"The Quantum Magician" First Impressions *No Spoilers*

[SFFBC, Ancillary Mod]

Come share your very first, vague thoughts on our scifi book! The spoiler thread is where you want to go for detailed comments!

For those who want content warnings: (view spoiler)[ body horror, enslavement, coercion of will, bodily humiliation, non-consensual sexual interactions of both doms and subs, medical experimentation, ableism. (hide spoiler)]

[Gabi]

I must admit that I have my difficulties to get a connection with story and/or characters. I've started it several times and even now that I'm more 'in the flow', I find myself putting it aside to read something else.
Have a bit of a bad conscience since I know how much Ryan loves it.

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Don't feel bad. You don't have to love everything that I love! I know you're not fond of the narrator (or space ship stories?)

This is the first impressions thread so I can't really say anything about the story or characters.

[Oleksandr]

I previously read other works by the same author and liked them, so I plan to join in on this one

[Travis]

I'm like five hours into the audiobook and enjoying the world and story so far. I'm also loving the way it keeps using that far less common meaning of "confidence" to refer to a kind of hoodwinking.

[Chris]

I found the beginning slow, but things picked up once the MC starts putting the team together. I'm at around 40% and enjoying it.

[Ellen]

25% through on the audiobook. Like the story but fine the narrator's fake accent for the French characters annoying and hard to understand at times.

[Clyde]

Chapter 1 completed. Just not feeling it. Will see if the struggle is worth it going forth.

[John]

My first impression was pretty negative. The world that’s been built and those that inhabit it all seem pretty cartoonish. There’s really no one I care about. About 100 pages in, it’s starting to get interesting. I seems like a 26th Century version of Ocean’s 11. I hope it gets better. I am pretty bored with all the non-science in this science fiction.

[Ellen]

John wrote: " seems like a 26th Century version of Ocean’s 11. "
That was my thought also.

[Beth]

I've gotten about 5% in. I'm enjoying the settings, and the writing is nice and brisk, including the chapter lengths, which should make it easy to have a "just one more" attitude. :) Belisarius feels a little too overpowered at the moment, so I'm interested in seeing what limitations he has, what kinds of friction he has to work against as the plot moves along.

[Oleksandr]

I like the concept of post-humans in the book

[John]

183 pages in and I’m still having a hard time caring. So many sub-species and so many factions opposed to one another. It’s hard to keep them straight.

[Chris]

Just starting, but enjoying. Just a few early thoughts.
1. I am not a physicist, but am a scientist. So I guess I have just enough background to quite enjoy the dive into quantum theory with out enough to get distracted by the arguments over the details.
2. Still early but I find myself wishing for more detailed explanation of the subgroups of humans. We have quite a bit about Homo quatra, but very little about the puppets. How different is Homo pupa from Homo sapiens?
3. While the time travel thing was glossed over early. I have to assume it is going to eventually take center stage. A con story is fun and all, but time manipulation would Literally, change everything. Who needs a con when you can change the events leading up to the need for a con.
So, yes I am enjoying curiosity this book is stirring up.

[Oleksandr]

Chris wrote: "wishing for more detailed explanation of the subgroups of humans.

There will be more as the story progresses

[Christopher]

I decided to DNF this one, just not feeling it.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

I would say, for those struggling, it starts to coalesce around 30%

[aPriL does feral sometimes]

I'm in.

[Beth]

Allison wrote: "I would say, for those struggling, it starts to coalesce around 30%"

That's cool, Allison. I'm enjoying the worldbuilding tour of sorts that's happening in the part of the book I'm in, but having gotten a minor spoiler as to just how long that tour will be, I'm also getting a mite impatient to get into the meat of the story.

[John]

I’m at 49% and determined to finish despite the fact that I am growing to hate this book. The world is pure fantasy with no logical evolution from today. The science is pure junk with no relationship to real science. And the characters are truly boring.

[Christopher]

Yes, I think that is part of what was bothering me, it is at the same time extremely technical with how things are working but at the same time all wrong about it scientifically. And the issue that is often a dealbreaker for me — no character I care about.

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

IDK if it's at all...helpful? But I very early on decided that the author did a "what if" with the assumption that Sherlock Holmes was possible, and then made a world where that would be true, along with other related what ifs. This is sort of the polar opposite of Blindsight, but with similar thought experiments IMO.

Not that you should like it or continue, but if it helps those on the cusp, I personally found this framing helpful.

[Oleksandr]

I've finished it and quite enjoyed the setting and ideas, even if I don't like the story, which is too much a homage to Ocean series (I just don't watch action movies for a last decade or so).

I can say that the prequel, The House of Styx is also a homage, but to gangster family movies, like The Godfather - I liked it much more, with Venus colonized (high-alritude above the planet, not the hot dense acid surface) by Quebecois.

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

The House of Styx is a different series... To my knowledge its the first part of a duology.

