The Quantum Garden

A SciFi novel that, using the existence of wormholes to travel vast distances, and natural (maybe) time gates to hop across temporal fields explores some really big questions. All profound, some, like identity determination, our responsibility to protect threatened species, determining what life really is and the development of artificial life are particularly relevant to today. Most though are the eternal questions love, genocide, abuse of power, slavery and exploitation of less developed populations. 
All this introspection wrapped in the guise of a very serviceable space adventure. Brilliant! I loved it. I will be hunting down the prequel now.

A good second instalment to this series, expanding this time not completely on the immediate aftermath of the con performed in the first volume, but also on what happened in the past.

Although I had a bit of trouble with some parts, in general, I enjoyed once again diving into this world. The story begins on a strong note—let’s just say the Scarecrow doesn’t play nice, and neither should he (it? they?)—which ups the ante for Belisarius and Cassandra when it comes to their species as a whole, now that more and more people become aware of what the homo quantus’s abilities could be turned into, once out of their contemplative little corner of space. Faced with the responsibility to save their people, our two protagonists have to turn to unlikely allies.

While I did regret the absence of a new con here (I really like cons), of course I’m aware it couldn’t have just been a copy of Bel’s shenanigans in the first volume. Moreover, this time it’s not just about Bel and the gang he assembled, and not only because some of said gang’s members aren’t present here. We still get to enjoy Stills and his foul mouth, but Cassandra, even though she’s not as present as Bel, also reveals herself as surprisingly resourceful—or able to develop a resourcefulness she wouldn’t have been able to discover and exploit on the Garret, maybe. More interestingly, the story also places a sharper focus on Ayen and on the dilemmas she has to face when confronted with some inconvenient truths about people she had blindly trusted up until now. There’s some really twisted stuff going on here, and in the end it all makes sense, but also casts a bleak light on whether she’s really free to act or not.

The “quantum garden” that appears mid-novel (hence the title) was also oddly fascinating. I don’t entirely agrees with the author’s take on the observer’s role (I’m more a many-worlds than a Copenhagen person when it comes to physics), but it was cleverly used nonetheless.

The parts I mentioned having had trouble with were more a matter of pacing than of characters or plots I didn’t like: moments when the story slowed down, and where a character, for instance, kept running the same things over and over in their mind. It did make sense in that they had a lot to mull over; it just didn’t flow that well in a novel.

Conclusion: 3.5/4 stars

The Quantum Garden starts a day after the end of The Quantum Magician: Belisarius and his band of misfits pulled off the perfect heist and managed to transport a bunch of armed starships through a wormhole.

Belisarius is now in possession of the Time Gates, he’s immensely rich and finally reunited for good with his childhood sweetheart. His life couldn’t be any more perfect, at least, up until he realizes his home planet is going to be nuked for what he did. His only way to save his people is to go back in time and work with the people who want him dead.

 

I read The Quantum Magician back in 2018 and it was one of my favorite books of the year. It was the perfect read for me: clever with great characters, a cool worldbuilding and a whole lot of fun! The Quantum Garden has the exact same elements, it starts off with a bang (metaphorically and literally!), it’s fast-paced and it manages to be both clever and entertaining. It was a pleasure to revisit the world and the characters. The time-travel element of the story was done very well and it gave an extra edge to the story. Indeed, to avoid a grandfather paradox, Belisarius and his crew have to make several difficult decisions and it made the book even more exciting.

The Quantum Magician was fascinating because it introduced the world, the different human species and the cast of characters. Because of that, I was a bit apprehensive about the second book, it’s not always easy to keep the attention of readers when they don’t have the “newness” factor of the first book. However,  I didn’t find The Quantum Garden any less exciting than the first book. On the contrary, since I didn’t have to focus as much on the worldbuilding, I had more fun following the characters.

I especially liked two characters that had minor roles in the first book: Sergeant Iekanjika and the Scarecrow. I found Iekanjika super badass in this book, she takes no shit from anyone and she was always there to put Belisarius back on the right track when he was too preoccupated by his quantum experiments to focus on the heist. She had to make a lot of difficult choices in this book and, each time, I understood exactly where she was coming from. As for the Scarecrow, while he’s supposed to be one of the bad guys, I was fascinated by his backstory and I wanted more scenes from his perspective. And while I’m praising the characters, I have to make a special mention for Stills. All of his scenes were amazing, he’s so angry all the time but he sure has a lot of punchlines and insults to throw at the right moment! 😀

I don’t know how long this series is going to be but, I hope for many more books! It’s imaginative, full of cool quantum stuff and a lot of fun. If you have not read the first book already, you definitely should!

Four and half stars.

 

I received a copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. My thanks to Solaris. All opinions are my own.