 2026 🔥
Thanks to Macmillan Audio for the advanced copy!

The multiverse, skunkworks, and universe folding science are clever, and the absurd moments mostly work.

That said, I found myself zoning out. Even with all the ideas flying around, it felt slow, and a few parts were a little confusing. I really wanted to love it, but I was mostly just trying to keep up.

Katharine Chin’s narration is a saving grace. She brings every character to life and makes even the messy sections easier to follow.

Chaotic and creative, but ultimately more frustrating than fun for me.

[Katrina Cross · Rating 5 out of 5]

4.75/5 stars

I'd like to thank NetGalley for the Audio ARC.

I love this story so much. The concept itself was so imaginative, the characters real and relatable and the plot dynamic. I was invested immediately and enjoyed every minute. It presented us with a fascinating world with complex interpersonal relationships and amazing writing. What's there not to love? Oh, and the narration was magnificent. Overall, this has been one of my favourite ARCs to date and I'm excited to get myself a copy.

Please give this a go for a short fun listen.

[Peter Tillman]

Jo Walton gives this TBP April 2026 book pretty high marks here. I've liked his shorts along these lines, so I'll plan to read this one when the library gets a copy, about a year from now.
Her review is at https://reactormag.com/jo-waltons-rea...

[Vanessa · Rating 4 out of 5]

this was so good. while I didn't like the writing style (it was a little dry), the concept was so good. I loved the idea of people who can travel to alternative dimensions and repairing the universe while also navigating family dynamics. and that's the heart of this story. it's sacrifices and grief and learning to let go. *3.5

[⋆˙⟡ mirela ⋆˙⟡ · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars.

Thank you to NetGalley for this eARC!

I’ll be honest, parts of this book were difficult for me to read. The writing was dry & some of the world building was difficult for me to understand. I was also having a hard time with the POV but once I finally adjusted, I started to enjoy the story. I thought the relationship between Ellie & Chris was very realistic, & the author did a good job showcasing what it’s like to care for an ailing parent. I felt myself relating to Ellie & how she felt desperate to help to take some of the weight off her sister’s shoulders. I also really liked Daniel & the brotherly role he played for Ellie.

[Althea ☾]

science fiction on unhinged physics and generational trauma… yes

[Cfabrication · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thank you, NetGalley and Macmillan Audio for providing an advanced listening copy of this audiobook.

Narration: 4.5 out of 5
Characters: 3.5 out of 5
Plot: 3 out of 5 (very convoluted)
World building: 3 out of 5
That averages 3.5

As you can see from my ratings, my feelings are mixed. If I had to make a one sentence blurb, I think it might be “would you sacrifice the world to maintain the illusion that your sister loves you?”

The story opens with Ellie, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, on her way to Washington, DC where her mother is ill, in the oppressive care of Ellie’s older sister Chris. The relationship between Ellie and Chris is burdened by apparent dislike on Chris’s part and hope on Ellie’s. Ellie’s mother is from Taiwan and filial piety plays a very big part in Ellie’s self-recriminations. The book is quite short - 7 hours, 24 minutes or 240 pages.

Ellie, her mother Vera, her sister and her cousin Daniel are all part of a group that maintains the physical laws of the universe. There are new problems that Ellie and Daniel are asked to find and fix. That quest drives the action of the novel.

I love the idea of this world. The idea that there are people who are responsible for maintaining the integrity of physical laws and the idea that each universe contains the controls (the Skunkworks) for the next embedded universe are intriguing.

But, setting this complex responsibility within a dysfunctional sibling relationship doesn’t quite work for me, mostly because I kept wanting to shake Ellie and ask her what in heaven’s name is she expecting will change?

The specifics of what the various cadres of Architects, Builders, Maintainers, Verifiers, Archivists, and Isolationists are sort of described; Ellie shoots flames from her fingers, Daniel creates models of physical laws, etc. But, I kept feeling as I did in my college chemistry and calculus classes: I’m reading a textbook with my eyes closed. It ought to be comprehensible, but it isn’t.

