Derek Künsken

The Quantum Magician

Derek Kunsken

The breathtaking debut from acclaimed short story writer Derek Künsken. Belisarius is a quantum man, an engineered Homo quantus who fled the powerful insight of dangerously addictive quantum senses. He found a precarious balance as a con man, but when a client offers him untold wealth to move a squadron of warships across an enemy wormhole, he must embrace his birthright to even try. In fact, the job is so big that he'll need a crew built from all the new sub-branches of humanity. If he succeeds, he might trigger an interstellar war, but success might also point the way to the next step of Homo quantus evolution.

Sheila

4 stars. It's a superb compliment for a debut author to receive a byline from Yoon Ha Lee for their first novel, and I am happy to say this book lived up to the compliment!

There are few story tropes that I go ape for, and heists are one of them. A heist in space? My body temperature is rising and I'm beginning to fan myself. A heist in space with morally grey genetically-engineered criminals trying to find meaning in their existence? I AM PASSING OUT

I also want to say that this is the first time I've read a sci-fi story that is so genuinely Canadian. I got the same emotional vibes from this as I do reading an Inspector Gamache novel (which is to say, comforting in a Canadian way--idk it's hard to describe). This is also the first sci-fi universe I've experienced where French is one of the dominant languages of stellar humanity; just bless you Derek Künsken this is so adorable. When you have Venus colonized by Quebec separatists of course there would be a ship named for Jacques Parizeau. 

This book would have benefited from a better editor, as there were a number of weird grammatical issues sprinkled throughout. Solaris/Rebellion Publishing have had a number of extremely talented genre authors on their slate, so I have to wonder how something so basic as this slipped through the cracks. I had to take a star off for that, the number of errors was simply baffling in an otherwise superbly written book.

Bonus points for Künsken being a local Ottawa author! Given the shape of the book that I received from the public library and the immense hold time I had to endure before I got it, a popular one too :)

Benjamin

Sunky

Nicholas Conner

THE ULTIMATE CHASE Days ago, Belisarius pulled off the most audacious con job in history. He’s rich, he’s back with the love of his life, and he has the Time Gates, the most valuable things in existence. Nothing could spoil this… …except the utter destruction of his people and their world. To save them, he has to make a new deal with the boss he just double-crossed, travel back in time and work his quantum magic once again. If he can avoid detection, dodge paradox and stay ahead of the eerie, relentless Scarecrow, he might just get back to his own time alive. “Künsken has a wonderfully ingenious imagination.” - Adam Roberts, Locus “An audacious con job, scintillating future technology, and meditations on the nature of fractured humanity” - Yoon Ha Lee “Technology changes us—even our bodies—in fundamental ways, and Kunsken handles this wonderfully” - Cixin Liu

The Quantum Garden

Phileas Fogg

The stunning, critically-acclaimed follow-up to best-selling The Quantum Magician THE ULTIMATE CHASE Days ago, Belisarius pulled off the most audacious con job in history. He’s rich, he’s back with the love of his life, and best of all, he has the Time Gates, arguably the most valuable things in existence. Nothing could spoil this… …except the utter destruction of his people and the world they lived on. To save them, he has to make a new deal with the boss he just double-crossed, to travel back in time and work his quantum magic once again, tracking down the source of the wormholes. If he can avoid detection, dodge paradox and stay ahead of the eerie, relentless Scarecrow, he might just get back to his own time alive.

The Quantum Magician

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