Ra eBook : qntm: Amazon.co.uk: Kindle Store (original) (raw)
Top reviews from the United Kingdom
- 5 out of 5 stars
Brain meltingly good
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 15 February 2023
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Another amazing addition to qntm's vast bibliography of truly amazingly written sci-fi thrillers.
This book combats the concept of quantum thaumics, the matrix, interstellar wars against vast artificial intelligence.
There have been many days where I've read through a hundred pages, and 'woke up' per se not quite knowing where I was in reality.
This. Was. Amazing.
3 people found this helpful - 4 out of 5 stars
Science magic
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 January 2020
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Really good, great writing style. A tad hard to follow at times.
2 people found this helpful - 5 out of 5 stars
Takes some interesting turns (solid misdirection)
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 25 March 2022
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This book wraps several different six fi genres into its dense web of plot. It clips along at a pace and the ending isn’t entirely expected and maybe a little unsatisfyingly vague. The motivations and expositions are left a bit sketchy. But it’s an incredibly accomplished book and a very very good read.
2 people found this helpful - 3 out of 5 stars
Not for me
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 September 2021
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I had high hopes of this book as the sample I had was interesting. However, I soon found myself losing touch with the book and the story it was telling and just couldn't find the will to read on. The writing is good, plotting also I guess but Ra and I did not get on and I deleted it.
One person found this helpful - 5 out of 5 stars
Hidden Gem
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 21 May 2019
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Found this book on social media pretty much at random, was intrigued and took a chance on it, and it's one of the best sci-fi novels I've ever read. Similar to The Three Body Problem, it is a tight and well-written book set in an insanely inventive universe and I was genuinely sad when I finished it. Recommended.
4 people found this helpful - 5 out of 5 stars
Cerebral Sci-Fantasy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 3 June 2021
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Such a cool take on the Sci-Fantasy subgenre, with magic being an advanced field of engineering that requires many years of training to even cast the most basic of spells
2 people found this helpful - 2 out of 5 stars
Reads more like a first draft.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 20 April 2026
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The concept behind the book and magic is interesting.
However, the book reads more like a first draft then a fleshed out book.
The pacing is incredibly fast and there are a lot of scenes that feel like they don't add any value to the characters or story.
In addition, there is no character development or questions/story/plot, after about 80 pages I dropped it as there was nothing to keep me reading. - 1 out of 5 stars
Not for me
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on 10 May 2024
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I found this hard to follow and unengaging, I gave up about a quarter of the way through.
One person found this helpful
Top reviews from other countries
- 5 out of 5 stars
Going to be thinking about it for a long time
Reviewed in Canada on 4 February 2022
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I picked this up after "There is No Antimemetics Division" and I rudely thought "Oh, I can see how this is a similar kind of story" but it contains several events which are not just twists but really shifts in the perspective of the whole story. I really can't think of anything I didn't like about it. It's emphatically not just the "what if magic were real and it was as boring as engineering" trope.
- 5 out of 5 stars
Exhausting in a good way
Reviewed in Australia on 21 July 2022
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I prefer There is No Antimemetics Division for its style and lack of magic, but this one is worth reading to get some idea of how Sam Hughes operates. It's a raw, unrefined gush of qntm.
The magical stuff made me hesitate - magic and mages etc etc - they're kitsch - but I'm glad I persisted. It's pure huge sf. Qntm has renewed my love of the genre.
Only thing is: he needs to learn where 'which' and 'that' are correctly used.
- 5 out of 5 stars
Where was this Incredible Novel ?
Reviewed in the United States on 5 May 2021
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Sam Hughes - you have created something amazing. This novel is one-of-a-kind. What an incredible breadth of technology and imagination wrapped around one helluva tale. I just finished and wanted to thank you for the wonderful hours I spent reading RA.
A story about magic based on Quantum Physics, a set of unidentical twins and a world figuring just what magic can do. Don't let that lull you into thinking that's all there is to this tale. It's just the tip of the iceberg - like describing Dante's Inferno as a poem about Hell; a huge, misleading understatement.
Action, drama, with very interesting and strange characters. There is more imagination packed in the pages of this book than most of the books I have read. With a tally of about 5k books, that's my highest recommendation.
Bravo, Sam Hughes! Bravo!
- 4 out of 5 stars
Quite an Unexpected Sequence of Events
Reviewed in the United States on 10 September 2025
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Don’t be put off by the magic. I was at first, marking the novel as Science Fantasy, but it’s squarely Science Fiction. It’s very well done. I was put off by the ending as I felt it could’ve been so much more, and for that I deducted a star. But the novel itself is great, containing ideas and concepts I’ve encountered nowhere else. Plenty of twists and turns, characters you’ll love and hate, and moments you’ll dwell upon. One of Qntm’s most concept heavy works
- 5 out of 5 stars
Detailliert in der Thaumaturgie, unerwartet tiefgründig im Plot
Reviewed in Germany on 31 March 2024
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Für mich eine perfekte Mischung aus Fantasy und Scifi und dabei an wenig Stereotype der beiden genres gebunden.