science fiction, audiobook
I generally like Mike Chen's books, but this was
a bit of a miss for me. A Quantum Love Story started out strong and I
really enjoyed the first half of this novel. And then, ouch. Who hurt
you, Mike Chen?
Neuroscientist Mariana is ready to quit her job, but decides to postpone her decision after receiving an invitation to visit a top secret particle accelerator. She knows her best friend, the recently deceased Shay, would have loved it, so Mariana goes to the accelerator in Shay's honor. While there, a technician named Carter catches her eye and claims they've met before. He knows things about her indicating they have met before, and soon, she is trapped in a time loop with him living the same four days over and over as they get to know one another and try to break out of the time loop.
It's an interesting premise and, like most time loop books I've read, you can guess what happens. Carter and Mariana try lots of different things to try to break out of the loop from doing everything the same to doing everything differently to any and everything they can think of. And then... things get weird. Generally, this is where time loop books excel, but unfortunately, here's where Chen lost me.
Interestingly what I have enjoyed most about Chen's books in the past is that they are sci-fi for people who don't love science. He rarely gets bogged down in the science of what's happening in his fiction, but in A Quantum Love Story, he is all about the science, sometimes in mind-numbing detail. At one point, I would have given an eyeball to have any character oversimplify and talk about "wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff" but alas, no such luck. Instead we got lots of talk of paradoxes, quantum physics and scientific jargon. I'm going to give Chen the benefit of the doubt in the same way I do Andy Weir or anyone else brave enough to write about this stuff and believe his theories are correct because "timey-wimey" is about my level of scientific understanding.
Anyway, all this to say, by the time the time loops got weird, I was bored and when Carter's memories started to slip - as the book blurb told us was going to happen, I was downright furious. Reading the acknowledgments I understand a bit more about his thought process, but it didn't make me feel any better about the back end of this book, though it did make me wonder what was going on in Chen's life when he wrote this.
I read the book and listened to the audiobook when I didn't have time to sit and read. The audiobook was narrated by Patti Murin, who I recently heard narrate the Rom-Commers. Once again, I enjoyed her voice and her characters.
Neuroscientist Mariana is ready to quit her job, but decides to postpone her decision after receiving an invitation to visit a top secret particle accelerator. She knows her best friend, the recently deceased Shay, would have loved it, so Mariana goes to the accelerator in Shay's honor. While there, a technician named Carter catches her eye and claims they've met before. He knows things about her indicating they have met before, and soon, she is trapped in a time loop with him living the same four days over and over as they get to know one another and try to break out of the time loop.
It's an interesting premise and, like most time loop books I've read, you can guess what happens. Carter and Mariana try lots of different things to try to break out of the loop from doing everything the same to doing everything differently to any and everything they can think of. And then... things get weird. Generally, this is where time loop books excel, but unfortunately, here's where Chen lost me.
Interestingly what I have enjoyed most about Chen's books in the past is that they are sci-fi for people who don't love science. He rarely gets bogged down in the science of what's happening in his fiction, but in A Quantum Love Story, he is all about the science, sometimes in mind-numbing detail. At one point, I would have given an eyeball to have any character oversimplify and talk about "wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff" but alas, no such luck. Instead we got lots of talk of paradoxes, quantum physics and scientific jargon. I'm going to give Chen the benefit of the doubt in the same way I do Andy Weir or anyone else brave enough to write about this stuff and believe his theories are correct because "timey-wimey" is about my level of scientific understanding.
Anyway, all this to say, by the time the time loops got weird, I was bored and when Carter's memories started to slip - as the book blurb told us was going to happen, I was downright furious. Reading the acknowledgments I understand a bit more about his thought process, but it didn't make me feel any better about the back end of this book, though it did make me wonder what was going on in Chen's life when he wrote this.
I read the book and listened to the audiobook when I didn't have time to sit and read. The audiobook was narrated by Patti Murin, who I recently heard narrate the Rom-Commers. Once again, I enjoyed her voice and her characters.
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