Quarantine

By: Greg Egan

Narrated by: Adam Epstein

In 2034, the stars went out. An unknown agency surrounded the solar system with an impenetrable barrier, concealing the universe from humanity’s gaze.

In 2067, Nick Stavrianos is hired to investigate the disappearance of a mentally disabled woman, Laura Andrews, from the institution where she was being cared for. Aided by a skull full of neural modifications, he follows her trail to the Republic of New Hong Kong, where an organization known as the Ensemble has uncovered Laura’s extraordinary secret: An ability that could transform the world.

©2013 Greg Egan (P)2013 Audible, Inc.

Good story

I am not usually interested in detective-style writing, but this was done well. As a sci-fi buff, I think it easy ranks as one of the better books I've read, with a plot that keeps moving, a style that is easy to follow & enjoy, as well as "futuristic" and scientific concepts that are interesting and mind-stretching. I've read the book before, but still reread it now since it had such interesting concepts.

The only detractor was that the narrator seemed to cut and splice his spoken segments at times with noticeably different vocal tones and inflections, but it wasent bad, just a little distracting. Not a big deal really.

Gets kinda dumb as the story goes on

The story starts out OK, and the premise is very gradually revealed. Unfortunately, I had to get about half-way through the book before I realized that the premise is kinda dumb. The more it was explained, the more I wanted to toss the book. Only got half-way through it.

The narrator is OK, but has a speech pattern that never varies. Again, by about half-way through the book it began to grate on me.

Fantastic Story Let Down by Narration

Where does Quarantine rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

In terms of narration, the worst so far.

In terms of story, up in the top 20%

What did you like best about this story?

The great ideas, like the priming, quantum mechanics, behavioral mods, and the quarantining of earth. The first part of the book, before it got into the quantum mechanics side of it, really reminded me of the Ghost in the Shell universe.

Would you be willing to try another one of Adam Epstein’s performances?

Yes, but only as I'm a Greg Egan fan, and no other option sadly.

I was able to "get used to it", but it was a conscious effort...

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not so much moving, but the lead character's discussing the behavior mods as a means of avoiding grief, and rationale behind it, on humans having always strived for behavioral modification, and a hardware mechanism of doing it being no less valid.

Any additional comments?

I've been a long term Greg Egan fan and was excited to see his books getting audiobook releases. However, the narrator they have chosen really is not very good, and it makes it a struggle to listen to. But if you can get past it, persevere, the story is worth it. If you still read written books though, I'd recommend just getting the written version. It is hard to pass up the convenience of audiobooks though...

Awesome read!

What did you love best about Quarantine?

This story had a great concept, and the author did a great job of making a difficult subject comprehensible to the lay-person. I can't help but think this could explain some of the oddities in our world like the Mandela Effect.

What did you like best about this story?

The level of technical detail was refreshing. Guessing what technology will be available in three to six decades is always difficult, but some sci-fi authors are surprisingly good at predicting how technology will evolve.

Which character – as performed by Adam Epstein – was your favorite?

The main character.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would the tag line be?

The sky is the limit; literally.

What more could I want from a Greg Egan Tale

Cool tech, deep science, and mind blowing revelations. loved it, right up there with his best.
Narrator is a bit deadpan. But works well with the sort of cyberpunk noir theme.

Leaves you wonderstuck thinking about the premise!

Some science fiction is just a story set with a twist, or a murder mystery in space, a romance but with cyborgs. Even hard science fiction, it's a lot of focus on a spaceship design or something and then people do stuff in the spaceship. Not for the Glorious Greg Egan! this author find a way to fundamentally shift reality, carefully backed by doing the math and thinking about the physics and the underlying axioms of the universe. his characters aren't a story with a twist, they exist in an altered reality where the fundamentals from the quantum foam up have been modified and carefully, carefully considered. Egan is one of the few authors where when you're done with the book you end up on Wikipedia learning more about the topic and a few weeks later you still can't get the premise out of your head, and suddenly you find yourself by chance talking to someone super technical or educated or whatever and you find that you came away from the Egan book with a full education and you can talk the talk with the best of them!

Egan not at his best

Quantum mechanics is not so pliable as simulated humanity - this ends up frustrating given Egan's level of detail and extrapolation.

Bizarre and really really cool

This book has a fascinating and unique premise that it utilizes to its fullest extent. The spy stuff near the end with the protagonists surreal superpower was thrilling and extremely cool. As with all of Egan's works this book explores themes of consciousness in a refreshingly logical way that is not often seen. Also typical of Egan's books the ending was a bit of a letdown, and I personally did not understand it at all.

The performance was pretty mediocre, but it was not bad enough to make me stop listening.

Overall, a fantastic read if you're a fan of hard sci fi.

Sci fi detective story centered on quantum theory and many worlds interpretation

A solid detective story with quantum mechanics at the core. Unfortunately the narration was grating, but worth enduring for the story.

Fine until thy very end

Fine until thy very end, then predictable, childish, unimaginative and generally felt lost. Before the end, I was very much enjoying it thought.