Quantum [Hardcover]

Tom Grace (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 15, 2000

Tom Grace explores the implications of the invention of a quantum energy device that could revolutionise the world economy. It could, on the other hand, cause chaos if the Russian Mafia get hold of it!

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Johann Wolff, a German scientist and émigré, resettles in a Midwestern university town after World War II, and within months he mysteriously disappears. A half century later, Ted Sandstrom, an experimental physicist, announces to a small audience of his fellow scientists that he has discovered a method for generating vast amounts of power with a small quantum energy device. The scientists include Nolan Kilkenny, a former Navy Seal who will transfer Ted's research into the industrialized sector, and Oksanna Zoschenko, a Ukranian physicist who understands that Sandstrom's work has vast implications for the global economy as well as the future of science. The connection between Sandstrom and Wolff is at the heart of this suspense thriller; Wolff's missing notebooks not only presage Sandstrom's research, but also hold the key to utilizing it to change the world.

Meanwhile, Victor Orlov, a powerful Russian industrialist, sends his own private army of killers to steal Sandstrom's work and turn it over to his own scientists to create a vast new industry that will destabilize the economic and geopolitical balance. Orlov's only obstacle is Kilkenny (from Spyder Web), who makes a welcome appearance in Quantum. He's a hero in the Tom Clancy tradition, a one-man army. The sometimes plodding story will appeal primarily to readers with enough scientific knowledge to understand the complicated physics of Wolff's and Sandstrom's work and a compelling interest in how new technology impacts the world economy. --Jane Adams

From Publishers Weekly

Like James Bond, ex-navy SEAL Nolan Kilkenny battles to keep a potentially world-dominating technology from falling into the wrong hands in this exciting techno-thriller, a follow-up to Grace's first Nolan adventure, Spyder Web. In 1948, ?migr? German scientist Johann Wolff, working at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, studies his research notes and makes an amazing discovery. (" 'Mein Gott!' Wolff cried out, as an image of the delicate, multidimensional structures that define both matter and energy clearly formed in his mind.") Minutes later, he is deadAkilled by a Jewish assassin who thinks (erroneously) that the scientist conducted research on humans for the Nazis. More than 50 years later, Wolff's research becomes vitally important, as Kilkenny, who coordinates projects for a research group called MARC on the Ann Arbor campus, finds himself and his colleagues under attack by a band of Russian mercenaries working for Victor Orlov, the richest and most powerful private citizen in Russia. Orlov has learned that MARC, inspired by Wolff's writings, has discovered a Theory of EverythingAsought in vain by Einstein and other great physicistsAthat will create an infinite energy supply and make all other sources, from gasoline to nuclear power, obsolete. Grace's prose can be clumsy, and his plot requires some suspension of belief. But in Kilkenny and his family (Nolan's father, an international financier, funded MARC, and grandfather Martin, a woodworker, was a friend of Johann Wolff), he has created a moving human portrait of America's technological progress. A few explosive action scenes (including a shoot-out at a college street art fair) enliven this nicely textured adventure. (Aug.)
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 384 pages
• Publisher: Grand Central Publishing; First Edition edition (August 15, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0446524107
• ISBN-13: 978-0446524100
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,653,834 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

12 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent follow-up to SPYDER WEB, August 1, 2000

By 

Harriet Klausner - See all my reviews
(#1 Hall OF FAME REVIEWER)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quantum (Hardcover)

On December 10, 1948 in Ann Arbor, someone guns down scientist Johann Wolf. The killer honestly thought Johann collaborated with the Nazis, helping murder innocent people through medical experiments.

Fifty years later at the University of Michigan, Professors Ted Sandstrom and Raphael Paramo invent a device that generates and stores a large amount of energy from a much smaller source. However, a Russian scientist listens to Ted's lecture before returning home to inform her bosses about the cutting edge technology. Moscow businessman Victor Olov plans to attain the device even if it requires KGB-like skills to succeed. This places Olov and his minions against Nolan Kilkenny who plans to make the eventual transfer of Ted's experimental design to industrial use. Olov and Kilkenny soon learn that Ted's work follows much of the theories of the ingenious Johann, missing for fifty years.

QUANTUM is an exciting thriller that entertains the reader although it's understandable there is a lot of difficult scientific information provided in the fast-paced story line. The lead couple is an enchanting duet who loves one another, but has not yet committed to each other. The villain is a stereotypical nasty character who is a Russian capitalist who will do anything to gain an edge. Fans of scientific espionage thrillers will fully enjoy Tom Grace returning with the stars of his previous triumphant work SPYDER WEB.

Harriet Klausner

12 of 15 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars For younger readers, August 13, 2000

By 

Konrad Kern (OFallon, MO United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Quantum (Hardcover)

I just couldn't give more than 3 stars to this thriller. Basically a story about a new quantum energy source discovered by an American scientist but stolen by a Russian industrialist billionaire. The convenience of much of the story was too much. For example, The ring switch and the digging up of the parking lot. Everything fell too neatly in place. Since when do trained Navy Seal snipers allow sun reflections off their scopes to be seen? I think with a little more time, Tom Grace can come up with a better written novel. Older teenagers will enjoy his books.

Recommend...Library

9 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Cussler Fans Will Love Quantum, September 27, 2000

By 

KB Shaw "incwell.com" (Chandler, AZ United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Quantum (Hardcover)

Is Clive Cussler's Dirk Pitt one of your guilty pleasures? If so, Tom Grace's QUANTUM will have you hooked. Is the book literature? Of course not! But as an adventure novel, QUANTUM is a satisfying discovery for me. (I will mostlikely seek out Grace's first novel SPYDER WEB.) Like Cussler, Grace spins a good yarn and is a much more polished writer.

I was bitterly disappointed in a recent reading of THE ICE LIMIT, and was in need for a fix of fine escapist fare and found it in QUANTUM