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Observer
If we can alter the structure of reality, should we? In Observer, scientist Robert Lanza, one of Time Magazine's 100 Most Influential People, is joined by Nebula and Hugo Award-winning author Nancy Kress to confront the space between biology and consciousness.
Dr. Caroline Soames-Watkins's star has been on the rise. But when she accuses a superior of sexual misconduct, the Twitterstorm that follows upends her career. With few professional options and an impoverished sister with a disabled child to support, Caro is willing to consider a mysterious proposal from her great-uncle, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Samuel Watkins.
Sam Watkins has invested untold sums of money to build a medical facility in the Caribbean. But he is very sick and in urgent need of a surgeon to perform a unique procedure developed at his island compound. The procedure isn't for the cancer surely killing him. It is to offer new life of a truer kind. Helped in his mission by the eminent physicist George Weigert and the young, charismatic tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, Sam has gone far beyond curing the body to develop a technology that could solve the riddle of mortality for the soul.
Though wary of the project's secret aims, Caro signs on for the chance to secure a future for her sister and herself. What she encounters is something so much more profound than she ever could have anticipated. It will put her on the precipice of a humanity-altering discovery. It will lead her to a level of interpersonal connection that she thought was only for others. And it will throw her into a kind of danger she never imagined.
Joining a fascinating and relatable cast of characters with a mind-expanding journey to the very edges of science, Observer will thrill you, inspire you, and lead you to think about life and the power of the imagination in startling new ways.
Dr. Caroline Soames-Watkins's star has been on the rise. But when she accuses a superior of sexual misconduct, the Twitterstorm that follows upends her career. With few professional options and an impoverished sister with a disabled child to support, Caro is willing to consider a mysterious proposal from her great-uncle, the Nobel Prize-winning scientist Samuel Watkins.
Sam Watkins has invested untold sums of money to build a medical facility in the Caribbean. But he is very sick and in urgent need of a surgeon to perform a unique procedure developed at his island compound. The procedure isn't for the cancer surely killing him. It is to offer new life of a truer kind. Helped in his mission by the eminent physicist George Weigert and the young, charismatic tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, Sam has gone far beyond curing the body to develop a technology that could solve the riddle of mortality for the soul.
Though wary of the project's secret aims, Caro signs on for the chance to secure a future for her sister and herself. What she encounters is something so much more profound than she ever could have anticipated. It will put her on the precipice of a humanity-altering discovery. It will lead her to a level of interpersonal connection that she thought was only for others. And it will throw her into a kind of danger she never imagined.
Joining a fascinating and relatable cast of characters with a mind-expanding journey to the very edges of science, Observer will thrill you, inspire you, and lead you to think about life and the power of the imagination in startling new ways.
368 pages, Hardcover
First published January 10, 2023
About the author
Robert Lanza
39 books343 followersROBERT LANZA, MD, is one of the most respected scientists in the world. He is head of Astellas Global Regenerative Medicine, Chief Scientific Officer of the Astellas Institute for Regenerative Medicine, and adjunct professor at Wake Forest School of Medicine. TIME magazine recognized him as one of the “100 Most Influential People in the World,” and Prospect magazine named him one of the Top 50 “World Thinkers” in 2015. He is credited with several hundred publications and inventions, and more than 30 scientific books, including the definitive references in the field of stem cells and regenerative medicine. A former Fulbright Scholar, he studied with polio pioneer Jonas Salk and Nobel Laureates Gerald Edelman and Rodney Porter. Lanza was part of the team that cloned the world’s first human embryo, as well as the first to successfully generate stem cells from adults using somatic-cell nuclear transfer (therapeutic cloning).
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 373 reviews
January 20, 2024
“Know in thyself and All one self-same soul;
“Banish the dream that sunders part from whole.” - Hindu Poem
Observer is a remarkable and thought provoking novel that weaves elements of Quantum Mechanics and Lanza's theories on Biocentricism into a startling and thoughtful narrative of what if...
What if our consciousness creates our perceived reality?
What if we could tweak our bio-processors to alter the algorithms responsible for our perception of said reality and what would it mean to humankind's conception of life, death and the afterlife?
‘The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.' - Stephen Hawkings
Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress take the former's concepts of consciousness and the latter's splendid ability of writing speculative science fiction to weave a thrilling and fast paced plot (based on hard science) of what it means to be human centric observers in a universe based on Quantum mechanical processes. I highly recommend!
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.’ - William Blake.”
2023 Read
“Banish the dream that sunders part from whole.” - Hindu Poem
Observer is a remarkable and thought provoking novel that weaves elements of Quantum Mechanics and Lanza's theories on Biocentricism into a startling and thoughtful narrative of what if...
What if our consciousness creates our perceived reality?
What if we could tweak our bio-processors to alter the algorithms responsible for our perception of said reality and what would it mean to humankind's conception of life, death and the afterlife?
‘The past, like the future, is indefinite and exists only as a spectrum of possibilities.' - Stephen Hawkings
Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress take the former's concepts of consciousness and the latter's splendid ability of writing speculative science fiction to weave a thrilling and fast paced plot (based on hard science) of what it means to be human centric observers in a universe based on Quantum mechanical processes. I highly recommend!
“To see a World in a Grain of Sand / And a Heaven in a Wild Flower, / Hold Infinity in the palm of your hand / And Eternity in an hour.’ - William Blake.”
2023 Read
October 6, 2022
OBSERVER is already one of my Best Books of 2022, and with January release will be one of the Best of 2023.
Hopeful, inspirational; heartwrenching and heartwarming; infuriating and invigorating, OBSERVER is the seamless collaboration of two excellent authors with a firm grasp of Science and a flair for Speculative Science Fiction. The Quantum Science is graspable, illuminating, inspiring. I read it in one session and had no situational awareness of my surroundings, as I was so deeply into the novel. I came away Hopeful, excited, inspired, determined! This is a novel I expect to return to again and again and again.
