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.