The story is told in the present tense. Usually, when I listen to a book in present tense, I become annoyed (this is a personal issue, I like the comfort of an omniscient narrator recounting a story that is complete), but here, it worked. At any given moment, we only know what Ellie has been told or has discovered for herself. This puts a lot onto her shoulders to explain all the workings with minimal exposition so the forward motion doesn’t bog down. For the most part, I think this is achieved, with the caveat that the complexity might as well just be magic and handwaving.

Avoiding spoilers, I think the conflicts between Ellie and her sister Chris and between Chris and Daniel (a cousin who lived with their family growing up) are a bit thin blooded. Chris has justifications she tells Ellie, which we hear, over and over and over, but they are pretty one note, without a lot of psychological depth or insight into either's character. Daniel just doesn’t like or trust Chris. It’s reasonable and explained. But Ellie keeps circling the ideal of siblings and how they should act.

So, on one hand, we have a family drama that could be more complex in articulation and on the other, we have a world and abilities that are almost too complex to be understood, until we must just say, "Oh, they can do this."

The book ends at the end of a single weekend with Ellie back in the same station in Cambridge where it opened.

I have a few minor quibbles. I don’t have a very good sense of the physicality of the characters, except that Daniel is large (but what does that mean?) Is he 7'5"? Does he weigh 400 lbs? Or is he large because Ellie is 4'9"? We know she’s short, but not how short. It’s only important because his size and mountain-like quality is a recurring description. I didn’t have much sense of where they are during the weekend, but I’m thinking might have reinforced the between realities aspects of what they are doing. “The Skunkworks” is a real place, although not the control room of the universe. To quote Wikipedia, “Skunk Works is an official pseudonym for Lockheed Martin's Advanced Development Programs, the company's tactical research and development arm.” It is responsible for problem-solving and the engineering of complex ideas, dating to the founding of Lockheed in the 1930s. Great co-opting of a name and concept.

The narration, by Katharine Chin, is very good. The character voices are clearly delineated, not just by pitch, but by the way they speak. Given that she was also voicing non-human characters, that’s really saying something. Because of the tight first person POV, a single narrator, rather than an expanded cast makes sense.

The pace of the narration fit the story well, neither rushed (the characters do a lot of moving around in space) nor dawdling. Really good sound quality, I heard no artifacts (I have listened to at least one book where the narrator seemed to have a bad cold), nor any shifts in background where a word was dropped in during editing.

I was puzzled by the choice of accent for Chris, whose actual voice (as opposed to Ellie's quotations of her self-justifications) is only heard at the end. The voice chosen was sort of Bostonian, but not quite. Subdued rhotic (not quite full-on nonrhotic like pahk or cah as in mimicked Boston accents, but "ya're he-ah" for "you’re here". I live in Maine and am familiar with that ending er to eh shift. This was different from that.

All that said, I did enjoy this book, I think it is an extraordinary world, I loved that it is placed, at least when she’s in Boston, in the world in which I live. I’m not sure I felt as tied to real geography in Washington, DC.

I would definitely read another book set in this universe and will look for other books by this author. I did rush right out to buy pork floss for my congee while listening.

[Lisa]

This was unfortunately a DNF for me, I just couldn't suspend my disbelief and get into the story.

I loved the concept of a group of people having to maintain the laws of the universe, but it feels like the worldbuilding is lacking. Each universe is part of a nested chain of universes, with the underlying machinery (or "skunkworks" - a term that's a bit overused here) of that universe present in the adjacent one.

It's a trippy concept, but the ramifications of the premise seem to be unexplored. It's mentioned that these parallel universes, and their underlying mechanisms, are common knowledge. However, the world the characters live in seems not too different from our own. Parallel worlds are confirmed here! Our universe has a definitive structure and even a blueprint-how does this affect how people see the world?

The main characters, Ellie and Daniel, work for an organization that maintains the universe, but this is also treated rather casually. Ellie's coworkers know, as does Daniel's boyfriend. If people know that the universe can be altered, wouldn't there constantly be attempts to change things for personal or political gain?

The focus of the story seems to be more on the family drama than the fantastic premise, which is fine, but I couldn't stop thinking about my problems with the science-fiction portions.

A review copy was provided by the publisher.

