I weird scifi novel built on a nnot unfamliar concept = a way of communicating with aliens through what is essentially a quantum radio. This story's set up is a strange one - involving the reconciliation of friends after 33 years and is anchored by poanfully thinly drawn characters who speak in declaratory sentences. There are some interesting conecpts here but they are laboured and the whole thing becomes boged down in endless converations and sketched

I really wanted to love this book since sci-fi is one of my favorite genres. And a first contact trope, yes please sign me up! However it was painfully slow and I found myself slogging through it. I decided to DNF due to the disconnected plot and lack of continuity. The exploration of grief didn't quite land for me either and seemed lost within the other elements.

Alien First-Contact story with great ideas that didn't really go anywhere.

I picked this up because I am always fascinated by First-Contact stories. How do you engage with someone who is so different (so alien) that a different language and culture is the barest of obstacles to overcome. Even if we grasp their language, we would still struggle to comprehend the simplest of things.

This story approaches the idea from an angle I hadn't seen before. Aliens haven't landed on earth, and we haven't landed on an alien planet. We were merely trying to make a communication device that would work instantly between Earth and Mars. To overcome the problem that sending an urgent message between the two planets could take up to 24 minutes. They succeeded, a little too well, when they contacted a planet light years away in another galaxy, purely by accident. What makes this even more interesting is how 'Second Sound' works. A person is hooked up, and within a few seconds, they are communicating outside of time and space. This allows them to speak to someone across galaxies instantly and converse for hours. As expected, experiencing several hours within the space of a few seconds takes a toll on the human body.

Mind was blown. I am fully emersed in the story, I like the science, and the characters aren't annoying.

... But it doesn't go very far. It has a lot of repetition, it spends a lot of time talking about the equations they are trying to figure out and when we get close to completing them, the book ends. We get a lot of vague descriptions of the alien culture and some of it is very interesting, but then again, the book ends just as we get two of the aliens on Earth. They are killed before we can even learn more. Even the geo-political plot line of the effects this discovery would have. How this technology has the potential to spark war, controversies, and political treaties... ended before we can get too far.

This whole book has great ideas, but the whole story reads as a prologue. If there is another book in the pipeline that expands on these ideas further, I might look into it. As it stands on it's own, it feels too incomplete, like a message cut short.

Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

Fans of Davis Bunn might be a little confused by this one. This seems more in the vein of Thomas Locke. But if you are a real fan, you know they are two sides of the same coin. The sci-fi usually is done under the pseudonym but not this time. The story is compelling. The plot invigorating. The setting realistic for anyone familiar with Florida's space coast. The characters are delightful. Bunn does his usual with all the colorful language painting pictures for the readers about all of the above. It's a great book. Hopefully the first of a series!

I am going to have to discontinue this book. I made it about 10% .

I am having a lot of difficulty with the writing. Everything jumped around, and I was getting a headache trying to keep track of the story.

I won’t leave a star rating since I did not finish, but it was on the path of not having a good rating.

It was cool! Quantum Cage is a short story about a man reuniting with his old friends after 30 years to make establish communication with aliens. I enjoyed the alien storyline and wanted more of it. The pacing was slow in the beginning and sometimes dragged with repetitive scenes. Overall a fun, quick read.

"Quantum Cage" by Davis Bunn has a little bit of almost everything that I look for in hardcore sci-fi: high-tech startups, genius scientists, technicians, and paper-pushers, Instantaneous communication with aliens via experimental prototype quantum hardware, mathematical equations to revolutionize mankind, spy-craft, martial arts, lethal cutting edge military technology, etc. This was a fun read that pretty much demanded that I not put the book down until I finished it. The main character was fairly believable given that he was the successful but grieving paper-pusher rather than one of the super hero scientists or heroes.

It was certainly a fun story, though it almost over used "suspension of belief". Use of original quantum technology to engage in instantaneous communication with alien beings is a fairly easy thing to accept. In fact, certainly not unheard of in the field. The part that made me slightly uncomfortable was that these aliens were too good at communicating with humans. Though, to anyone who has ever watched Star Trek, this is also common. Anyway, since this is science fiction rather than science fact, these are very easy to overlook.

I will keep an eye open for more works by Davis Bunn! I thank the author and publisher for kindly providing an electronic review copy of this book.

