Customer Reviews

Quarantine

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(15)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

Some people have criticized Quarantine for its lack of characterization. Frankly, if you're looking for that kind of book, you're in the wrong place. Don't get me wrong: I love a good character-oriented book--but Quarantine is much more about drowning the reader in a profound sense of wonder.

Be forewarned, this is not light reading material: Egan demands full intellectual participation from his reader, and a reader without a basic understanding of quantum mechanics and the many-worlds theory might not enjoy Quarantine as thoroughly as someone with that background. But if you're willing to put in the effort, this is a richly rewarding book to read.

(One more warning: I strongly suggest that you not read the description on the back of this book. Not only does it spoil the plot, but it is also very misleading and it ruins a great deal of the story's suspense.)

Quarantine begins as a high tech future thriller, with a private detective being hired to find a missing woman in a late 21st century Australia where, among other things, one can download software into one's brain, something has sealed the solar system within an impenetrable Bubble, and New Hong Kong has been built on top of Arnhem land. But these glimpses of an exciting future are never really developed or explored in detail, as the book's focus quickly shifts to the metaphysics of quantum mechanics. This is a science fiction oldie, and one that is usually dealt with rather poorly. (Giving humans conscious control over fundamental physics is all too often used as a deus ex machina to solve the plot problems at the end of a novel. Orson Scott Card's Xenocide is a recent example of this.) Egan makes one big (massively implausible?) assumption - that wave function collapse is the responsibility of a particular part of the brain and that with the right neural modification people can learn to avoid doing it, producing a "smeared out" universe - but otherwise his scenario is internally consistent. Even more importantly, Quarantine actually tries to "follow through" on the consequences of its assumptions, and manages to bring something of their full metaphysical immensity home to the reader. If you are interested in this kind of exploration of quantum mechanics then Quarantine is worth a look; if not then you will probably find it rather frustrating

Nobody has mentioned this in the reviews I've read so I will: When many of the novel's characters are drugged into being loyal to a corporation they used to hate, they escape the need to stay loyal to the corporation by inventing ... The Protestant Reformation!

That is, they convince themselves that the "real" corporation (or church) is an individual ideal, and not the mere organization they've been drugged into being loyal to. This is precisely the "trick" the original Protestants, like Luther, used to escape the emotional domination of the Catholic church.

There's no doubt Egan intended this, and it makes QUARANTINE one of his best novels. It's not all science fiction, and the philosophy is as up to date as a course in modern religion.

Just thought I'd mention it.

You don't have to be a physics genius to understand quantum mechanics, JUST READ THIS BOOK! (Take it from a physicist)

Greg Egan manages to give us a brilliant look at a very possible future while investigating some of the most fasinating implications of physics, and philosopy. I first heard about this book from a friend of mine, I was fasinated by the idea! It will blow your mind because it not based on some magical idea such as warp drives, but real physical laws.

Quarantine was an extremely good book, questioning our reality and how easily it can change. A mod(brain implant)-altered PI takes a case that leads him to a corporation with universal aspirations. Hoping to unlock the "Bubble" that formed around our solar system, they kidnap a seemingly brain-damaged patient from a hospital.

He begins a quest into the very nature of our existence and the effects of quantum mechanics. The ending satisfied me, for it brought the only plausible solution to a problem that wasn't ready to be faced.

Any work by Greg Egan is worth reading if you are prepared for the sudden jarring of your mind opening to intriguing possibilities.

Quarantine is a brilliant page turner. I love the science fiction private-eye sub-genre but what surprised me was Mr. Egan's intuitive grasp of quantum theory. I would recommend this book for the enjoyable story but also to anyone who is about to embark on learning quantum mechanics. People who study it always complain that QM is all mathematics with very little intuitive grasp. A few authors have quantum insight like Feynman but even he said that no one truly understands the quantum world (siding with Neils Bohr). Well, Egan manages to make the implicit manifest in the "normal" world for us. At the same time he gave me a mystery that kept me guessing. A great read! I am now primed to read all of his books especially his short stories. Check out Greg's home page for a real treat! Greg, you are brilliant!

This novel is a perfect example of why some people should stay short-story writers. It's packed full with brilliant ideas, any one of which could generate a novel by itself. Unfortunately, Egan gets so wrapped up in the ideas that he loses the thread of the story.

