Buy new:

$20.99

Get Fast, Free Shipping with Amazon Prime

FREE delivery Thursday, August 25 if you spend $25 on items shipped by Amazon

Or fastest delivery Wednesday, August 24

Usually ships within 8 days.

As an alternative, the Kindle eBook is available now and can be read on any device with the free Kindle app.

[{"displayPrice":"$20.99","priceAmount":20.99,"currencySymbol":"$","integerValue":"20","decimalSeparator":".","fractionalValue":"99","symbolPosition":"left","hasSpace":false,"showFractionalPartIfEmpty":true,"offerListingId":"tBLXpMOtE5GxL3aJbSehsGf8I8Df2%2FQDXF7ByrfKAOGmsw5INMANRPBd5BlNRQ6VV4EjgVGY3X8Qh2XmTVjRxLUlJP%2FzC%2BaBsTYNL27EEB3gVvmE6ru2LWeJXQHtpRkukyCPESEPi%2Bprmb2Mdxk1kg%3D%3D","locale":"en-US","buyingOptionType":"NEW"}]

$$20.99 () Includes selected options. Includes initial monthly payment and selected options. Details

Secure transaction

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Details

Ships from

Amazon.com

Sold by

Amazon.com

Return policy: Eligible for Return, Refund or Replacement within 30 days of receipt

Add a gift receipt for easy returns

Share <Embed>

Have one to sell?

Sell on Amazon

Flip to back Flip to front

Listen Playing... Paused You're listening to a sample of the Audible audio edition.
Learn more

See all 2 images

Follow the Author

qntm

Ra Hardcover – June 2, 2021

by qntm (Author)

661 ratings

See all formats and editions

Price

New from

Used from

Kindle

"Please retry"

$3.99

—

Hardcover

"Please retry"

$20.99

—

Paperback

"Please retry"

$13.99

—

Enhance your purchase

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

471 pages
Language

English
Publication date

June 2, 2021
Dimensions

6 x 1.37 x 9 inches
ISBN-13

979-8514084241
See all details

Frequently bought together

+
+

Total price:

To see our price, add these items to your cart.

Choose items to buy together.

by qntm Hardcover
$20.99
Usually ships within 8 days.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
by qntm Hardcover
$17.99
Usually ships within 8 days.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.
by qntm Hardcover
$15.99
Usually ships within 8 days.
Ships from and sold by Amazon.com.

qntm
2,796
Paperback
2 offers from $7.19
qntm
430
Paperback
2 offers from $9.34
qntm
349
Paperback
1 offer from $5.99
Exurb1a
1,308
Paperback
1 offer from $17.00
Exurb1a
1,046
Paperback
2 offers from $15.99
Exurb1a
2,687
Paperback
10 offers from $9.28

Start reading Ra on your Kindle in under a minute.

Don't have a Kindle? Get your Kindle here, or download a FREE Kindle Reading App.

Product details

ASIN ‏ : ‎ B096TRWRWX
Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (June 2, 2021)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Hardcover ‏ : ‎ 471 pages
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 979-8514084241
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.74 pounds
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.37 x 9 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #350,918 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #24,716 in Science Fiction (Books)

Customer Reviews:
661 ratings

About the author

Follow authors to get new release updates, plus improved recommendations.

qntm

Brief content visible, double tap to read full content.

Full content visible, double tap to read brief content.

Discover more of the author’s books, see similar authors, read author blogs and more

Customer reviews

5 star		62%
4 star		27%
3 star		8%
2 star		2%
1 star		1%

How customer reviews and ratings work

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Jan Dziekan

Packs a Punch

Reviewed in the United States on January 14, 2019

Verified Purchase

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

Verified Purchase

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

Verified Purchase

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

Helpful

Chris C

Earned five stars by the end

Reviewed in the United States on June 11, 2022

Verified Purchase

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).

Helpful

Robert Shuler

dystopian anti-tech moral lesson, deceptively written

Reviewed in the United States on July 15, 2021

Verified Purchase

The book description and preview, as well as existing reviews, do not disclose the genre well enough for a reader to decide if this book is for them.

This story is a long winded (economically priced) dystopian moral lesson in the ills of technology, broken utopias, and the issues arising from concealing things. The characters' understanding of the ground rules keep changing (somewhat like real life) which undermines their ability to take constructive action, and leads to failure for both protagonists and antagonists. Critique of flat characters is misguided. These are action figures and geeks, and the book is written for action or intellectual oriented readers, not those that routinely introspect in the modern style. The characters are fully and accurately developed for the type of characters that they are. But it is disappointing to get involved with them and see them fail so badly.

