Customer Reviews

Schrodinger's Ball: A Novel

5 star:		(6)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

THE LONG VERSION:
Schrodinger's Ball is an amazing first novel by writer and satirist Adam Felber. It features absurdist humor, charming and delightful characters (at least one of whom spends most of the story being at once dead and not-dead), a healthy dose of quantum physics, a happy mix of first-, second-, and third-person narratives, and a writing style that easily slips into pseudo-Biblical and faux-Shakespearean and, at least once, breaks down completely.

Others have tried to write in this genre; A.C. Weisbecker's Cosmic Banditos, for example, or Douglas Adams's Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency. But Felber has the chops to bring it off: he knows of what he speaks, and he knows how to say it well.

Readers not familiar with quantum physics need not be intimidated - characters ranging from the President of Montana to a hapless sparrow to Dr. Schrodinger himself will help guide you through. The physics is a backdrop, the music to the dance in which the characters engage, a dance which brings them all together in a smashing climax. A dance that can be called...Schrodinger's Ball.

THE SHORT VERSION:
Good book. Buy it.

Adam Felber's first novel is a delightful jumble of physics, romance and comedy, written in a manner that stretches the conventions of language and plot to glorious lengths. It reminds of me early Tom Robbins, especially "Still Life With Woodpecker." Don't be intimidated by Cast of Characters or the physics: it's all knit together so subtly that the reader is unaware of being drawn in until it's too late - you're turning pages and laughing out loud, on your way to an enchanting and satisfying conclusion.

Having been a fan of Adam Felber from his many stints on NPR's "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me!", I've appreciated his wit and wisdom for quite a while. When I learned he had written a book, well, it just couldn't have been published quickly enough to suit me. The wait was worth it! What a story and what a cast of zany, intriguing characters, some of whom know each other and some of whom are like ships passing in the night, brought together by chance occurance.

Mr. Felber is a great student of life, history and science and I tell you, Quantum Mechanics was never this fun in college. The supporting characters are delightfully eccentric and hopefully, fodder for future books. This is a book that should be read over and over, each time absorbing a deeper meaning to the humorous escapades. Go to a book signing and meet the author, if you can. A most generous, gracious and intelligent credit to the human race. Plus, he's a funny guy.

This is quite possibly the best work of fiction that I have read in some time. An armchair physicist who enjoys reading books on relativity and entanglement theory, I found this book to be entertaining, creatively written, and very, very humorous! There were many times that I laughed out loud while reading this excellent page-turner.

A novel that actually consists of several, apparently random, stories of extremely interesting characters, "Schrodeinger's Ball" tells an original tale in the most creative of ways. Shifting, at a breath-taking pace, among the several plots, one cannot help but fly through this intricately designed web of (educational) fiction.

While entirely fictional (unless you know of an independent territory of Montana or a friend who is and is not both dead and alive), Felber does a spectacular job intertwining humorous allusions to quantum mechanics throughout the text. Even his choice of words screams of physics-based jokes. For instance, while speaking of an event late in the book, Felber writes, "This was due to all the uncertainty, principally." (232) While that sentence could have been structured any number of other ways it strikes a reader who is familiar with Heisenberg as funny because of the "Uncertainty Principle" inference. This book is laden with similar, subtle references and jokes.

Even if you are not a fan of physics, this book is entertaining and exciting that covers the gamut of human emotions and experience - all in under 250 pages. Pick this book up and read it.

This book is terribly (wonderfully) unhinged at the start. It hops around in a demented circle and widens. As it does, it starts to gain a focus point and narrows. Mr. Felber's wit break through often and his broad yet deep knowledge of things scientific hold this together. As things spiral inward there are numerous directions it can take, but Felber shows true heart, and leaves the reader edified, satisfied, drained, filled, excited, and yet mellowed. (Much like a really good, long bike ride).

I judge a work of art by how long I spend thinking about it. This has kept me going over it since I finished it last night, and I suspect it will occupy my thoughts for quite a while.

If your imagination is limited it may bore you. This is not "Jonathan Livingston Seagull," it is not a Thomas Kincaid "Painter of Light" rendition of a cottage at sunset; it requires knowledge and thought, which if you posses, will reward you richly.

Felber's novel jumps all over the place and I admit, it took me some doing to get used to the manic pace of the changes. However, once I got comfortable with Felber's style and got into the multiple plot lines I couldn't put the book down.
The book is ultimately a very witty and touching story about existence, physics and coping with loss.

Now where can I get one of those Humdingers?

I can't recommend this book enough. It has something for everyone-romance, comedy, physics, philosophy, and great storytelling. Buy one for yourself and one for a friend.

I suspect many of the people visiting this page found their way to this book through "Wait, wait...." If that's the case, you have a reasonable chance of being a person who has a decent understanding of modern physics, and might be excited by the title of this book. And then you'd be in for a disappointment. The writing is so-so, the characterizations range from poor to bad, and the science is cute but derivative. Some of the ideas in this book could have been cool - the protagonist spends about a week being both alive and dead, for example - but then it just turns into "Friends" for the undead.
This reminded me *very* strongly of other early works from those who went on to greatness (Neal Stephenson's "Big U" comes to mind).... but it *also* reminded me of the works of those who went nowhere (Matt Ruff's "Sewer, Gas, and Electric"). Bottom line - try Felber again in 10 years. He might be great.

Utter nonsense the whole way through. This book has several plot lines which all converge at the end, but unfortunately, you only get 3 or 4 pages of each story at any one time which make it difficult to stay interested. The only reason you'll make it to the end is because of 1) Dr. Schrodinger's antics and 2) the plotline of Grant, Deb, Johnny, & Arlene. It would be a much better book if everything was stripped from this book except for these few characters. The ending would still be just as satisfying (which is to say, relatively interesting because the rest was so uninteresting).