The Quantum Garden is the second in Derek Künsken’s “Quantum Evolution” series. It explores the idea of transhumanism, as well as delving into moral quandary, both blended with some seriously snappy sci-fi action.
And yes, before you ask, it does it well. There’s so much to
love here. The plot is pure high-concept sci-fi It involves, without spoilers,
time travel, revolution, the salvation of a people, and some well observed,
sharp-edged banter. It’s a story exploring big questions. It wants to talk
about what it means to be human – or post human. Several of the characters are
labouring under a legacy of hyper-focus, able to step outside themselves, and
provide dispassionate estimations at the price of their own self dissolution.
Others are trying to shape a nation in the face of fiercely antagonistic
currents. Their efforts to make something worth approving of are at once
visibly fragile, and fiercely energetic. Though there’s a tight focus on the
central characters and their drivers, this is in service to the larger plot,
and to the issues that the story delves into. The Quantum Garden isn’t a hesit,
but it is wracked with tension and character-driven passion.
In some ways, this is also an optimistic story, It looks at
the shape of societies driven by people who aren’t entirely, well, human. In
most cases, those societies have managed to shape themselves decently, and are
struggling to shape their destiny (rather than to shape anything). The idea
that post-human people, despite their benefits and flaws, are still people, is
a valuable one. Indeed, the text embraces those flaws in a lot of ways,
exploring them in depth, and making no excuses. That said, it’s also
unflinching in indicating the pervasive, invasive nature it espouses to
corporate governance – the “shoot first, monetise later” mode. For all that, it
will leave you with a warm feeling, a sense that the hypothetical kids are
alright The pages of The Quantum Garden are filled with people in conflict,
struggling to define themselves and to do the right thing. But that conflict is
fiery, impassioned, compelling, and if some of the pdopkld making an argument
seem better able than others, that may well be my own bias. Kunsken has given
us a gloriously intelligent book, one unafraid to back away from the engagement
it at once encourages and requires in its readers.
The universe of The Quantum Garden expands that of the previous
book. Though we see less of the diversity I terms of humanity as in the previous
book, still it’s possible to be enthralled by the strange and mysterious on
display here. There are quiet moments between pages, when the fierce sense of
the new strikes, when what you’re reading feels alone and thoroughly, oddly
alien And that’s just the main characters.
This is also a character driven piece, delving into the
psychology, the drives and motivations of a couple of central characters. In
some ways, their viewpoints can be odd, unknowable. In other ways,
disconcertingly immediate and human. The Quantum Garden gives us viewpoints
which it’s easy to empathise and sympathise with, even as those views are in
conflict with each other. That all presented views can be correct, that the
ideological debates and practical consequences are valid and that they are
felt, helps to give the story texture, a raw realism that keeps the pages
turning.
I won’t get into the story, but it does have a lot going on.
I had to think about this one as it went along – parsing moral choices,
deciding which way I felt as characters struggled with ethical quandries But it
also transported me from the immediate into the transcendental, with a universe
familiar but unlike our own, where blaster fire ad quick wits can change the
world.
In the end, this is a great story. It wants you to think,
and to feel, to ask questions and hold the answers in your gut as well as in
your head. It’s telling a story that grabs hold and won’t let go, and which asks
interesting questions, and offers interesting answers. It’s all good stuff,
really Give it a try.
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