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qntm

Ra Kindle Edition

by qntm (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

605 ratings

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Magic is real.

Discovered in the 1970s, magic is now a bona fide field of engineering. There's magic in heavy industry and magic in your home. It's what's next after electricity.

Student mage Laura Ferno has designs on the future: her mother died trying to reach space using magic, and Laura wants to succeed where she failed. But first, she has to work out what went wrong. And who her mother really was.

And whether, indeed, she's dead at all...

Print length

473 pages
Language

English
Publication date

December 11, 2018
File size

1973 KB
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Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B07L9KLYPK
Publication date ‏ : ‎ December 11, 2018
Language ‏ : ‎ English
File size ‏ : ‎ 1973 KB
Simultaneous device usage ‏ : ‎ Unlimited
Text-to-Speech ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Screen Reader ‏ : ‎ Supported
Enhanced typesetting ‏ : ‎ Enabled
X-Ray ‏ : ‎ Not Enabled
Word Wise ‏ : ‎ Enabled
Print length ‏ : ‎ 473 pages
Lending ‏ : ‎ Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #72,511 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #5,316 in Science Fiction (Kindle Store)
- #7,618 in Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
605 ratings

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qntm

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Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		26%
3 star		8%
2 star		3%
1 star		1%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Jan Dziekan

Packs a Punch

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2019

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In an alternate 20th century, humankind witnesses a discovery of magic. It becomes a branch of science, full of rules and equations. The uptake is so quick that in few decades “industrial mage” is a viable profession. We follow a story of Laura, a talented magic user who dreams of flying to space. She joins an aerospace company to work on including magic in propulsion systems.

The tale starts a bit unassuming, but it quickly evolves into an intrigue where the fate of the whole world hangs in balance. In my opinion the narrative is flawlessly executed. I absolutely love how the author hints at larger events piecemeal, letting the reader to build its own understanding of matters at hand - only to shatter them with a finely-timed revelation. The setting, with magic akin to software programming, is used consistently and brings unique color to the whole story.

I have picked this book by accident, but once I started I have finished it in two evenings. Please accept my sincere recommendation ;)

15 people found this helpful

Helpful

J. Hanley

One of my favorite novels

Reviewed in the United States on December 13, 2018

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This book is terrific. Buy it if you like hard SF.

I would say buy it if you like rational fiction, but if you're familiar with that genre, you've probably already read it. Personally, I've already read it multiple times--both the original ending and the rewritten one that I'm guessing appears here--and I'm still buying it because it's just that darn good.

RA is hard to describe, though. It's a lot like one of those forced perspective gifs, where there is a huge paradigm shift and suddenly you realize the scene you thought you were seeing is actually something totally different. Except it's the basic nature of all of reality that shifts instead of a guy apparently getting into a new Lamborghini that turns out to be a matchbox car. I can't really say too much without risking ruining it. I love books with that kind of wild perspective shift, though, and this is one of the best I've read.

It's not a perfect novel, but the ideas packed in are just so huge and so well used that it's hard to stop thinking about. It deserves its own fanfiction. It's one of those books that you finish a little angry because it's so damn brilliant you're kind of mad that it wasn't you that wrote it. Top notch worldbuilding.

Frankly, I wish Sam would give up programming and write full-time.

8 people found this helpful

Helpful

Nathan Griffiths

Good premise, awkward execution

Reviewed in the United States on January 24, 2021

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The premise, of magic being discovered in 1970 in a similar way to other scientific discoveries and becoming a scientific discipline itself, was intriguing and the first few chapters that set this scenario up were quite good.

However once the main plot kicked in I became less and less interested, there's virtually no characterisation to speak of, both protagonists and antagonists are sketched in the lightest of strokes so I struggled to care about any of them.

The parts discussing magic and magical interactions are so weighted down with pseudo scientific jargon that it felt like needlessly hard work to get through these parts.

Overall I feel there's a good story in here, potentially, but it needed to be told from a more human perspective with some interesting characters rather than focusing so much on making the science-magic sound plausible and trim some of the needless minutae out.

16 people found this helpful

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Anthony

Superb

Reviewed in the United States on February 7, 2021

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Starts off with the premise that ‘magic’ is real
And then it gets really weird. Vast and epic in scope.
A little too vast maybe. Gets a bit thin and scattered in places.
However, it is jam packed with ideas. Physics. Computing. Virtuality and reality. A great pleasure to read.
The wheel, the listening post, the secret door in the Western Australia desert. Unstoppable assassins from outside reality.

One person found this helpful

Helpful

David M. Chess

Very good transcendental-hard-SF

Reviewed in the United States on June 5, 2021

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I admit I was not always sure exactly what was going on, and reality was sufficiently malleable ATV times that the author could have pulled any rabbit at all out of any hat and I would probably have nodded and accepted it.

On the other hand I also had the strong impression that the author actually had it all worked out and was not in fact winging it, and someone with more discipline than I have could have followed along closely.

Mind-bending, wild, satisfying.

Helpful

Chris C

Earned five stars by the end

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2022

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This isn't a hard read necessarily, but qntm keeps raising the stakes throughout and there are times where they completely leave the reader behind. I thought about stopping several times but am glad I didn't. qntm eventually comes back and explains what's going on. By the end, you realize it's an amazing story and worth toughing it out (for some, the hard parts might make the explanations more rewarding).

Reviewed in the United States on December 28, 2021

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Read this book. It's too wild, too rough. The pacing is off. It needed an editor. But, it's outrageous extrapolation, entertaining with characters who are trying to be realistic. It's a noble attempt at an excellent science fiction novel.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

George. W. L

Cerebral Sci-Fantasy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 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

Steve Powell

Takes some interesting turns (solid misdirection)

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 25, 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.

James Syme

Hidden Gem

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 21, 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.

2 people found this helpful

Edward Kotarski

Science magic

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on January 21, 2020

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Really good, great writing style. A tad hard to follow at times.

2 people found this helpful

Aaron Brady

Going to be thinking about it for a long time

Reviewed in Canada on February 4, 2022

Verified Purchase

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.

One person found this helpful

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qntm
2,600
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $1.99
qntm
393
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.99
qntm
316
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $1.99
Exurb1a
2,558
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $3.70
Exurb1a
437
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $4.00
Greg Egan
273
Kindle Edition
1 offer from $2.99

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