Wednesday, September 30, 2015

Quanta by Lola Dodge, Aileen Erin Review

"Just because Quanta can see the future doesn’t mean she can change it. She’s spent most of her life imprisoned, feeding her captors information to keep herself alive, but she’s finally reached the endgame and her death creeps closer by the moment.

The son of two senators, Altair Orpheus leads a life of privilege that provides the perfect cover for his side job: working with the rebel Shadow Ravens to undermine the ruling Seligo government. Everything is running like clockwork until he crosses paths with Quanta. As he watches her deftly maneuver through life in a perverse prison, his plastic heart melts. A jailbreak would be suicide, but Tair is willing to sacrifice everything to give her a chance at happiness.

Now Quanta senses a terrifying new future brewing. She and Tair are bound together, but every image of them kissing, snuggling, and acting knee-weakeningly happy is balanced by a much darker possibility. They’ll be picture perfect together, but only until time rips them apart. How can she follow her heart when she’s seen how their love plays out?"

NetGalley. Thanks for the copy.  

Remember video games? Super Mario and all of that? When a person reaches a level but fail to get through it, they can always go back to a certain checkpoint. Well, the book is sort of like that. It is complicated, and it involves precognition, time traveling, and romance. Also, we have Quanta, the trapped but also brave heroine, who is firstmost trying to survive and then trying to escape her captors once she meets Altair Orpheus. 

The main character and one of the two narrators, Quanta is able to see the future. It is both a curse and a gift. It is the power that keeps her alive, but for how long? Well, theoretically, she will be able to foresee her death (and that is really creepy). But of course, the future is much more complicated than that. Quanta is impressive, and she really is a strong character (with hidden motivations that will be revealed along with the unfolding of her backstory). 

The other narrator, Altair Orpheus' character traits isn't as clear as Quanta's. It is slowly unravel, and his motivations are very straightforward (unlike Quanta's). But I like him as a love interest. He is brave, and he cares very much for Quanta. (Of course, it may be genetics, but let's not get into that. It is a debate for another day.)

The descriptions of Quanta seeing into the future/the past is really awesome. Kudos to that. 

The plot goes off very quickly, and I'm easily drawn into the story. I love watching Quanta trying to understand Altair. Their relationship is definitely dynamic to watch (and her predictions of the two of them in awkward places are amusing). 

The world building is easy to understand. Just think of Quanta's world as a Dystopia that wants to control everything by seeing the future and the past. It is exactly as creepy as it sounds, and it doesn't get any better. 

Overall, Quanta is an entertaining novel. It can be read as a standalone, and I find the plot to be engaging. I don't have a lot of empathy towards the characters, but I do find the world very, very, very frightening to live in.

Rating: Three out of Five

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