The following summary may contain more plot details than some readers want, but I prefer to know a little more about what I'm going to read.

Magic, in the beginning of the book, is a division of physics, following explicit rules, highly repeatable. Oddly, speaking is required, but no listener can be identified and there is no judgment or moral filter on the results of magic. Other inconsistencies appear in a series of disconnected and confusing episodes, often involving one-time use of unrelated characters. Magical artifacts exist which were made thousands or tens of thousands of years before magic was discovered. Only our star has the special core that generates the mana that powers magic, not other stars. Humans argue over whether these discrepancies are important.

Sisters Laura and Natalie lose their mother, who tries to save a doomed space shuttle crew, and in so doing displays far more magical ability than is possible at the time, adding to the mystery. Laura devotes herself to figuring this out. Laura is attacked, and develops thereafter shield tech which she shares with her sister. This aids them in later adventures. Though not enough.

A dreamscape is observed by numerous mages, and so it is apparent it has some objective reality. Recordings of magical events can be found, and so Laura gets the idea of possibly resurrecting her mother. Much of the book revolves around this plot point. At first, obtaining enough magic is a limiting factor. Each mage has only so much, but it can be stored. The dreamscape is dangerous, and mages can die there. On the opening day of college classes, in a demonstration involving Laura, Benji and another student, Benji is lost in the dreamscape, but this is not obvious because they have inadvertently created a copy of Benji which is occupied by a being that merely pretends to be Benji. Later this new Benji tries to blow up Laura and Natalie and much of Iceland. It is during this episode that they discover and rescue the original Benji.

After graduating and a failed attempt to use mana stored by her employer to rescue her mom, Laura swaps her boyfriend, Nick, for the mysterious demon of the dreamscape, to try and manipulate it and learn its power. This seems like a really, really stupid move when stated in the light of day. And it is. The being convinces her that magic was once unlimited and freely obtainable without detailed spells, and the group which discovered it first, The Wheel organization, locked it down.

Meanwhile, mostly due to their violent suppression of magic, Natalie and a man from Laura's old company discover the hidden conflict with The Wheel, and talk with its members, and get a different story. People who live in the real world have long been at war with a giant AI they have created which grants wishes. And with virtual people who essentially live in the AI, which is distributed everywhere, but its largest component is in the sun, thus it is an artificial sun god, Ra (Egyptian sun god). The main AI was defeated and locked down, but the key still exists (there is a big fuss about this, it's not supposed to) and Laura's mother may know where to find it. Thus some of the distributed components of Ra, not locked down but not themselves powerful enough, are helping Laura resurrect her mother. There is a dilemma trying to convince Laura, in the middle of the operation, which version is true.

Ra seems to represent the logical end point of technology and capitalism, and its ability to grant us whatever we want materially. But new grants destroy old grants. There is no morality to it. The novel projects we can't win, or shut it off, and the protagonists wind up living in a sort of hell which is temporarily pleasant but they have no purpose. This is an interesting commentary on whether virtual existence has meaning or not. But I do not appreciate being duped into reading a long, depressing dystopian novel in order to receive this commentary. The antagonists (not Ra, but The Wheel) suffer a slightly different fate which may or may not have more long term potential, but is worse for the foreseeable future.

The novel totally buys into the copy mentality. Ability to destroy and recreate a copy is the same as immortality. There is only a bare mention of the immense philosophical difficulty of this (namely that at each teleportation, one of the two experiences death).

This is the second novel by this author I have read. Both turned into quasi-horror stories. I probably won't read another one.

5 people found this helpful

Helpful

CT

Reminds me of Gavin Smith and Peter Watts - Splendid!

Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2021

Verified Purchase

Reminds me of Gavin Smith and Peter Watts - Splendid!

Reminds me of Gavin Smith and Peter Watts - Splendid!

Reviewed in the United States on May 10, 2021

Verified Purchase

I have just discovered this author and just can not stop reading their work. This is a beautiful, mind-bending ride, so hold onto your seat! I was not able to put this down.

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

George. W. L

Cerebral Sci-Fantasy

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 3, 2021

Verified Purchase

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

Verified Purchase

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

Verified Purchase

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

Verified Purchase

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

See all reviews

Buy new: $20.99

Follow the Author

Ra Hardcover – June 2, 2021

Enhance your purchase

Frequently bought together

Customers who viewed this item also viewed

Product details

About the author

qntm

Customer reviews

Top reviews from the United States

There was a problem filtering reviews right now. Please try again later.

Top reviews from other countries

Buy new:

$20.99