[Lisa Davidson · Rating 4 out of 5]

I've always thought most good science fiction has at least some mystery in it. That's the case here, and while the science fiction concepts are intriguing, there's also mystery about what's really happening and why Ellie has such an odd family dynamic.
Ellie doesn't even get the correct information about her mother's service when she dies and nobody believes her that her sister keeps trying to kill her. What is really holding the world together and how much influence can people have?
This was a quick audiobook and the narration set the right tone to keep things interesting. Thanks to NetGalley for letting me listen to this audiobook

[Francis Pellow]

Didn't find the architecture of the sci fi elements interesting and the characters didn't connect with me so i gave up a third of the way in. no score.

[Rosemary Joy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pre-Publication Review - received an advanced copy from the publisher

The plot is highly character driven, primarily advanced through Ellie and Daniel's interactions. I really enjoyed the creativity and 'sci-fi-ness' of the story. For example, Daniel creates and analyzes reports through food. Also, the overarching set of the universes all being connected and having their own physics. Many descriptions and characterizations were well done. I liked how everything came together at the end. Specifically, Jerry and Chris's motivations made sense. My interest was especially piqued with the cliffhanger at the end.

Despite all the positives of the story, there are a few aspects that detracted from my overall enjoyment. First, Chris constantly trying to kill Ellie is depicted as pretty much inconsequential. Sure, Daniel and the other characters reacted appropriately when Ellie tells them. But it's just not believable that Chris has been trying to kill her and she just accepts it, makes excuses for it, and still wants a relationship with her. It didn't make sense that they just let Jerry go. It didn't make sense that they just left Chris there crying. Also, the descriptions of Daniel's physique (height and strength specifically) were way too repetitive. Lastly, I believe the story would significantly improve if written from a first person point of view. Ellie's inner dialogue would be much more convincing and interactive. Also, the action could move more quickly and actively.

[Maven_Reads · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Subtle Art of Folding Space by John Chu

The Subtle Art of Folding Space is the exhilarating science fiction debut from Hugo and Nebula Award-winning short fiction author John Chu, blending quantum physics, multiverse mechanics, and family drama into a singular, quirky narrative. The novel follows Ellie, a maintainer in charge of the Skunkworks, the hidden machinery that upholds the physics of her universe and others, as destabilizing forces threaten cosmic stability. At the same time she navigates the heartbreak of her comatose mother and a toxic, complicated relationship with her sister Chris, and teams up with her cousin Daniel to confront secrets that could determine both the fate of reality and her own fractured family ties. The book is known for imaginative worldbuilding and vibrant, mouth-watering food imagery woven with generational trauma and cosmic stakes.

What struck me was how human and tangible the emotional core felt even amid dizzying multiverse physics: Ellie’s guilt, grief, and longing for belonging made every strange quantum twist feel deeply personal, and the playful moments, especially the vivid Chinese food scenes and Daniel’s warmth grounded the vast science fiction in memorable, sensory detail. At times, the complex mechanics and sprawling concepts pulled me slightly out of the moment, but the novel’s tender exploration of family, identity, and what keeps worlds (literal and emotional) intact stayed with me long after I finished.

Rating: 4 out of 5
Because it is a boldly imaginative multiverse adventure rooted in emotional depth and unforgettable character moments.

[Mod Rina · Rating 2 out of 5]

This story was thoroughly unsatisfying, but I believe John Chu could have fixed a sizeable chunk of it had he made Ellie a gay man. ...Allow me to explain.

ONE: the character relationships. The blurb (‘her mother’s legacy,’ ‘her family’s generational trauma’) is deceptive—there is no generational trauma here.

First, it’s not “generational” if there’s only one generation. We don’t see abusive behavior from Ellie and Chris’s mom Vera—she is just permissive of Chris’s abuses. In fact, she also gets abused by Chris. Generational trauma would have been Chris learning these behaviors from Vera or inheriting that temperament from her, being ill-equipped to manage it, and taking it out on Ellie. But that did not happen.

As a 2nd gen. East Asian woman for whom complex generational dynamics are a lived experience, the relationship between Ellie, Chris, and Vera did not resonate with me. Chris fully reads as a textbook abuser that you’d see in just as many Western families as Asian ones. Complicated East Asian maternal figures are a specific type. The only detail that got it right was Chris’s complex around caretaking obligations manifesting in her cooking attempts. But this was not at all explored, merely told-not-shown by Chris and Ellie.

