I was a fan of the first book in this series, and this new installation has only made me like the series even more. Actually, I found this to be even a little more accessible than the first book. The first book was a little farther reaching in scope, doing the necessary world-building. With that out of the way, the second book was able to flow a little better.

We spend most of the time with our favourite quantum magician, Bellisarius Arjona, and the woman who first hired him, Ayen Iekanjika. Along the way, we also get some insight into the Scarecrow. What I found most interesting, though, were the plant-based intelligences.

There's a lot of rumination about quantum states. Like the first book in this series, there's discussion of superpositions and what it means to perceive all the probabilities at once without collapsing the quantum state. Some of it made me think of the book _Quarantine_ by Greg Egan.

The main thrust of the book makes use of the time gates from the first book. I'm a sucker for time travel stories, and this is handled very well. A lot of thought experiments concerning paradoxes and what-not.

I hope there's another book in the series.

Belisarius Arjona, aided by his Ocean’s Eleven style team, has just pulled off the greatest heist/con job ever. But if you’re going to steal something more valuable than can ever be imagined from very powerful people, then expect retribution. When it comes to Bel it is his people, the Homo quantus, who are the ones to suffer for Bel’s audacity and now he has to set things right. To do this he must broker a deal with those he has just double-crossed and travel back in time to once again be a Quantum Magician, all the while staying ahead of the relentless Scarecrow because there are people who want more than his head on a spit.

In order to be able to read and fully enjoy The Quantum Garden, it is very necessary to have read the previous book The Quantum Magician, because there’s a great deal to conceptually get your head around. You must also enjoy writing which sometimes makes you feel as if your head is trying to explode as it takes great leaps of clever sci-fi extrapolation on board.

The Quantum Garden does need to be approached as a somewhat different beast to its predecessor because this is far more an exploration of political manoeuvring, a spy thriller and the ethics of responsibility through the lens of an imaginative extension of quantum physics, rather than a heist plot. There is a great deal of political intrigue involved and the type of delicate treading one must theoretically do through the past lest it affect the future. Indeed, for one of the characters who has been assigned to this mission by the commander Bel has convinced to aid him, the potential to affect the future becomes a rather heart-rending thread.

So, in many ways this is a book where Derek Künsken has not only unleashed his imaginative worldbuilding skills, but also evolved the plot into what is the right thing to do, knowing what the future will hold and also the sobering reality of potentially affecting the history of an innocent life for the sake of sheer hubris. At the same time Künsken manages to deliver a nail-biting plot where you are hoping beyond hope that everything will turn out all right. But you’re never quite sure.

I have to admit being a fan girl of the foul-mouth Vincent Still Homo eridanus, a variant of the original human whose normal environment is living in deep oceans and therefore brilliantly adapted to the terrific G forces induced by his anarchistic space fighter pilot antics. His ability to take flying right over the edge and into the realms of the impossible made for some tense space fighter action sequences.

The Quantum Garden was courtesy of Solaris via NetGalley.

I read the first in this series and enjoyed it, despite its frequent tragedies and challenging setting, so I requested this one from Netgalley. Thanks to the publisher for granting the request.

I found it easier to follow than the first, though like the first one, it does have a long series of events in which things get worse for the characters and they have to make terrible choices. Like the first, it ends with at least a hint of hope. Unlike the first, it doesn't really incorporate a heist.

It's a complex setting, with several kinds of genetically engineered posthuman, AIs, time travel, quantum effects and aliens. It's not just your generic paint-by-numbers space opera, for sure. As well, it's a powerful emotional story about people having their deepest beliefs about themselves and their lives challenged and having to come to terms with their responsibility for terrible consequences of their actions.

If that's something you're looking for, I recommend it highly; it's done with a good deal of skill.

This was a great sci-fi novel, I had forgotten to read the first book in the series but I still really enjoyed reading this one.

The Quantum Garden by Derek Künsken
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

No spoilers, but there's a lot to love in this follow-up to the Quantum Magician.

For those of us who love it, there's a lot of hi-tech spec-speak with near-autistic mental states and high-computation, but there's also time-travel, a brand new con, and a twisty-turvy plot.

Sounds pretty standard, tho, right? There's a non-usual interesting tidbit that arrives, however. And I can't talk about it. You know. Fight club. But I really, really enjoyed the alien intelligences and everything surrounding them. You might say the hint is in the title of the book.

:)

This one may or may not be as strong as the first book, but there's nothing wrong with it. Slightly slow in the start, a bit heavy (or just right) on the quantum cognition stuff, but I figure that's something half of us either love or hate as a whole. :)

Kunsken has written an imaginative novel about wormholes and time travel. I enjoyed the plot and am looking forward to his next novel.