Hopeful, inspirational; heartwrenching and heartwarming; infuriating and invigorating, OBSERVER is the seamless collaboration of two excellent authors with a firm grasp of Science and a flair for Speculative Science Fiction. The Quantum Science is graspable, illuminating, inspiring. I read it in one session and had no situational awareness of my surroundings, as I was so deeply into the novel. I came away Hopeful, excited, inspired, determined! This is a novel I expect to return to again and again and again.
July 19, 2023
This book caught my attention as an interesting collaborative effort between a scientist (Robert Lanza) and a science fiction writer (Nancy Kress). The content is extremely thought provoking, packaged in a easy-to-read story.
Caroline (Caro) Soames-Watkins is constrained to leave the hospital she works in as a neurosurgeon. She had accused Dr Paul Becker, Chief of Neurosurgery of sexual harassment but her claim is dismissed for want of corroboration and evidence. Caro is close to her sister Ellen and her daughters Kayla and Angelica. While her sister has problems of her own, she offers Caro her moral support. Her great uncle Sam Watkins makes Caro a job offer for a research project a group is running in Cayman Islands. Sam Watkins is very ill and is keen for Caro to join at the earliest. Caro reluctantly agrees though she is very sceptical about the project initially as it comes across as far-fetched to her. The research combines physics concepts (including the multiverse, quantum entanglement, time theories and others) with neuroscience. The underlying premise for the research is that matter is created when observed by consciousness, else it exists as quantum foam. The research team claims remarkable advances using this to change human understanding and lives. There are others on the project including Weigert, Julian and another neurosurgeon Trevor who joins after her.
This book introduces some brave ideas, all rooted in good science. By virtue of having a scientist as one of the authors, the science gets far more prominence than usual in science fiction books. But it is done carefully – in an easy-to-understand conversational format. The book does draw to some extent on experiences mystics report and is also prominent in Vedanta, referred to in passing in the book (in Vedanta ‘Brahman’ is the permanent originator & unifier which also manifests as us & what we see). The quotes below are illustrative.
“
She lay—at six years old? Seven?—on a blanket in the back garden, watching clouds drift across the sky. Then, all at once, the clouds were no longer there, and neither was Caro. She was nowhere and everywhere, woven into what she later thought of as “the fabric of the universe.” She was the clouds, the grass, the breeze, the ant crawling across her arm. Everything was her, and she was everything.
“
“
He’d imagined a world where, as people began to see the truth of a consciousness-centered universe, they would come to understand that other people, too, were intimately connected to them. They would then become kinder to each other. All men would truly become brothers because they were all sharers in the consciousness that shaped the world.
“
Sadly, the writing is not great, reducing what could have been a blockbuster science fiction book to something much lesser. Yet, this book has concepts and perspectives which are intellectually very stimulating, and for that – I definitely recommend it.
Caroline (Caro) Soames-Watkins is constrained to leave the hospital she works in as a neurosurgeon. She had accused Dr Paul Becker, Chief of Neurosurgery of sexual harassment but her claim is dismissed for want of corroboration and evidence. Caro is close to her sister Ellen and her daughters Kayla and Angelica. While her sister has problems of her own, she offers Caro her moral support. Her great uncle Sam Watkins makes Caro a job offer for a research project a group is running in Cayman Islands. Sam Watkins is very ill and is keen for Caro to join at the earliest. Caro reluctantly agrees though she is very sceptical about the project initially as it comes across as far-fetched to her. The research combines physics concepts (including the multiverse, quantum entanglement, time theories and others) with neuroscience. The underlying premise for the research is that matter is created when observed by consciousness, else it exists as quantum foam. The research team claims remarkable advances using this to change human understanding and lives. There are others on the project including Weigert, Julian and another neurosurgeon Trevor who joins after her.
This book introduces some brave ideas, all rooted in good science. By virtue of having a scientist as one of the authors, the science gets far more prominence than usual in science fiction books. But it is done carefully – in an easy-to-understand conversational format. The book does draw to some extent on experiences mystics report and is also prominent in Vedanta, referred to in passing in the book (in Vedanta ‘Brahman’ is the permanent originator & unifier which also manifests as us & what we see). The quotes below are illustrative.
“
She lay—at six years old? Seven?—on a blanket in the back garden, watching clouds drift across the sky. Then, all at once, the clouds were no longer there, and neither was Caro. She was nowhere and everywhere, woven into what she later thought of as “the fabric of the universe.” She was the clouds, the grass, the breeze, the ant crawling across her arm. Everything was her, and she was everything.
“
“
He’d imagined a world where, as people began to see the truth of a consciousness-centered universe, they would come to understand that other people, too, were intimately connected to them. They would then become kinder to each other. All men would truly become brothers because they were all sharers in the consciousness that shaped the world.
“
Sadly, the writing is not great, reducing what could have been a blockbuster science fiction book to something much lesser. Yet, this book has concepts and perspectives which are intellectually very stimulating, and for that – I definitely recommend it.
December 9, 2022
This was such a wonderful book. I couldn't put it down. It takes some challenging ideas about the nature of reality, brings them to a lay level, and then presents them in a fictional story. The story itself is quick paced and interesting. It was always just far enough outside what I expected to happen that it kept surprising me and held my interest. However, at the same time, it never took turns that were unrealistic. I really liked the main character, a doctor who has agreed to work on this project but doesn't personally buy into it. This is a fantastic example of how human science fiction can be. It's tense and heartwarming and heartbreaking all at once. It has left me with some questions, as good books often do.
I received a copy through Voracious Readers Only in exchange for an honest review.
I received a copy through Voracious Readers Only in exchange for an honest review.
October 16, 2022
I picked this up largely because it was co-authored (or, I suspect, "entirely written, based on ideas by Robert Lanza") by Nancy Kress, who I knew to be a highly competent SFF writer. I have a couple of her books on the craft of writing, and they're excellent, so I expected a well-told story. Nor was I disappointed. (I'll note that there's at least one other award-winning writer whose writing advice I respect, but whose actual fiction I've never enjoyed or been impressed with, so the two skills don't inevitably go together.)
