Quantum Space by Douglas Phillips
Book 1 of 5 Quantum Series 359 pages Copyright April, 2017
An online acquaintance whose views on what good science fiction is are congruent with my own gave me a link to a Kindle Unlimited Library offering, Quantum Time by Douglas Phillips. It was obviously the third book in a series, but I felt it could give me a good sense of the quality and content anyway. If I wasn’t hopelessly lost by page 20, that would suggest at least competent writing.
I got about a fifth the way in, and realized that while it was working perfectly well as a stand-alone novel, the two main characters had to have one hell of a backstory, based just on their reactions to some of the decidedly odd things going on around them.
So I got book one of the Quantum Series, Quantum Space.
The author’s blurb on Amazon reads as follows:
“Space turned out to be deeper than anyone imagined.
“High above the windswept plains of Kazakhstan, three astronauts on board a Russian Soyuz capsule begin their reentry. A strange shimmer in the atmosphere, a blinding flash of light, and the capsule vanishes in a blink as though it never existed.
“On the ground, evidence points to a catastrophic failure, but a communications facility halfway around the world picks up a transmission that could be one of the astronauts. Tragedy averted, or merely delayed? A classified government project on the cutting edge of particle physics holds the clues, and with lives on the line, there is little time to waste.
“Daniel Rice is a government science investigator. Marie Kendrick is a NASA operations analyst. Together, they must track down the cause of the most bizarre event in the history of human spaceflight. They draw on scientific strengths as they plunge into the strange world of quantum physics, with impacts not only to the missing astronauts, but to the entire human race.”
The Soyuz does eventually turn up, but with no sign of the cosmonauts. Since the sealed capsule can only be opened from the outside, and there’s no sign of any horrible ending to the three men, the mystery only deepens.
Quantum Space is a locked room mystery, a voyage of scientific knowledge, and a first contact novel all wrapped up into one. While trying to find out what became of the cosmonauts our characters encounter a strange shiny silver object, a variation of the Yin-Yang circle. It turns out to be a Rosetta Stone, but one that only someone familiar with advanced quantum particle physics can unravel.
Both ingenious and scientifically literate, Phillips’ work is a great deal of fun, and like all really good science fiction writers, he introduces the reader to abstract and advanced elements in a way that is fun and engaging. If you only have a vague notion of what the Standard Model is, you’re in for a treat. Yes, that is the most boring name possible for the theory, and I’m sure Calvin, who came up with HSK (Horrendous Space Kablooie) for the Big Bang could have come up with something better. Phillips explains what it is, why it is everything in existence, and why it matters—and comes up with some amazing implications.
Oh, yes, and it’s a hell of a good read. There’s five books in the series, so this is just the start.