Hard Questions [Paperback]

Ian Watson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 1, 1999

Meet Qua, the quantum computer with immense power capabilities that tunes into pathways in parallel universes to operate at lightning speed. But with such power comes the threat of catastrophe, and as government agents, cult disciples, and computer criminals learn what this computer is capable of, Cambridge researcher Clare Conway makes every attempt to safeguard herself and society from the realities she discovers about Qua. For all of the power this computer offers, it threatens to spark a civil war in America, a danger unlike any other that history has ever known.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Set in the present or near future, this most recent technothriller by British sf author Watson brings together a disparate crowd of characters with an interest in a newly developed quantum computer?a device so powerful that it can not only postulate alternate realities but also actually create them. In pursuit of this computer is a brilliant and sexy Cambridge professor who is the first to realize its potential, a David Koresh-type cult leader who pursues her, and a successful Silicon Valley computer geek who needs to pay off some gambling debts, to name a few. The many action scenes are well rendered, and the prose is clean and spare, but readers may find the constant introduction of new, often cliched characters and additional story lines irritating. The novel can be viewed as an interesting commentary on modern American life from a British point of view. Recommended for most general and sf collections.?Reba Leiding, Rensselaer Polytechnic Inst., Troy, N.Y.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Kirkus Reviews

Contemporary science fiction/thriller involving computers and multiple realities, from the prolific Britisher (The Coming of Vertumnus, 1994, etc.). Cambridge University computer expert Clare Conway and psychologist Jack Fox will attend the Hard Questions symposium on artificial intelligence in Tucson--but a lurid article about Clare in a sleazy tabloid has alerted charismatic anti- computer cult leader Gabriel Soul and his promises of immortality through sexual ecstasy. The QX corporation of California is developing a quantum computer--it will operate in parallel universes--comparable, Clare thinks, to the human brain. Then Soul's murderous cultists snatch Clare; interrogated and threatened by Soul, she realizes that the first quantum computer must become self-aware. More, the personalities of the dead can be stored in the empty parallel universes where the computer operates! The US government assaults Soul's hideout and rescues Clare, though Soul himself escapes. But then a QX employee steals a prototype quantum computer, hijacking Clare and Jack in the process. And when Soul shows up, Clare powers up the computer, which becomes aware--and reality switches tracks. A hardworking tale, packed with incident, but undermined by Watson's usual anonymous characters, and computer logic that's more mushy than fuzzy. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Details

• Paperback: 332 pages
• Publisher: e-reads.com (December 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0759207372
• ISBN-13: 978-0759207370
• Product Dimensions: 8.2 x 5.4 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #6,342,521 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

2.0 out of 5 stars Hard Questions NOT!, October 2, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Hard Questions (Hardcover)

Sadly dissapointing. Unlike the title I was hoping for some hard questions to be raised and answers offered, they were not. Instead we get a mediocre chase adventure of characters chasing after a stolen laptop with a fridge connected to it (cooling system) very much like the forgetable budget TV series where they leap in and out of different dimensions/reality. all done before and better Hainlen, Start Trek ect. Even the ending is flat. Dissapointing for book that came recommended. Sorry about the spelling english is my second language.