Supersymmetry

June 22, 2015
If at first you don’t succeed, change the past. That lesson haunts this family drama turned world-saving exercise. As in Superposition, the Kelley family faces an invading quantum intelligence, the varcolac, which seeks to eliminate the messy multiplicity of humanity. Sisters Sandra and Alex (duplicates of an original Alessandra) attempt to decode their father’s cryptic mathematical clues and master the quantum technology that allows the varcolac access to our universe. They have two goals: defeat the alien, and keep from collapsing back into a single individual. Walton infuses humor (the end of the world “will make the lines shorter on Black Friday”) into his otherwise bleak look at the inevitability of humankind’s self-destruction. Meditations on identity link to the ethics of changing the past in ways that help convince the reader to accept a resolution involving a worrisome but unavoidable sacrifice. Agent: Eleanor Wood, Spectrum Literary Agency.

July 1, 2015
Second part of the science-fiction/thriller duology following Superposition (April 2015). Some 15 years after the events of the previous book, its hero, physicist-turned-teacher Jacob Kelley, is placidly watching a baseball game when a terrifying, irresistible force destroys the entire ballpark. Terrorists are blamed. Kelley's daughter, Sandra, a police officer and one of the first responders, finds his body. Later that evening, Sandra gets a phone call. From her dad. Meanwhile, neurotic genius physicist Ryan Oronzi has developed the breakthrough Higgs projector technology into military-grade weaponry-including invisibility, teleportation, and the manipulation of objects at a distance-using the power contained in a bubble universe. Problem is, inside the bubble lurks the incomprehensible and hostile creature, the "varcolac," that caused all the trouble last time around. Fearing that it will soon break free, Ryan tries to cancel a demo which physicist/defense contractor employee Alex Kelley will attend. (Alex and Sandra were once the singular Alessandra but split into two probability waves during the previous adventure.) Sure enough, the varcolac escapes, and, during the ensuing battle, Alex shoots dead a government bigwig whose body the varcolac had absorbed. Sure that she'll be accused of murder, she flees and soon meets up with Ryan, who's figured out that she knows more than she's telling. Evidently they'll all need help from the villainous mastermind of the last piece, Jean Massey, and they prepare to spring her from jail. It would be unjust to aver that the plot doesn't add up when in fact it's incapable of any mathematical operation whatsoever, and stereotypes would be an improvement on Higgs projector-packing characters who battle evil (and each other) like manic Green Lanterns. Thrills and spills and sheer excitement on full-throttle overdrive. Just pay no attention to the wobbling scenery.

COPYRIGHT(2015) Kirkus Reviews, ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

September 15, 2015

The quantum creature known as the varcolac was first introduced in Superposition when it destroyed the life of physicist Jacob Kelly. A decade later, a young professor seems to have harnessed quantum powers in a microuniverse, right until the varcolac takes over and escapes into our world. The mix of action and science make this a solid pick for readers who like their near-future sf on the hard thriller side.--JM

Copyright 2015 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.