It needed someone with the skill of a Kress to make this a readable story, honestly. There is a lot of exposition, and a less competent author wouldn't have been able to make it interesting. Also, the premise doesn't make a great deal of sense if you think about it in any depth, so it needed an author who was able to keep up a constant patter of misdirection by telling an engaging story with well-drawn characters.
That premise starts with some features of the observer effect in quantum physics and boldly makes the observer central - so central that the theory is that observers create the universe, rather than vice versa. Building on this, a Nobel laureate in medicine (who is dying of cancer), his old friend the theoretical physicist whose theory I have just outlined, and a tech billionaire have come together to attempt to enable people who are implanted with brain stimulation equipment and linked up to powerful software to create new universes by "observing" them in a kind of virtual reality within their own minds. In these universes, they are able to create counterfactual situations: for example, the door of a room in the Caymans, where they are based for legal reasons, opens into the theoretical physicist's house in Britain in a universe where his wife did not die 15 years before, but is still alive. Not a simulation of her - actually her. Never addressed is where the version of him from that other universe is, why his wife isn't surprised to see him, how he gets from the Caymans to the house in Britain by walking through a door... There are a lot of holes in the basic idea, in other words.
Although Kress is known as a "hard" SF writer, meaning she makes a lot of use of actual science, she's not one of those whose characters are simply cameras exploring the clever setting. She tells a story, and her characters read like people. The main point of view belongs to Caro, the Nobel laureate's great-niece, a neurosurgeon who, after a failed attempt to hold a more senior male surgeon to account for drunkenly groping her at a party (which led to her being heavily trolled on social media by toxic men), is prepared to take a chance on what sounds like a weird and maybe even borderline unethical project implanting the brain stimulation devices.
Through most of the book, Caro remains skeptical about the reality of the experiences people have through the devices she implants, and this provides a good point of tension and makes her character feel strong and distinct, given that she's surrounded by true believers.
There's a solid B plot involving Caro's sister, who's dealing with a disabled child and also a non-disabled child who is finding her younger sister's needs and the demands they place on her mother increasingly difficult to bear. There's also a romance subplot for Caro, which gives her a conflict between relationship and career, and several friendships of different kinds with other members of the project. It's all very solid storytelling, and it's where the book shines. It doesn't have the all-too-prevalent issue of contemporary or near-contemporary SF, where the characters are alienated people with no values who don't particularly want anything but just have to react to events. Caro comes through as a character with multiple dimensions, needs, desires, and the ability and determination to work towards what's important to her.
From an unpromising and dubious premise, then, Kress builds a highly readable novel with engaging characters, a feat for which she should be commended.
It needed someone with the skill of a Kress to make this a readable story, honestly. There is a lot of exposition, and a less competent author wouldn't have been able to make it interesting. Also, the premise doesn't make a great deal of sense if you think about it in any depth, so it needed an author who was able to keep up a constant patter of misdirection by telling an engaging story with well-drawn characters.
That premise starts with some features of the observer effect in quantum physics and boldly makes the observer central - so central that the theory is that observers create the universe, rather than vice versa. Building on this, a Nobel laureate in medicine (who is dying of cancer), his old friend the theoretical physicist whose theory I have just outlined, and a tech billionaire have come together to attempt to enable people who are implanted with brain stimulation equipment and linked up to powerful software to create new universes by "observing" them in a kind of virtual reality within their own minds. In these universes, they are able to create counterfactual situations: for example, the door of a room in the Caymans, where they are based for legal reasons, opens into the theoretical physicist's house in Britain in a universe where his wife did not die 15 years before, but is still alive. Not a simulation of her - actually her. Never addressed is where the version of him from that other universe is, why his wife isn't surprised to see him, how he gets from the Caymans to the house in Britain by walking through a door... There are a lot of holes in the basic idea, in other words.
Although Kress is known as a "hard" SF writer, meaning she makes a lot of use of actual science, she's not one of those whose characters are simply cameras exploring the clever setting. She tells a story, and her characters read like people. The main point of view belongs to Caro, the Nobel laureate's great-niece, a neurosurgeon who, after a failed attempt to hold a more senior male surgeon to account for drunkenly groping her at a party (which led to her being heavily trolled on social media by toxic men), is prepared to take a chance on what sounds like a weird and maybe even borderline unethical project implanting the brain stimulation devices.
Through most of the book, Caro remains skeptical about the reality of the experiences people have through the devices she implants, and this provides a good point of tension and makes her character feel strong and distinct, given that she's surrounded by true believers.
There's a solid B plot involving Caro's sister, who's dealing with a disabled child and also a non-disabled child who is finding her younger sister's needs and the demands they place on her mother increasingly difficult to bear. There's also a romance subplot for Caro, which gives her a conflict between relationship and career, and several friendships of different kinds with other members of the project. It's all very solid storytelling, and it's where the book shines. It doesn't have the all-too-prevalent issue of contemporary or near-contemporary SF, where the characters are alienated people with no values who don't particularly want anything but just have to react to events. Caro comes through as a character with multiple dimensions, needs, desires, and the ability and determination to work towards what's important to her.
From an unpromising and dubious premise, then, Kress builds a highly readable novel with engaging characters, a feat for which she should be commended.
February 5, 2023
This felt like the authors were so focused on trying make the science work they forgot about everything else. The writing is clunky, choppy, and amateur. The characters are simplistic with no depth or nuance. They’re all just robots playing the parts needed to make the plot move forward.
Caro is a neurosurgeon who has been unceremoniously fired after she reported her boss for inappropriate behavior. Out of a job and with a lot of debt and family relying on her she agrees to take on a mysterious job for her grand uncle. She discovers that he and his crew have a secret project they are working on that would change the world forever.
