In the late 21st Century on Earth, Bioengineering and information systems have changed the face of humanity - you can be exactly who you want to be, but don't expect life to be any less uncertain in a world rife with religious cults and terrorism spawned by fear of the unknown. Then one night, the stars disappear - blocked out by 'The Bubble' which isolates the whole solar system. Humanity has been Quarantined - but why and more importantly still, by whom?
Quarantine
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Greg Egan, an Australian, is a master of intellectual dazzle who can still amaze hard-SF readers who know all the tricks and demand to be shown a new one. Quarantine (1992) was his first novel, though his short stories in Britain's SF magazine Interzone had already caused a stir. The quarantine of the title is a gigantic space-time bubble placed around Earth's orbit by unknown hands in 2034, making the stars and outer planets invisible and unreachable. Why? Investigating a pointless kidnapping, a resourceful cyber sleuth with a head full of computer add-ons stumbles on--and is forcibly recruited into--a technological conspiracy whose researches hint at the reason for the Bubble. It's there to protect the universe, or rather an infinite multiplicity of universes, from the destructive effects of human minds. In a ferociously intellectual argument Egan tackles the central weirdness of Quantum Mechanics, which is both the most successful and worryingly inexplicable theory of modern physics. Suppose it were possible for a thinking being to be consciously "smeared out" over the countless simultaneous probability states that according to QM are "collapsed" into a single reality when observed or measured? This happens to our hero, and the results are very strange indeed. Dizzying concepts and hardware overshadow the slightly flat characters, but it's a terrifically impressive book. - -David Langford
Review
"Taut, suspenseful, darkly powerful...Hot new writer Greg Egan seems to be turning up everywhere. He is on his way, and with considerable velocity!"--Gardener Dozois, editor, "The Year's Best SF
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
9 of 9 people found the following review helpful
By A Customer
Format:Paperback
Greg Egan has come up with enough ideas in this book to get a lesser author through a career. His portrayal of quantum mechanics - a pretty abstruse subject - in real and visceral terms is something else, at points in the book i was genuinely astounded. As hard sci-fi goes this is granite; i have a physics degree and i can tell you that given his postulates, it's all rigorous stuff. in short, i can't recommend this book strongly enough.
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I came across Greg Egan because someone had told me it was 'cyberpunk'. I'd finished Gibson and wanted more - more grit, more international megacorporations, more cyberwear.
And I got it, in 'Quarantine'. But that wasn't the point. The first quarter of so of the book is very cyber: neural modifications, private police, dodgy corporations all over the shop, and just when you think it's become boring, that Gibson did it first and better, Egan throws one of the best spins I've seen in recent science fiction and you find out what the raison d'etre of the book really is.
Whether or not you like cyberpunk as a genre has nothing to do with whether ot not you'll like Quarantine, although if you're already into it you'll get through the opening chapters better. It's really good old-fashioned speculative sci-fi, the sort that used to be set on alien worlds surrounded by spaceships, but which Egan has now set on a mid-21st century Earth - a brilliant fusion.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
By paul
Format:Paperback
WOW, I was very impressed with Egan's use of science-fact in this book. But its where that goes, with the huge twist at the end that really makes this book great.
It's a great shame the book didnt end a few pages earlier though, i was quite let down the way the ending was all tied up. Thats the only reason i couldnt give it 5 stars.
It was the first book by Egan i have read, and i am looking for more...
P
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Great Read
Thoroughly enjoyable read. Does help to have some prior knowledge of Quantum Theory. Definitely a book that makes you think, which can only be a good thing.
Published 1 month ago by Paleo Newbie
2.0 out of 5 stars
Not my cup of tea
Just finished this, but to be honest was minded to stop with about 50 pages to go.
The book starts as a detective story, set on Earth in the nearish future. Read more
The book starts as a detective story, set on Earth in the nearish future. Read more
Published 9 months ago by ChrisKnight
2.0 out of 5 stars
A little hard to take
A few years back my first Greg Egan discovery was Diaspora which I love and have re-read a number of times. Since his books are hard to find in the U.S. Read more
Published on 19 Nov 2010 by ChrisF
5.0 out of 5 stars
Absolutely brilliant
One of the best sci-fi books I have read in a long time - absolutely brilliant. However if you don't have some prior knowledge of quantum mechanics then you might find it tough... Read more
Published on 20 July 2010 by HardSciFi
3.0 out of 5 stars
Great film-noir sci-fi spoilt by too much quantum mechanics.
On the whole, I think I enjoyed this book - film noir sci-fi, sort-of Sam Spade meets the Neuromancer. Read more
Published on 14 April 2010 by Willy Eckerslike
5.0 out of 5 stars
!!!Concept Vertigo!!!
Firstly; watch out for plot spoiler reviews!!
(it's not a mystery tour if you know where your heading)
Egan's work is 'Hard' Sci-Fi of the highest order. Read more
(it's not a mystery tour if you know where your heading)
Egan's work is 'Hard' Sci-Fi of the highest order. Read more
Published on 11 Jan 2010 by numpty
3.0 out of 5 stars
Disappointing
I like hard science fiction & am not daunted by scientific concepts being essential to the plot but this book just didn't work for me - it's well-written from the point of view of... Read more
Published on 14 Oct 2009 by Roger Cawkwell
4.0 out of 5 stars
Courageous
Lively, well written SF which is packed with more than its fair share of ingenious, well presented ideas in the first 100 pages. Read more
Published on 1 Feb 2003 by Cornelius Driessen
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