The Quantum Connection (Warp Speed #2) [Mass Market Paperback]

Travis Taylor (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2007

Steven Montana, computer whiz and hacker extraordinaire, was attending college in Ohio when his world fell apart. A swarm of huge meteors fell all over the world, on Europe, on the United States, and in particular on Steven¿s home town in California. In an instant, his family and all his friends were gone. Eventually, he learned that the ¿meteor¿ onslaught that had orphaned him had actually been a brief and still secret war between the U.S and its enemies (as told in Warp Speed) using a new warp drive technology that was more secret than top secret. Another secret was that U.S. had been sending faster-than-light ships to other star systems. Most secret of all was that unfriendly aliens were observing the Earth, and while U.S. spaceships were not quite in a war with the unknown aliens, they were shooting at the intruders. Whether any of these answers would do Steven any good was an open question because he learned them only after his was abducted by those very same aliens and was held prisoner on one of their ships orbiting Saturn. At first, he was one of three human prisoners, but he had just seen the aliens completely dissect one of the three, and it looked like either Steven, or the Russian girl who was his fellow prisoner, were scheduled to be the next alien lab experiment. . . .

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

In the tradition of Golden Age SF author E.E. "Doc" Smith, Taylor's amped-up sequel to Warp Speed (2004) explodes with inventive action. When nebbishy computer repairman Steve Montana wakes up in a flying saucer, about to be dissected by alien Grays, he starts behaving like the video-game warrior he's only imagined being until now. He slays the aliens, gets rid of their brain implant that's been causing his emotional instability, liberates fellow captive Titania, uses nanomachines to make the two of them superhuman and races back to a secret base on Earth's moon, where Americans are plotting strategy against the Grays. What the story lacks in characterization, it more than makes up for in plot complications. The scenes of hand-to-hand combat are mind-boggling. Thanks to their enhanced physiques, Steve and Titania can move their bodies so fast that they create sonic booms. Even more dazzling is the imaginative playfulness with which Steve creates new tactics, suggesting new cutting-edge scientific possibilities, which lead to even more revelations. Beneath the comic-book exuberance, there's plenty of stimulating and satisfying speculation. (Apr.)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"In the tradition of golden age science fiction... THE QUANTUM CONNECTION explodes with inventive action... dazzling... cutting-edge scientific possibilities." - Publishers Weekly."

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Baen (January 1, 2007)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1416521003
• ISBN-13: 978-1416521006
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.2 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (25 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #526,709 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Travis S. Taylor: "Doc" Taylor to his friends:has earned his soubriquet the hard way: He has a doctorate in optical science and engineering, a master's degree in physics, a master's degree in aerospace engineering, a master's degree in astronomy, and a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He's currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space-based beamed energy systems, and next generation space launch concepts. He lives in Harvest, AL with his wife Karen and their daughter.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not your father's hard SF, April 15, 2005

By 

J. R. BOATRIGHT "-_ Rick" (Topeka, KS) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Quantum Connection (Hardcover)

First, and foremost, I liked this book. It was a fast read, was gulped down, and was enjoyable eye candy.

It is also very hard SF. Solid science, reasonable workability of all the science-y stuff. Well done that.

But if you're thinking you're going to get "Dragon's Egg" or "Mission of Gravity" think again. If you're looking for a modern equivalent, it's Robert Forward's "TimeMaster".

It's an action oriented adventure tale, but again, you're NOT getting Varley's "Red Thunder." The details of how they do things are VERY glossed over in this book. You can't "see" the spaceships, the nano-technology happens off stage, no one explains it, it just suddenly, near-magically works.

On the other hand, NO ONE has been writing high-tech space opera lately. The tradition once firmly held by Doc Smith is an open void in the SF arena amoung major publishers. Fans of this sort of story have had to claw through the tables at the SF conventions and browse the on-line catalogs of minor publishers.

I hope this experiment of Baen's succeeds. Hard SF action-adventure romps are FUN to read. Just don't expect the good guys do have a lot of angst or suffer a lot of moral quandries. (Neither did Kimball Kinnison much, or Star Jones.)

Doc Taylor has attempted to carve himself a niche in the modern SF market. I hope he succeeds.

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun SF in the Style of E.E. "Doc" Smith, May 30, 2005

By 

P. Gibbs (Atlanta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Quantum Connection (Hardcover)

This is a great action story with the added "oomph" of cutting-edge speculative fiction about quantum physics. Having a Master Degree in Physics and a Ph.D. in Optical Science and Engineering, Dr. Taylor knows the truly strange and almost counter-intuitive world of quantum physics. In quantum physics the concepts of space and time have to be flexible in order to explain how sub-atomic particles behave. So it does not take too much speculation to imagine a warp speed drive if you can "scale up" the faster than light phenomena predicted by quantum physics to real world proportions. (Warp Speed was the title of the first book in this series, and it appears to work pretty well to read them out of order).

The story starts out with the aftermath of a world catastrophe when our protagonist, Steve Montana, is "slumming it" after losing his family to one of a series of unexplained meteorite strikes that fell all over the world and wiped out a significant portion of California. Steve is a talented, self-taught, programmer. When he commits serious acts of computer hardware and programming wizardry for a customer with an obsolete computer game console, he is talent-spotted for an ultra top-secret government (weird) science program. Now this will sound strange in a plot synopsis, but it works: Steve is abducted by aliens and has to fight to save his life and that of a fellow abductee, a Russian female, while onboard the alien starship orbiting Saturn. It is all connected because the government program's objective is to build up our military faster-than-light capability to defend against those aliens.

The imaginative scope of Quantum Connection reminds me of the old Lensmen novels of E.E. "Doc" Smith. The story opens up to a conflict that encompasses a significant part of our galaxy with multiple alien races, practically none of whom qualify as friendly to humans. The callous attitude flows from the enormous technological gap between them and humans. It pays to be underestimated because the dynamism of the freedom-loving humans enables them to play a good catch-up game, while playing off of competing hostile alien races.

There is an exuberance to Taylor's fiction that hearkens back to the Golden Age of SF, with an All-American optimism that Real Men and Real Women can get into any scrap and come out of it victorious. So if you are feeling down about the world's prospects, treat yourself to Quantum Connection and you will enjoy a world where the good guys can become he-men (with help from nanotechnology) and the "good gals" are smart, beautiful (sometimes with a little help from nanotech) and can fight like hellcats alongside the good guys.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Almost but not yet, February 9, 2006

By 

D&S Pete "Like find wine" (Canada) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Quantum Connection (Hardcover)

This book starts off very good, and continues to keep the reader's attention for almost three quarters of the book. I think the problem is that this story line is long enought for three or maybe four books and not two. The end of the book is rushed and the developing story line (that keeps your attention very well) is giving a Reader's Digest ending. It was disapointing to see a very good book have such a poor ending.