This book really sounded like it had a lot of promise. And as soon as I received it, I opened it up and started reading. But it was painful and slow and written in such a boring manner that I struggled to want to finish it. I did finish it and about 3/4 of the way through It got a little better but still never lived up to its potential. I honestly would have DNF’d this book at about 50%, if I hadn’t committed to reading it for NetGalley and the publisher for a free and honest review.

Humans find a way to communicate across vast distances with aliens. The aliens are far advanced and most do not want to engage with humans. I enjoyed the read.

Quantum Cage is a science fiction novel with a non-scientist as a main character to help with all the science explanations. But this book is about the impact of loss - how it affects a person and if the grief is worth the relationship. As the saying goes, is it better to have loved and lost than to have never loved at all?

This story is about relationships, not science. Old friends, new friends, spouses, children, co-workers, those who serve, and those who lead. It is a book with a multi-ethnic cast in which ethnicity plays no part in the story. Hand wave at the science and government conspiracies, and focus on the people.

I liked the story.

Family friendly with a bit of violence.

Thanks to NetGalley and Severn House. I received a complimentary copy of this book. Opinions expressed in this review are completely my own.

I really wanted to like this book based on the blurb....."A group of physicists achieve something remarkable-a communication link to aliens". I am something of an amateur astronomer and a big fan of SETI (Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence) so was hoping for a homerun, but it didn't come close to reaching what I was hoping for. It took a LONG time for the book to gain any traction and almost all of the book was the various interactions between the physicists, scientists and government agencies involved. Thank you to the author, publisher and Net Galley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.

i was fascinated by the idea of reading a science fiction book about actual contact with alien beings. While I love the plot, and felt Davis Bunn did an excellent job of fleshing out Quantum Cage, I was a bit out of my comfort zone reading all the technical details in the beginning. I had to go over that part more than once. If like me, you have a bit of trouble getting through all those explanations about what they are doing, it moves on and becomes an intriguing story.

Quantum Cage by Davis Bunn delivers a captivating blend of science fiction and suspense. When scientists accidentally establish contact with aliens, accountant Darren Costa is pulled into their world.

Bunn crafts an imaginative tale exploring the potential of quantum theory and the enigma of alien communication. As humans and aliens face threats, they must decipher a crucial formula to secure their survival.

With its fast-paced narrative and intriguing concepts, Quantum Cage will likely appeal to sci-fi fans who enjoy a thrilling race against time.

Quantum Cage is the story of a man joining a top secret team partially made up of old friends to mind meld with aliens while navigating dangers on Earth and on that other planet. In the relatively small count of pages it had, it accomplished a complete story arc with a satisfying conclusion. There was a twist I didn't quite see coming that was really well done. I really enjoyed the aliens and the transits and everything about that storyline. Weirdly, it was the human things that detracted from it. As a whole package, though, it wasn't bad, and I'm not mad I read it.

3.5 stars, rounded down for reasons I'll detail below.

I had some issues with it, though. For a short novel, there were parts that were unnecessarily repetitive (far, far too many scenes wasting sentences on descriptions of meals, for one). I found the narrative dragging in places, and I chalk that up to delaying information for the mystery of it, which ultimately just made things more confusing. I'm no physicist, certainly, but there were places where description of physics (or dreams, or alien society) felt bulked up with fluff, like a student might do when trying to hit the word count on an essay. Descriptions were long, but vague, sometimes nearly incomprehensible. Early on, I assumed it was to draw out the big reveals, but it wasn't something that lessened as the story progressed.

I started out really wanting to know more about Darren's family and his strained relationship with these old friends, but ultimately they didn't really matter much. Despite being told about his grief for his wife, I didn't feel it. I actually kind of hated her for forcing his separation from his friends for what felt like a really stupid reason. But unfortunately, the friend storyline didn't really give me what I wanted, either. They each had their own little story and/or backstory (Barry and his hotel sale, Tanaka and his good deeds), but they didn't really matter. Despite the story opening up with Darren and Barry (for faaar too long leading up to the alien reveal, which I knew from the blurb), Neil ended up being the most consequential to the plot. It all left me feeling like the friends could have been mashed into one old best friend to make for a much tighter story. There was a missed opportunity here, I feel.