The concept is cool but it just wasn’t executed well. They talk a lot about the negative side of what they have discovered but don’t address what can be done about it. All of this could be forgiven if I just cared about any of the characters but nothing rang true and the romance had me rolling my eyes. This just needed more heart, more plot, better characters to enhance the science.
Caro is a neurosurgeon who has been unceremoniously fired after she reported her boss for inappropriate behavior. Out of a job and with a lot of debt and family relying on her she agrees to take on a mysterious job for her grand uncle. She discovers that he and his crew have a secret project they are working on that would change the world forever.
The concept is cool but it just wasn’t executed well. They talk a lot about the negative side of what they have discovered but don’t address what can be done about it. All of this could be forgiven if I just cared about any of the characters but nothing rang true and the romance had me rolling my eyes. This just needed more heart, more plot, better characters to enhance the science.
January 17, 2023
The authors are able to hook their reader with their characters and their words from the very beginning.
I loved how the characters allowed readers to easily engage, we care about them an what's going on in their lives.
The cover is wonderfully ominous. Such a unique premise and it was very well executed.
Well written, full of surprises and action and ultimately a great sci-fi read.
I loved how the characters allowed readers to easily engage, we care about them an what's going on in their lives.
The cover is wonderfully ominous. Such a unique premise and it was very well executed.
Well written, full of surprises and action and ultimately a great sci-fi read.
January 19, 2023
One of the best books I’ve read in years.
Complex, educational, engaging and fulfilling all within one cover. A real entertaining book with an ending I really didn’t see coming - yet it was satisfying.
Complex, educational, engaging and fulfilling all within one cover. A real entertaining book with an ending I really didn’t see coming - yet it was satisfying.
February 19, 2023
Mind-bending science fiction that blends physics and biology into an incredible tale of what could be the future.
Or, should I say, what I wish would be the future. This novel was completely absorbing, and it took me longer than usual to read because it required a lot of thinking as I tried to make sense of the science and the concept that is called, in the book, The Primacy of the Observer. This theory focuses on the suggestion that "instead of matter and evolution giving rise to consciousness, the truth is the other way around." Yeah, this is deep and heavy stuff, but the authors did an incredible job turning all this into a story that is relatable and easier to understand.
When Dr. Caroline Soames-Watkins is forced from her job as a neurosurgeon after she reports an incidence of sexual harassment to the hospital board, she's invited to work for a distant relative she has never met -- the famous Nobel Prize winning scientist, Dr. Samuel Watkins, her great uncle. He and two other brilliant men have set up a medical compound in the Cayman Islands where they are doing groundbreaking research and experiments that involve deep brain stimulation. Their goal is to discover the nature of consciousness, reality, and possibly, life after death.
Read this if you want to expand your mind and if you enjoy entertaining science fiction that seems plausible. I liked the characters, the science, the writing style, and the story itself. I only wish that new discoveries and inventions were not deemed so scary that they invite the attention of hate groups or the cancel culture. This would make a great film.
Thank you to NetGalley and The Story Plant for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.
Or, should I say, what I wish would be the future. This novel was completely absorbing, and it took me longer than usual to read because it required a lot of thinking as I tried to make sense of the science and the concept that is called, in the book, The Primacy of the Observer. This theory focuses on the suggestion that "instead of matter and evolution giving rise to consciousness, the truth is the other way around." Yeah, this is deep and heavy stuff, but the authors did an incredible job turning all this into a story that is relatable and easier to understand.
When Dr. Caroline Soames-Watkins is forced from her job as a neurosurgeon after she reports an incidence of sexual harassment to the hospital board, she's invited to work for a distant relative she has never met -- the famous Nobel Prize winning scientist, Dr. Samuel Watkins, her great uncle. He and two other brilliant men have set up a medical compound in the Cayman Islands where they are doing groundbreaking research and experiments that involve deep brain stimulation. Their goal is to discover the nature of consciousness, reality, and possibly, life after death.
Read this if you want to expand your mind and if you enjoy entertaining science fiction that seems plausible. I liked the characters, the science, the writing style, and the story itself. I only wish that new discoveries and inventions were not deemed so scary that they invite the attention of hate groups or the cancel culture. This would make a great film.
Thank you to NetGalley and The Story Plant for this e-book ARC to read, review, and recommend.
January 17, 2023
Get ready for the ride of your life!
Authors Nancy and Robert have done an unbelievably good job at taking a mind boggling physics concept and turning it into a wonderful story. This book has it all, exciting plot, amazing central idea, and characters that seem so real that you will fall in love with them. Do yourself a really big favor, get this book right now & read it immediately. You WILL be sooo glad that you did! :)
Authors Nancy and Robert have done an unbelievably good job at taking a mind boggling physics concept and turning it into a wonderful story. This book has it all, exciting plot, amazing central idea, and characters that seem so real that you will fall in love with them. Do yourself a really big favor, get this book right now & read it immediately. You WILL be sooo glad that you did! :)
November 3, 2022
Observer by Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress is a brilliant read - I loved it! Great characters and compelling science, a bit heavy in a few spots but overall, an incredible story that pulls it all together. I expect this will be a blockbuster hit.
November 30, 2022
Ugh, this was bad, I couldn't keep slogging through. The narration was scattershot, with the wrong amount of detail in the wrong places. This also kept the plot from establishing, keeping it herky-jerky. The language was clunky and often repetitive, both in the narration and the dialogue. A very (very) unpolished feel, with a storyline not promising enough to make it worth the effort. Readers who pick this up based solely or predominantly because of the coauthor would do well to put it right back down.
eARC from NetGalley.
eARC from NetGalley.
January 1, 2023
A book about the theory of the primacy of the observer: "the seemingly absurd idea that the universe springs from life, not the other way around."
