Superpostition by David WaltonJacob Kelley's family is turned upside down when an old friend turns up, waving a gun and babbling about an alien quantum intelligence. The mystery deepens when the friend is found dead in an underground bunker…apparently murdered the night before he appeared at Jacob's house. Jacob is arrested for the murder and put on trial.
As the details of the crime slowly come to light, the weave of reality becomes ever more tangled, twisted by a miraculous new technology and a quantum creature unconstrained by the normal limits of space and matter. With the help of his daughter, Alessandra, Jacob must find the true murderer before the creature destroys his family and everything he loves.
From my Goodreads profile you can read that I like it when authors go into new direction and dare new things. With Quintessence David Walton had already proved that his writing was right up this alley. He doesn't proof me wrong once again with Superposition. When I first read the synopsis of it, I directly new that this would a book right up my alley and I had to immidiatetly think of a book in the lines of John Scalzi's Lock in and Hannu Rajaniemi Jean le Flambeur series. Also high tech Science Fiction book. I liked those book a lot and both made the list of best Science Fiction books of 2014. I am going to be bold by saying Superposition will be one of the best Science Fiction books that comes out this year. It's... I don't know, it's just awesome and clever and on top of it all just pretty darn cool.
Superposition picks up with the immediate focus on Jacob Kelley and his family and the interference of an old friend and colleague of Jacob, Brian, who tells him something about a big discovery he made and that nothing seems to be what it is. To show and proof this infront of Jacob he pulls a gun on his wife and shoots. His wife survives, but the sound the gun made proofs that the gun was fired, the bullet didn't travel through Jacob's wife though, or did it? These events leave both Jacob and his wife shocked and they call 911, only to find that Brian has fled. Even though they are left shocked, Jacob wants to get to the bottom of this and decides to look for Brian for more answers. After this introduction the scene suddenly shifts towards Jacob in the courthouse. Now if this doesn't trigger you interest, I don't know what will. Just to clarify, Jacob has been arrested for the murder on Brian. I can't really tell more about the plot itself though, as with such a story it would spoil the ending and middle and actually the next chapter as well. Let me end by saying that this story is a race against time or should I say quantum wave collapse?
The storyline of Superposition is split into two, the Up-Spin chapters and Down-Spin chapters, one explores the trial that is awaiting Jacob, whereas the other explores a often clear path for the reader into the insights of what really went on. This is a really clever way of telling the story, most of the story does focus on the actually events, but the side trips into the courthouse offer a very nice and unmissable perspective as well. I already mentioned that there is a great emphasis on technology in the book especially quantum physics, to which I will get in a bit, added to this comes much more though, an intricate story of exploring human behaviour, what would you do if you had this knowledge and the possibilites as well as a very fine and detailed scene in court. You can really see that David Walton went the extra mile to create a very real and believable plotline.
So Quantum physics. To begin with it, I am no expert, actually I don't have much knowledge about it. However this didn't pose a barrier at all for me and I think that most readers who are into Science Fiction or who actually haven't read such a book before won't find it difficult to relate with the subject matter at hand. David Walton is considered an expert in this field, he works as an engineer for a top technology company and this is clearly noticeable in the way that he brings over what can be considered heavy and bold idea's in Superposition, they aren't actually hard to craps as he breaks them down in bite size chuncks for you to understand them. I think what helped in this case is that the attorney that was defending Jacob Kelley is the same as us, he didn't know anything, so hence the breaking down of the subject matter. With this David Walton didn't create a information dump as well as you learn everything as the plot thickens... Just a last note on the cover in relation to the science part. The man or women with no eyes. It's not just an image in Superposition they are real, they are the varcolac, beings of quantum intelligence and deadly to say the least.
As for the characters. Firstly there is Jacob the main protagonist. I felt it really easy to connect with the guy. Just as with Quintessence, David Walton once again shows just what it takes to make real human character that act in a way as you and I would. Not only by virtues but also with the vices. Take the friend of Jacob for example, not Brian though, (read the book *hint*). I really liked Jacob, he is smart, resourceful and the idea he had with playing the trumph card in court and how it backfired just comes to proof it all. Next to Jacob there are a lot more memorable characters but not one that shares the same focus as Jacob the others are more shown as secondary characters but just as with Jacob they are very well fleshed out. Take Alessandra for example, Jacob's daughter, she is shown in such a complex way (of course aided by the idea of quantum physics), you just want to hug her and say everything is going to be okay. One other character that I liked from the start was Jacob attorney, this guy realy made me laugh, he might be somewhat of a joker, but when it comes to justice he is dead serious, a guy you can rely on. The outstanding characters really made this book shine even more.
All this taken together from the plot of Superposition to the big and bold idea's in the field of Quantum Physics that the story hold right down to the character this book is a definite win. I don't say this very often but Superposition with definitely be in many top favorite lists at the end of the year, if it isn't, it is because they haven't read the book, which in turn is a big big big shame. David Walton once again proves that his writing is just A-game material, he knows he stuff, not only the technical side of it all but also the humane side. Superposition is a book NOT to be missed. Read this book and a whole new world will open for you!
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