The setup is pretty good. The main character, Nick, is immediately given two story goals. Primarily, he wants to find Laura Andrews. Secondarily, his client is anonymous, with completely opaque motivations. This is what stories are all about: the main character wants something, tries to get it, and encounters obstacles.

Unfortunately, by the middle part of the book, Nick has found Laura. After that, until the last couple of chapters, *he doesn't want anything*! He has no goals, encounters no obstacles, makes no effort. He is quite literally mind-controlled into a spectator's job. He never wonders who hired him (and, indeed, the question is totally dropped ... realistic, perhaps, but poor storytelling). He is, in fact, an observer, a reporter of strange events and stranger ideas, with neither motivations nor desires.

And there are so *many* good ideas here that no one of them is ever fully developed. There's certainly nothing like a theme to be found.

About the only way a story can overcome this kind of burden is with outstanding characterization. _Quarantine_ doesn't have it. Nick is never even described, physically, and he is equally blank in personality--a hard trick, given that the book is narrated in the first person. (Nick, in fact, spends quite a few pages saying--in effect--that character is meaningless and that personality is a fiction.)

In a short story, this kind of thing doesn't matter as much. There, you can take one central idea and make *it* the star, with everything else subservient. It's a lot harder in a novel. _Quarantine_ has the ideas in profusion, but it doesn't have anything else that a full-length novel needs. It reads like parts of six or seven excellent short stories that somehow accidentally got jumbled together.

"Quarantine" is super-hardcore science fiction, for those readers who want the science to come first. Though the back cover makes it look like the entire novel is about the Bubble, there are actually three main thrusts here.

1. Mental implants. By the 2060's, devices known as "Mods" implanted in the brain, can rewire our neurons in any way we choose. Not only making us smarter, faster and more confident, but also adjusting our tastes and loyalties.

2. Quantum theory. This book wrangles with some of the philosophical ramifications of quantum theory at a deep level. Anyone who hasn't studied at least a little quantum physics will probably be quite confused.

3. The Bubble. In 2034, unknown intelligent aliens trapped our solar system inside an enormous barrier. Their means and motives are an enigma at first, but are explained fully by the end. Egan also deals with the human reaction to being "quarantined" in such a manner.

Despite its short length, "Quarantine" is a doozy of a novel with enough twists to satisfy anybody. It begins with Nick Stavianos, hard-boiled P.I., hired anonymously to track down a patient who inexplicably vanished from a mental institution. "Quarantine"'s first act unfolds as a fairly typical mystery story, as Nick hunts for clues through high-tech data networks. However, there's an enormous surprise that totally reverses the course of the book, foiling any predictions that you might have made.

Writing-wise, it's above average for hard science fiction. The first section is perhaps a little heavy on infodump and unnecessary flashbacks. However, it picks up after the aforementioned huge surprise. Without giving too much away, I'll say that it deals with the mods. Nick starts out with several mods in his head, and acquires more as the story progresses. The mods are a tricky issue for the writer to handle, because he has to capture how Nick's thinkiong adjusts based on outside interference. I say he does a good job.

All of that is tangential to the plotline that takes over the second half of the book, which I won't divulge here. But it's a head-bender, all right.

I ended up finding Greg Egan by mistake. My last name is Egan, and while browsing through the SF section, I ran into this author with the similar name. Thought I would do a look see, and ended up loving his work! Since that time, I have read almost every book he has written. I am always highly impressed by his imagination, and at the same time incorporating hard SF into his stories. His predicted theories may or may not be plausible, but nontheless, they make you think! Quarantine kept me on the edge, I couldnt put it down! Like other reviewers have mentioned previously, Egan deals in hard SF, to such a point you may have to stop reading for a moment and think it out. Its well worth the read, and I recommend his other books such as Permutation City.

The field of hard SF is one in which it is very difficult to come up with a really new idea. Greg Egan has managed to fill an entire book with fascinating concepts and original ideas.
If you have done any reading about the work being done at the fringes of modern science in quantum mechanics then you will be astounded with the way that the author has produced a ripping yarn from such dry ideas.
This is one of those books I press on my friends.