Book Review: Quarantine by Greg Egan

Another Egan novel involving strange physics. Earth has been surrounded by a huge bubble, one of the theories for this is to protect the rest of the universe - humans naturally collapse the wave state of quantum particles, the rest of the universe doesn't and their multiple states are being wiped out by humans observing the universe.

Nick, an ex-cop turned investigator, gets caught up in a plot to change humans so they no longer collapse the wave-state, bringing about multiple versions of themselves for every decision made. The future technology is interesting, with neural 'mods' - nano-machine changed neurons which give different behaviours. Eg: 'P3' - which enhances behaviour for stakeouts, eliminating boredom and increasing vigilance.

This is Egan's usual mix of action, character driven story and hard physics. Use it to feed your inner geek.

Title: Quarantine
Author: Greg Egan
Publisher: Legend
ISBN: 0099153815
Published Date: 1992
Pages: 219

You may also like:

Metropolitan by Walter Jon Williams
Neuromancer by William Gibson

Review by Paul Silver, 1997