Dropping out of subspace into the wrong galactic sector, Sethran Kada wakes up with a headache and an extraordinary alien aboard his ship. She implores him to help stop the abductions of her people, a newly evolved species emerging from subspace. Their dangerous potential has caught the attention of rebel factions as well as the ruling Commonwealth. When contact with her kind turns pilots into casualties, the Governors fear an imminent invasion engineered by their rebel enemies.
Pursued by Air Command, Seth heads deep into rebel-controlled territory to recover the stolen entities and keep this deadly weapon from falling into the wrong hands. Things get personal when his alien visitor begins to transform his mind and his life, turning the rescue mission into a fight for survival for all of them.
Chronologically speaking, Quantum Tangle takes place just after Only Human, but there is no connection between the stories other than settings and some of the characters.
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"It should be filmed. Bravo"
"...pure gold if you like sci-fi ... Expect to laugh a lot, and run the gamut from happy and sad, to angry.
"Everybody knows that I love Nova, but I must say that this book was even better! ... I was asking myself constantly how would I feel and what would I do if I were in Seth's place. And I enjoy immensely when a book manages to do that to me!"
"I can't wait to get my hands on the next one! Chris Reher has created a vast, well peopled universe with diverse and fascinating characters. Completely and wickedly entertaining."
"I loved this book. I could see it as a movie! The writing was so good that I could see everything so clearly. It reminded me of how Stephanie Meyers book "The Host" was turned into a movie. This one would be even better! "
"Another great book from Chris Reher with a very interesting concept which I have not come across before in my SF reading"
While pondering new ways of irritating my readers by inserting another Nova Whiteside story into the middle of the series, someone asked me about other characters in these stories. Sethran Kada who annoys Nova in The Catalyst and shows up later in Rebel Alliances, seems to have some fans of his own.
And so here is Quantum Tangle, a story just for Seth, which fills in a little of his background and dumps him into the middle of an alien invasion. Waging his private rebellion against both the rebel opposition and Air Command, he's on the run from both to save the day.
Seth is not the super-spy, unbeatable secret agent type. Things don't always go his way. He has no clever insights into the Big Bad. His missions are beset with emotional entanglements that a proper operative should avoid at all costs. But he's quick and resourceful and he knows all the right people to get the job done. In some way or another.
Also making a re-appearance is Caelyn, the Delphian navigator that helped out in The Catalyst
The title Quantum Tangle is a fleeting nod to String Theory and the suggestion that the primary mod of deep space travel in this series is accomplished by finding entangled particles in subspace. But for the most part, it's about Sethran's brain getting all tangled up with a compound quantum particle setting up shop in his head. I liked the idea that a sufficient set of entangled particles could, without actually physically touching, combine to create a sentient, conscious being.
But this is space opera, so let's not get too technical! There are rebels to vanquish and officers to elude. The story, like the others, is primarily about the people living in Trans-Targon. In the absence of genetic material, is it possible to shape a personality purely through experience and exposure to information? Through interaction to others? Does someone else's personality affect your response to them?
And why would anyone take a Delphian civilian to a rebel planet?