In sci-fi, I expect new/non-existent technology, and I hope to be shown uses of that tech that I hadn't imagined. This book leans mostly on its theory, with some tech built to take advantage of it. However, it doesn't show off many new sights. Instead of exploring the implications of the theory, large portions of the book are spent trying to convince you, the reader, of this theory.
It turns out that Robert Lanza has published before about his theory of biocentrism, which seems very similar to the in-novel theory of the primacy of the observer.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rober...
As another philosopher says of Lanza's theory: "It looks like an opposite of a theory, because he doesn't explain how [consciousness] happens at all. He's stopping where the fun begins."
I feel the same about this book: it stops where all the fun begins. It doesn't dive into the possibilities of what living in a consensually created world looks like, it has vague and sometimes contradictory descriptions of how a multiverse would work, and the moments when characters *create new parallel universes out of their own minds* are all somehow mundane and lacking in wonder (well, maybe except for the very last time).
Also, at least in my ARC copy, the book was so full of typos and sentence fragments that I kept getting distracted from the story. That drops it down a full star as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully those can get cleaned up before the official release.
I liked the plot and characters decently enough.
Thanks to the authors for providing me with an ARC as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
And my notes from the read-through...
---
Pg. 7: The techs didn't answer, but their glances at each other spoke terabytes [...]
Spoke terabytes? Who is this book trying to impress?
---
Pg 8: Samuel Louis Watkins, genius Nobel laureate, switched on the bedside lamp and heaved himself upright in bed. Cheekbones sharp as chisels, bald head shining in the lamplight.
What's with the odd sentence fragment?
---
Pg 23: All her hopes and dreams, all the years of grueling work, all the loans she'd taken out after her mother disinherited both her and Ellen... Without a good hospital appointment, how would she be able to repay her loans?
I think the author really wants to hint and give us information, but doesn't want to info-dump and is trying to show-not-tell. It comes across like a Facebook post fishing for attention.
---
Pg 33: "I know *your* condition," Luskin said, a pre-emptory thunderbolt in his own voice.
"Peremptory" or "pre-emptive" both sort of work, but "pre-emptory" isn't a proper word. Pretty sure the author meant "peremptory." Easy mistake, though.
---
Pg 41: Someone named Ben Clarby was supposed to meet her at the airport. Google had offered her three dozen Ben Carbys, and she'd no idea which this one was, or what connection he had to her great-uncle. Or very much about Samuel Lewis Watkins, except for what was public knowledge.
What's that last sentence doing?
---
Pg 71: She could smell the ocean but neither see nor hear it.
Pg 71: *Too many flowers, sickening sweet.*
There are lots of little editing issues with this book. Will they be able to fix them for the January publication? I'm not writing all of them here, but I noticed two on one page and wanted to point it out. I'm having a hard time ignoring the book and focusing on the story.
---
Pg 95: She and Ellen as children in the elaborate playroom their mother had filled with toys instead of her maternal presence. Caro and Ellen had never played with most of the toys.
Am I just too sensitive to sentence fragments? They bug me.
---
Pg 74: So, according to Weigert and Julian, did alternate branches of the universe, as "created" by computer chip and human decision.
I had to read this several times before I finally realized it's a sentence fragment. It doesn't make much sense without the previous sentence (not included here because I don't want to type it out).
---
Pg 84: "I'm a doctor, Julian. I save lives, not experiment on them."
There might be a fun story here, but I'm having a hard time enjoying it with these awkward sentences.
---
Pg 98: "Caro, feel free to bark all the orders you want [...]" Caro laughed. It hurt her face. "I'll bark softly and carry a big bone saw."
This gave me a chuckle. :)
---
Pg 107
I enjoy sci-fi with weird new science (like Isaac Asimov's psychohistory), but the way this book presents its new science thing makes me feel like it's trying to convince me. It doesn't help that the sci-fi weirdness is based on Lanza's published theories. Is this book his way of evangelizing his not-quite-new-age theory? It's annoying me.
---
Pg 114: She paid particular attention to entanglement, that phenomenon in which measuring ("making an observation") about one particle instantly changed a different particle with which it had been entangled---even when they were widely separated. [...] Everything the brain did was only a possibility until it actually did it, and the possibilities were unlimited, although some were much more probable than others.
Ugh. This almost-science bugs me.
With entanglement, measuring one particle doesn't change its entangled partner. As wikipedia puts it, "entanglement produces correlation between the measurements."
The second sentence bugs me because it applies to everything. It sounds like it's saying something special, but it's not.
---
I've been mostly enjoying the story. I still don't like the physics explanations, though.
Pg 289: *What would happen if we could change the algorithms that collapsed the quantum waves in the brain?*
As far as I understand it, you can't control the result of collapsing a "quantum wave." You can decide what property (or properties) to measure, but you can't decide what values those properties will take.
I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. But the science stuff here falls in an uncomfortable realm that is beyond blatant sci-fi silliness like "reverse the polarity,"but falls short of seeming real. I wish there was less explanation & arguing of how it's supposed to work.
---
Pg 309: There was no way to be sure of course, since there was no way to have communication between branches [of the multiverse].
Inconsistencies bug me.
These are the physicist's words, saying you can't communicate with other branches of the multiverse. But he has visited the same alternate branch at least three times now to see his dead wife.
The rules of multiverse stuff in this book are both too spelled out and not clear enough.
Another thing: death isn't the end, according to the story, but so far they haven't touched on what might precede life. They say consciousness has no end, so what about beginnings?
---
Pg 347: "I need to know long you're staying with the project."
Yes, there are still odd editing mistakes even this far in.
---
I feel like this book doesn't explore the implications of its own sci-fi tech enough. Instead it focuses on trying to convince the reader.
Pg 379: Then Kayla was the gull; the gull was she; both were the starfish squirming in Kayla's beak, and the warm ocean air rushing under the beat of her wings.
Kayla uses new tech while sitting out in a normal chair to become a passing seagull. She becomes a body snatcher. What's to stop her from using the same tech to possess the people around her?
