Subject: Review: Quarantine by Greg Egan

From: [email-masked]
Date: 06 Aug 2000 11:22:28 -0400

Quarantine by Greg Egan
	Review Copyright (c) 2000 Aaron M. Renn

Conclusion: Recommended

A nice, satisfying novel written against the backdrop of a 21st century
Earth where nanotechnology exists, you can upload custom software mods to
your brain, and the solar system is enclosed in a completely opaque
"Bubble" of something that has completely closed it off from the rest of
the universe.  No problem, we've still got the sun so the Earth still
works fine, except for a few religious cultists - it wouldn't be a Greg
Egan novel without a few religious wackos around - believing that the
Bubble is a sign from God or someone else.

Nick Stavrianos is a private detective engaged to track down a woman who
mysteriously disappeared from a hospital for the mentally ill.  Thus it
starts off as a high tech detective story, and an interesting one at that.
Shortly after Nick discovers what happened to said girl, however, we take
a detour into science lecture time.  Fortumately, unlike with some other
of Egan's work, this doesn't compromise the story.  Perhaps because this
lecture can be comprehended by the common man and is an interesting
speculation on the nature of - what else - quantum reality.  Regardless,
the bell rings, science class is out, and the detective story continues to
its solid conclusion.

%A Egan, Greg
%T Quarantine
%I HarperPrism
%D 1995-01 (original publication 1992)
%G ISBN 0-06-015423-2
%P 280 pp.
%O mass market paperback, US$5.99

Reviewed on 2000-07-30

-- 
Aaron M. Renn ([email-masked]) http://www.urbanophile.com/arenn/