Quantum Coin

Stats
Quantum Coin by E. C. Myers
Published 2012 by Prometheus Books/Pyr
Fair Coin Series: Book 2
331 pages

I originally reviewed Fair Coin after winning a copy in a WWEnd giveaway last year. So when Pyr gave Dave and the guys a copy of the sequel, Quantum Coin, they asked if I was interested. I liked Fair Coin well enough; it was fun, did a lot to stoke a latent librarian fetish I didn't know I was harboring, and ended the Ephraim/Jena/Zoe love triangle in an oh-so-deliciously-yet-unsatisfying way that probably resonates with anyone who has ever had a teenage crush (I09 called it "Pure Awesome Crack"). Well, and of course turning down a free book is just weird, so I told Dave a few months ago that I'd love to review it and could probably do so within a few weeks (clearly an unscrupulous lie).

Time and Space and Everything

Quantum Coin begins almost as soon as Fair coin leaves off. Ephraim has left the world of universe-jumping behind - sort of - and he is happily in love with Jena Kim. No more coins, no more controllers, no more careless wishes, no more murders. But you know the multiverse is going to put him on notice on the very night, of all nights, that he and Jena plan to finally… cough… go to prom.

So instead of consecrating their prom night (with Nathan finding a way to secretly record everything, I'm sure), Ephraim is forced to dredge-up all his horror stories and dammit if he isn't going to have to choose between Jena (the love of his life) and Zoe (the love of his parallel life) yet again.

Side note: Ephraim might also want to consider 1) figuring out what exactly is malfunctioning with time and space and everything, and 2) FIX ALL OF THE UNIVERSES.

So in his quest to re-fix the rapidly decaying structure of the universe, Ephraim and the gang need to uncover the mysteries and inner-workings of the multiverse pronto. And wouldn't you know it, that's gonna mean hurtling across more universes, more coin flips, more controllers, more wishes, and the very real possibility of more murders. Dang it all!

Tell me everything. No wait, stop! Don't!

If Bruce Willis taught us anything in Looper, it's that a paucity of details ("I don't want to talk about time travel because if we start talking about it then we're going to be here all day talking about it, making diagrams with straws") is sometimes the best way to get your audience to suspend disbelief.

On the whole I think Myers managed that balance decently in Fair Coin, but less so in Quantum Coin and this is my biggest caution. Not that you're asked to suspend disbelief, no, I think we're all sufficiently comfortable with that here at WWEnd. Instead Quantum Coin illustrates the very real problem that occurs when, in the interest of complicating and elaborating on concepts first hinted at earlier in a series, the sequel concerns itself with all manner of minutia that instead only pulls readers out of the story.

Now listen, I'm usually pretty forgiving on this front and Myers did a pretty good job of describing the multiverse in Fair Coin, which N. K. Jemisin aptly characterized as "chewy physics". In Quantum Coin though, the details actually stopped me from thinking about the science, it lost the mysterious appeal and it even threatened the momentum of the story entirely on occasion.

Like all science fiction, the book properly concerns itself with scientific principles, technology and whatnot, but perhaps overly so. Rather than using science to propel story, the science is concerned with the science and distracts from what is most compelling, The Jena-Zoe Problem.

Pardon Me, Your Pulp is Showing

"In the rare moments when he isn't writing, he blogs about Star Trek at theviewscreen.com, plays video games, watches classic films and television, sleeps as little as possible, and spends too much time on the internet."
- from the author's biography

Hands down, the best thing about Quantum Coin is Myers' seamless weaving of The Old Pulpy and The New Snarky. It should come as no surprise though, considering the author's stated penchants. I was surprised nevertheless to see in, Quantum Coin, just how well Myers capitalizes on his connection to pop culture as a blogger/gamer and to pulpy classics like Star Trek OTS.

So for all my complaining about the way Myers focuses on the physics of the universes, the alternate view is that, in fact it is unfair to try to fit Quantum Coin into expectations of a character-driven SF mold when it so clearly and purposefully harkens back to the pulp era.

My reading of Quantum Coin coincidentally coincided with my first concerted effort to break into Star Trek OTS and I couldn't help making comparisons. I say that the science distracts from the larger themes of the book, but under a closer microscope you might also see that as each new problem of the multiverse or the controller is identified and subsequently solved, it creates an almost episodic progression that I think fans of old-school SF could really appreciate. In this view, the uncovering of seemingly tedious scientific detail is in fact an entirely effective plot device.

The New Pulpy

As a sequel, Quantum Coin leaves something to be desired. Better stated, it leaves nothing to be desired. It took what I thought was Fair Coin's fantastic ending (which I really want to spoil but won't), an ending which hurt a little, and made Ephraim's choice a little too clean and a little too permanent.

But there was a lot to like too. Although I struggled at first with the over-development of the science, I eventually came to view Quantum as an entirely self-aware novel which, admittedly with some effort, manages to transition between classic storytelling tropes and new-school, character-driven and humor-ridden scenarios that I think the younger of the book's target audience might be more comfortable with.

Like this review, Quantum Coin isn't perfect, but go ahead and read it for The New Pulpy.