Also, more fundamentally to the story, how does a consensually created world work? If I write a secret word on a blackboard, and two people go in the room separately to see it, how does this theory explain all of us experiencing the same word on the chalkboard?
In sci-fi, I expect new/non-existent technology, and I hope to be shown uses of that tech that I hadn't imagined. This book leans mostly on its theory, with some tech built to take advantage of it. However, it doesn't show off many new sights. Instead of exploring the implications of the theory, large portions of the book are spent trying to convince you, the reader, of this theory.
It turns out that Robert Lanza has published before about his theory of biocentrism, which seems very similar to the in-novel theory of the primacy of the observer.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rober...
As another philosopher says of Lanza's theory: "It looks like an opposite of a theory, because he doesn't explain how [consciousness] happens at all. He's stopping where the fun begins."
I feel the same about this book: it stops where all the fun begins. It doesn't dive into the possibilities of what living in a consensually created world looks like, it has vague and sometimes contradictory descriptions of how a multiverse would work, and the moments when characters *create new parallel universes out of their own minds* are all somehow mundane and lacking in wonder (well, maybe except for the very last time).
Also, at least in my ARC copy, the book was so full of typos and sentence fragments that I kept getting distracted from the story. That drops it down a full star as far as I'm concerned. Hopefully those can get cleaned up before the official release.
I liked the plot and characters decently enough.
Thanks to the authors for providing me with an ARC as part of a Goodreads giveaway.
And my notes from the read-through...
---
Pg. 7: The techs didn't answer, but their glances at each other spoke terabytes [...]
Spoke terabytes? Who is this book trying to impress?
---
Pg 8: Samuel Louis Watkins, genius Nobel laureate, switched on the bedside lamp and heaved himself upright in bed. Cheekbones sharp as chisels, bald head shining in the lamplight.
What's with the odd sentence fragment?
---
Pg 23: All her hopes and dreams, all the years of grueling work, all the loans she'd taken out after her mother disinherited both her and Ellen... Without a good hospital appointment, how would she be able to repay her loans?
I think the author really wants to hint and give us information, but doesn't want to info-dump and is trying to show-not-tell. It comes across like a Facebook post fishing for attention.
---
Pg 33: "I know *your* condition," Luskin said, a pre-emptory thunderbolt in his own voice.
"Peremptory" or "pre-emptive" both sort of work, but "pre-emptory" isn't a proper word. Pretty sure the author meant "peremptory." Easy mistake, though.
---
Pg 41: Someone named Ben Clarby was supposed to meet her at the airport. Google had offered her three dozen Ben Carbys, and she'd no idea which this one was, or what connection he had to her great-uncle. Or very much about Samuel Lewis Watkins, except for what was public knowledge.
What's that last sentence doing?
---
Pg 71: She could smell the ocean but neither see nor hear it.
Pg 71: *Too many flowers, sickening sweet.*
There are lots of little editing issues with this book. Will they be able to fix them for the January publication? I'm not writing all of them here, but I noticed two on one page and wanted to point it out. I'm having a hard time ignoring the book and focusing on the story.
---
Pg 95: She and Ellen as children in the elaborate playroom their mother had filled with toys instead of her maternal presence. Caro and Ellen had never played with most of the toys.
Am I just too sensitive to sentence fragments? They bug me.
---
Pg 74: So, according to Weigert and Julian, did alternate branches of the universe, as "created" by computer chip and human decision.
I had to read this several times before I finally realized it's a sentence fragment. It doesn't make much sense without the previous sentence (not included here because I don't want to type it out).
---
Pg 84: "I'm a doctor, Julian. I save lives, not experiment on them."
There might be a fun story here, but I'm having a hard time enjoying it with these awkward sentences.
---
Pg 98: "Caro, feel free to bark all the orders you want [...]" Caro laughed. It hurt her face. "I'll bark softly and carry a big bone saw."
This gave me a chuckle. :)
---
Pg 107
I enjoy sci-fi with weird new science (like Isaac Asimov's psychohistory), but the way this book presents its new science thing makes me feel like it's trying to convince me. It doesn't help that the sci-fi weirdness is based on Lanza's published theories. Is this book his way of evangelizing his not-quite-new-age theory? It's annoying me.
---
Pg 114: She paid particular attention to entanglement, that phenomenon in which measuring ("making an observation") about one particle instantly changed a different particle with which it had been entangled---even when they were widely separated. [...] Everything the brain did was only a possibility until it actually did it, and the possibilities were unlimited, although some were much more probable than others.
Ugh. This almost-science bugs me.
With entanglement, measuring one particle doesn't change its entangled partner. As wikipedia puts it, "entanglement produces correlation between the measurements."
The second sentence bugs me because it applies to everything. It sounds like it's saying something special, but it's not.
---
I've been mostly enjoying the story. I still don't like the physics explanations, though.
Pg 289: *What would happen if we could change the algorithms that collapsed the quantum waves in the brain?*
As far as I understand it, you can't control the result of collapsing a "quantum wave." You can decide what property (or properties) to measure, but you can't decide what values those properties will take.
I dunno. Maybe I'm wrong. But the science stuff here falls in an uncomfortable realm that is beyond blatant sci-fi silliness like "reverse the polarity,"but falls short of seeming real. I wish there was less explanation & arguing of how it's supposed to work.
---
Pg 309: There was no way to be sure of course, since there was no way to have communication between branches [of the multiverse].
Inconsistencies bug me.
These are the physicist's words, saying you can't communicate with other branches of the multiverse. But he has visited the same alternate branch at least three times now to see his dead wife.
The rules of multiverse stuff in this book are both too spelled out and not clear enough.
Another thing: death isn't the end, according to the story, but so far they haven't touched on what might precede life. They say consciousness has no end, so what about beginnings?
---
Pg 347: "I need to know long you're staying with the project."
