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Quantum |
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 Quantum byTom Grace Warner Books 372 pages, August 2000 ISBN 0446524107 Reviewed by Lisa Eagleson-Roever NOTE: the manuscript reviewed was an Advance Reviewer's Copy (ARC). Changes may be made to the manuscript before publication. The Russians are coming, the Russians are coming! Only this time, the spies on Team Red and Team Red-White-and-Blue join to fight a common enemy: greed. Their goal: to restore the natural flow of capitalism. It's an amusing twist that makes you realize just how far the world has come in less than twenty years. Quantum is so cutting-edge you'll need a physics degree and a finger on the pulse of international economics to decide where exactly the author has departed from the already possible into fiction. Ted Sandstrom, experimental physicist, has developed a device that will generate 2000% more energy than is put into it and Victor Orlov wants it. Does he want it to take over the world? No, he wants it so he can claim first rights to the patent on it; then he will hold the key to the next revolution in energy production. He can shut out the petroleum industry, push the Americans aside in world commerce, and keep doing whatever he wants to do, which generally involves controlling other people (often by killing them) and gaining even more power. Nolan Kilkenny, ex-Navy SEAL and now director of the Michigan Applied Research Consortium, has the job of guiding Sandstrom's product to market. Orlov interrupts this hush-hush process by stealing all Sandstrom's lab equipment and blowing up the lab itself, killing Sandstrom's mentor, physicist Raphael Paramo. Then Nolan and Orlov each discover that a man in Raphael's past, Johann Wolff (who's been missing since 1948), may hold the key to finishing and refining Sandstrom's work. The race is on to learn Wolff's secrets and the results are almost tv-movie-of-the-week predictable. However, the plot definitely has high points and I feel the author is successful in making quantum physics understandable enough to not cause the average reader to lose interest, which is commendable. Victor Orlov seems flat as a villain, but Nolan Kilkenny is a well-rounded character and the dialogue is natural. The tone swings from Romantic Suspense to Men's Adventure, which can be annoying. The Navy-SEALS-to-the-rescue ending is disappointing because at that point in the novel, the reader expects something more cunning - although watching the author unfold the final chapters is interesting and educational. The author has a strong voice, but may have been rushed at the time the ARC was released. I say keep an eye out for the final version to see what improvements have been made. |
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