[Jane]

I'm about 80% of the way in. I had a little trouble getting into the flow of the story, but once I've done that, I'm finding it pretty fascinating. Luckily, that's because I like the characters--because the science of it goes way over my head. I did browse through the author's article posted on Analog about the science the book is based on, and I forwarded it to my particle physicist son-in-law to see what he thinks of it (haven't heard back). So at this point: 1. I am struggling with the science-y parts 2. the plot is murky 3. I'm enjoying the characters 4. the writing is good if not great.

[Oleksandr]

Ryan wrote: "The House of Styx is a different series... To my knowledge its the first part of a duology."

Yes, but the same universe, but before the gates were found and humanity spread

[Allison, Fairy Mod-mother]

A reminder this is the first impressions thread :) We're teetering on "last impressions" in here, which should be saved for the full spoiler thread!

[John]

Now at 65% and still wondering wtf this book is about. The worst of it is I don’t really care. It’s filled with gibberish

[Infosifter]

Wow, this one is polarizing! I haven't started it yet, but I think it might be my next read. I'm right in the middle of a revolution in a different book, so I have to finish that first… (Lol)

[John]

Several subspecies of humans. Why? I’m 340 pages in and I still don’t know. Different planets, different societies: who are good and who are bad? I still don’t know. What are the characters motives for their actions? I still don’t know. I can’t believe I have another 100 pages of this drivel.

[Jane]

I was around 80% and was asking myself a sort of similar question. I was ungodly confused by the plot and the science just seemed like gibberish to me ( because I don’t know much about that stuff, not because it IS). I was ready to quit. But I did get a pretty good sense of how and why the different species & subspecies of humans evolved—not a very specific understanding but a lot of tantalizing hints. That and the characters kept me going.

[Oleksandr]

John wrote: "Several subspecies of humans. Why?"

Because they can :)
Seriously there are answers in the book, but they'll be spoilers, so for another thread

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Oleksandr wrote: "Ryan wrote: "The House of Styx is a different series... To my knowledge its the first part of a duology."

Yes, but the same universe, but before the gates were found and humanity spread"



Interesting! I had no idea from reading House of Styx. The Godfather reference that Künsken makes in the interview was lost on me as well. Besides being about family I don't see the similarities, but maybe they'll be more apparent in the sequel. For now, I don't think either film reference that Künsken uses work well for the stories he's written. I imagine Ocean Eleven is used because its one of the more famous heist stories, although there are certainly better examples in the genre to compare The Magician to. I'd expand on my answer but this is the first impressions thread :/

[Oleksandr]

Ryan wrote: "I had no idea from reading House of Styx. "

After reading it (my first encounter with the author) I wanted to know more about his books and either on his site or elsewhere I've read that it is a prequel

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Künsken talks about it being the origin story of The Congregate in this interview with analog.

https://www.google.com/amp/s/theastou...

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

The literary Gods have blessed me with an eARC of The Quantum War via netgalley! That's my weekend made!

[Oleksandr]

Ryan wrote: "The literary Gods have blessed me with an eARC of The Quantum War via netgalley! That's my weekend made!"

Congrats!

[John]

Oleksandr wrote: "John wrote: "Several subspecies of humans. Why?"

Because they can :)
Seriously there are answers in the book, but they'll be spoilers, so for another thread"

I will finish just because I have a sense of commitment. And I will try to get over my impression that this whole book is just silly. No promises though.

[Henry]

I just finished the book.

[Colin]

Halfway through this one. It's fairly enjoyable, and pretty easy to read (for the most part). It's basically got that Ocean's 11 kind of vibe to it. Instead of breaking into a vault they are doing something similar with breaking into a sector of space.

I agree with some of the above comments that the divisions between Puppets and typical humans is not super clear at this point, aside from their size. I'm not fully understanding this master/slave relationship thing they keep referencing, so I'm hoping this is clearer as the heist goes on.

Otherwise a decent read so far. Curious to see how the events pan out.

[Bonnie]

I also am curious about the Homo pupa - why are they small? Why is their art so collectible? - and Homo quantus. Does "engineered" mean each one is created individually, or was it bred and is now inherited? Who do they marry? How are babies born? What is The Congregant like?
Not everyone has similar reactions to this book I see! 2-5 stars plus some DNFs.
I shall keep reading.

[Liane]

Finally making progress in this book. I started it back in the right month but my Hoopla borrow expired along with any interest I had…twice. Audio narrator is so dry, I couldn’t get into the characters and I really don’t like heists/cons/lying in general, so this is a hard sell to me.

I needed a couple long solo drives to enable me to make progress. I’m at 36% and it’s finally clicking for me (as some others have mentioned!). Marie’s character makes me laugh, she is so flippant and spontaneous.

Downside of the audio, is trying to keep up with all the names of different species.

[Ryan, Your favourite moderators favourite moderator]

Bonnie wrote: "I also am curious about the Homo pupa - why are they small? Why is their art so collectible? - and Homo quantus. Does "engineered" mean each one is created individually, or was it bred and is now i..."

Ooooo, Ooooo, Ooooo! I have answers to these questions, did you still want them?