Yes, there are still odd editing mistakes even this far in.
---
I feel like this book doesn't explore the implications of its own sci-fi tech enough. Instead it focuses on trying to convince the reader.
Pg 379: Then Kayla was the gull; the gull was she; both were the starfish squirming in Kayla's beak, and the warm ocean air rushing under the beat of her wings.
Kayla uses new tech while sitting out in a normal chair to become a passing seagull. She becomes a body snatcher. What's to stop her from using the same tech to possess the people around her?
Also, more fundamentally to the story, how does a consensually created world work? If I write a secret word on a blackboard, and two people go in the room separately to see it, how does this theory explain all of us experiencing the same word on the chalkboard?
January 29, 2023
It has been a long time since I read such a captivating page turner. By the time I was 50% in I really hated to put it down for any reason. The story is nicely convoluted and the protagonist is a well written character. All the characters are interesting but they are far from the stars of the story. And the somewhat predictable plot is also not the star. The science is the star. And there is a lot of it. If you don't like these heavy scientific topics you might not enjoy the book. I thought it was fabulous!
November 3, 2022
This is a review of an early release of the book.
Excellent, well written, and thought provoking novel. The characters are well realized, with real world problems and some new types of problems as well. The science is described in an understandable way without spoon feeding.
I appreciate that the book challenged me about the universe and alternative views of the universe. I like a book that make me think and challenge myself while providing a great story. This is one of those books that you will think about for a long time after you finish it as you work through whether you agree with the multiverse premise, a struggle the protagonist, Caro, has to work though as well.
Excellent, well written, and thought provoking novel. The characters are well realized, with real world problems and some new types of problems as well. The science is described in an understandable way without spoon feeding.
I appreciate that the book challenged me about the universe and alternative views of the universe. I like a book that make me think and challenge myself while providing a great story. This is one of those books that you will think about for a long time after you finish it as you work through whether you agree with the multiverse premise, a struggle the protagonist, Caro, has to work though as well.
![Profile Image for Kelly {SpaceOnTheBookcase].](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1672255572i/4799500._UX200_CR0,0,200,200_.jpg)
January 5, 2023
Dr. Caroline “Caro” Soames-Watkin’s, a rising neurosurgeon finds herself without a job after a sexual harassment case blows up in her face. With her sister and nieces care in her mind she accepts a position doing clinical research on a ground breaking new brain surgery from her estranged genius uncle Dr. Watkins.
Initially the book drew me in with compelling characters and the mystery suspense of the Grand Cayman clinical trial and multiverse brain experiment. As I got deeper into the chapters I started to struggle with the sheer amount of information and word count.
This story has a lot of scientific terminology, specifically quantum physics and the multiverse. Initially I appreciated the long drawn out break down of the theories and information but it eventually became repetitive.
The book is also entirely too long. At 384 pages it’s too wordy and there are too many secondary characters that are hard to connect with. With that amount of pages you’d think the reader could walk away with a solid connection and understanding of every characters but that didn’t happen. I think this book could have been chopped down by at least 100 pages.
Overall this is a middle of the road book. The concept is interesting and the main characters are easy to invest in, but ultimately the execution is lacking and that is why it’s a 3/5 for me.
Thank you to the National Book Network for sending me a copy to review.
Initially the book drew me in with compelling characters and the mystery suspense of the Grand Cayman clinical trial and multiverse brain experiment. As I got deeper into the chapters I started to struggle with the sheer amount of information and word count.
This story has a lot of scientific terminology, specifically quantum physics and the multiverse. Initially I appreciated the long drawn out break down of the theories and information but it eventually became repetitive.
The book is also entirely too long. At 384 pages it’s too wordy and there are too many secondary characters that are hard to connect with. With that amount of pages you’d think the reader could walk away with a solid connection and understanding of every characters but that didn’t happen. I think this book could have been chopped down by at least 100 pages.
Overall this is a middle of the road book. The concept is interesting and the main characters are easy to invest in, but ultimately the execution is lacking and that is why it’s a 3/5 for me.
Thank you to the National Book Network for sending me a copy to review.
March 22, 2023
I don't think I was reading the same book as the people rating this 5 stars. There were so many glaring issues with the plot, characterizations, and prose. The science was so vague it didn't even believe in itself (ironic considering the subject has basis in real-life research). There was very little excitement when there is every expectation that multi-verse travel should excite any sci-fi fan. Aside from philosophical debate, there was no real conflict until the last 50 pages. Even then, the "enemy" was not fleshed out or given a face, name, or half-baked character to represent the opposition. The female protagonist's relationship with men always had an element of sexual attraction. She seemed fixated on the probability of a relationship with them. Two of the male characters had this same problem. Almost every interaction posed the question "are they endgame?" It was annoying and cast everyone in a shallow light. The authors would have done better to dispense with the romance entirely and developed the characters' relationship to the science.
I'm flabergasted that this is rated so highly. I do place some of the blame on myself for not vetting beyond the marketing scheme. It probably didn't help that I was expecting this to be a Michael Crichtonesque techno thriller but ended up reading something as rip-roaring as a wet papertowel.
I'm flabergasted that this is rated so highly. I do place some of the blame on myself for not vetting beyond the marketing scheme. It probably didn't help that I was expecting this to be a Michael Crichtonesque techno thriller but ended up reading something as rip-roaring as a wet papertowel.
January 25, 2023
I loved this book!! Now a warning to anyone who follows my book raves: This book is deeply challenging from the view of suspending what you know about reality. I happened to love the relationship of quantum mechanics to the essential plot. I thought it was a very novel and unique story line. Very good and very thought provoking. I recommend this read for a small book club, as discussion would be lively and exciting.