As I understand it, Chu, a gay man, writes from the experience of having an abusive, homophobic sister, a topic he has covered in previous short stories. Somewhere along the way, either he or his publisher has confused this experience for East Asian generational trauma. It is not. It is plain abuse. There are overlaps, but it does not overlap enough in this story.

TWO: #menwritingmen. Echoing countless reviewers here, the descriptions of Daniel ARE WEIRD, and what I consider the rare gay male equivalent of #menwritingwomen. (For those unaware: a literary phenomenon wherein women are described physically in ways inappropriate for the context or POV, simply because the straight male author unconsciously or consciously objectified those characters and lacked the self reflection to stop.)

Chu appears to be completely unaware of how the physical and sensual descriptions of Daniel’s body, voice, mouth, and muscles are objectifying, and thus wholly inappropriate for the POV character Ellie, his COUSIN, especially in its sheer volume & repetition. It is patently obvious that Daniel was a favorite of Chu’s, and Chu self-indulgently wrote the character while not factoring in that—once more—the narrator is Daniel’s COUSIN.

TO THAT END, MY RADICAL CONCLUSION: Chu should have made this far more OwnVoices, with Ellie a gay man and Daniel a family friend or love interest (or both).

The toxic familial relationships in the story should have focused on homophobia rather than intergenerational trauma among women. This doesn’t even require any changes to Chris’s characterization—she is already an evil homophobe seemingly incapable of remorse. A bit flat as far as portrayals of abuse go, but not that far off. In this ideal version of the story, the relationships would still revolve around Ellie, or alternatively, around Daniel, with Ellie as a Nick Carraway–style narrator in Daniel’s story. The above would have significantly strengthened the character writing in this story, or at least made it consistent, seeing as how Chu did not do the requisite research to portray an identity and experience that is not his own.

3 MISCELLANEOUS CRITICISMS (which sink my rating from a 3 to a 2):

1) Worldbuilding: what makes the skunkworks system confusing is that there aren't clear metaphors or analogues that the reader can use to anchor themselves. The story can't seem to decide if the system is more software or hardware, science or magic. Its interface is fantastical/whimsical (i.e. equivalence reports as food, the change logs as a D20 die, ‘data’ flowing physically through pipes) even as its engineers use technical jargon (diagnostics, ‘hold-time violation,’ ‘speculative states,’ etc). I think this juxtaposition is likely intentional, but it doesn’t work for me. It makes it difficult to suspend disbelief when there seems to be no purpose for the technical jargon. I wish the story had a clearer distinction between the aspects of the job that are well-understood and systematized, and aspects that are more mysterious or zany that maintainers have to just “learn by doing.”

I personally would have marketed this book as “science-fantasy” to fantasy readers who may be more willing to roll with the technical jargon because they assume it’s a conceit of the genre (just look at the number of reviews here that were more favorable to the worldbuilding because they thought it was ‘too smart for’ them, despite other reviews by those in physics who confirm the physics are nonsensical). I’d get rid of the “this isn't your usual jaunt through quantum physics” tagline. The current marketing and endorsements for the book feels like it’s designed to deceive SF readers, and I don’t very much care for that, no matter how many sales it might make.

2) Food: I wish the food were more symbolically relevant to any given scene. It’s just pleasant descriptions of Taiwanese food. There’s no metaphor for family relationships except when the plot tells-not-shows that certain food reminds Ellie of her mom. There’s no specific imagery that reflects the tone of the scene or the character’s interior states. It might as well be a recipe page or an Eater article. Even Ahdi, a non-Taiwanese character, happily serves nothing but Taiwanese food for seemingly no reason. The story could have done something symbolically with the fact that Chris made the mom nothing but bland gruel every day, but we never get to see the porridge or read a description of it.

3) Dialogue: Also, everyone’s dialogue sounds the same. Everyone has the same voice & the same vernacular because the prose is more concerned with sounding urbane and clever than conveying character. This may work in insular editorial short story spaces, but not in long-form publishing.

What keeps my rating from being 1 star is that Chu can write good prose and has good turns of phrase. It’s a shame that this good prose lacks any purpose.

Thank you to Netgalley & Tor for the eARC.