June 26, 2023
so basically i didn’t understand most of this book, kept waiting for something interesting to happen and then read the most unsatisfying ending i’ve seen in a long time… loved the idea and up until the last maybe 10 % of the book i felt indifferent about it (a bit bored but still wanted to keep reading) but honestly what the fuck was that ending
July 12, 2023
This thought-provoking piece by renowned scientists Robert Lanza and Nancy Kress delves into the fascinating concept of the observer effect, which lies at the intersection of physics, consciousness, and reality. The authors masterfully weave together intricate scientific concepts and their philosophical implications, providing the reader with a captivating and enlightening experience.
January 25, 2023
Meh, drags on until 250, pick up a little sci-fi around 360. Won't read again, gave the book away.
November 29, 2022
Observer is a science-fiction novel based on ideas from scientist Robert Lanza (called one of the 100 most influential people by Time magazine)and cowritten by Nancy Kress (a Hugo and Nebula Award winning author) and demonstrates an in-depth grasp of Science and a penchant for Speculative Science Fiction. The Quantum physics is understandable and illuminating. In short, the premise begins with aspects of the observer effect in quantum physics then makes the observer central, theorizing that observers create the universe, rather than the universe creating the individual.
The protagonist, Dr. Caroline (Caro) Soames-Watkins, is a neurosurgeon whose career is destroyed when she accuses her superior of sexual misconduct and becomes the target of a massive social media storm promulgated by misogynistic trolls. To salvage her career, she accepts a position with her great-uncle, Samuel Watkins, himself a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He, along with physicist George Weigert and tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, have developed technology that allows people with implanted brain stimulation devices to create new universes and to revisit them at any time they are hooked up to the machinery.
Because the subject matter is complex, a lot of explication exists and the complex ideas are frequently repeated throughout the novel. Because of all the exposition, the dialog drags through extended lengthy paragraphs, much of which I skimmed. A subplot involves Caro's sister, who's has a disabled child and a non-disabled child, all of whom depend on Caro for financial support. In another subplot, Caro overcomes her distrust of men to embark on a romance. When her lover is killed, she insists on immediately being implanted with the device so she can establish a universe in which he still exists. There didn’t seem to be enough depth in the relationship for Caro to make this kind of leap.
Overall, I found Observer fascinating and enjoyed the read and the challenges of the science.
The protagonist, Dr. Caroline (Caro) Soames-Watkins, is a neurosurgeon whose career is destroyed when she accuses her superior of sexual misconduct and becomes the target of a massive social media storm promulgated by misogynistic trolls. To salvage her career, she accepts a position with her great-uncle, Samuel Watkins, himself a Nobel Prize-winning scientist. He, along with physicist George Weigert and tech entrepreneur Julian Dey, have developed technology that allows people with implanted brain stimulation devices to create new universes and to revisit them at any time they are hooked up to the machinery.
Because the subject matter is complex, a lot of explication exists and the complex ideas are frequently repeated throughout the novel. Because of all the exposition, the dialog drags through extended lengthy paragraphs, much of which I skimmed. A subplot involves Caro's sister, who's has a disabled child and a non-disabled child, all of whom depend on Caro for financial support. In another subplot, Caro overcomes her distrust of men to embark on a romance. When her lover is killed, she insists on immediately being implanted with the device so she can establish a universe in which he still exists. There didn’t seem to be enough depth in the relationship for Caro to make this kind of leap.
Overall, I found Observer fascinating and enjoyed the read and the challenges of the science.
January 7, 2023
This is an amazing book. It makes you wonder about life in the future and what will come. Will we be running around with chips in our brains? Makes you think about life after death. Great book and definitely worth the read.
February 19, 2023
Sci-fi dio dobar, propitkivanje tehnologije ravno i plitko. Onako, slaba trojka...
June 28, 2023
I buddy read this book for my book club and wow did I dislike every moment. I was so excited to read this book after reading its summary and had very high hopes for the overall quality after seeing the praise it got on Goodreads. The book itself was under 400 pages and typically I can get that done in a day or at least a few, and it took me the entire month because it just couldn’t grasp my attention.
I think that it’s *veryyyy* safe to say that I would not read this again. I hardly give books 1 star, I even juggled giving it 2 stars but I don’t think that I could recommend this book to someone else or reread it myself. I feel like the author had too many ideas and incorporating all of them truly blurred the main plot for me. The main character “Caro” was unlikeable, which I could get behind if it made sense to the plot but for me it didn’t. Instead of the focus being on Caro, the reader would’ve benefitted more from a multiple POV book rather than just focusing on Caro cause she was honestly bland and many other characters would’ve had more to add to the plot, especially George, who came up with the projects theory in the first place.
I don’t want to get too into my feelings about this book or else I would write a 10 page review, there’s just a lot to say and break down to prove my point against all of the praise. I don’t know what it was but I started skimming at the end and when I got to the epilogue, which was 3 pages, I fell asleep. I wish this book grasped me and that I understood why people liked it so much but this is another example of over-hyped. So much potential with this topic and instead it came off as pretentious and like the author copy and pasted the Wikipedia explanation for each theory because it was just bouts of information dumping.
Overall, if you plan to read this just make sure to do your own research on the observation theory, quantum entanglement, string theory, superposition, schrodingers box, the multiverse, and even a brief explanation of how scientists believe the universe itself was created because this comes up a lot. Oh, and if you can, read up on space and time and create your own opinion on why you think it always existed vs was a human creation, it’ll make your reading experience more enjoyable since you’ll have a better understanding of the referenced topics! :)
EDIT: I was done my review and then a thought crept up… what the heck happened with Ben Clarby??? Dude was murdered and we never even truly found out who did it? There was that religious “End Times” cult and I know he was tied to the black market but I still feel like that storyline was so interesting to have a general killer? It could’ve been so much better if it was personal or tied to the research facility. Anyways, now I’m annoyed cause I’ll never know.
I think that it’s *veryyyy* safe to say that I would not read this again. I hardly give books 1 star, I even juggled giving it 2 stars but I don’t think that I could recommend this book to someone else or reread it myself. I feel like the author had too many ideas and incorporating all of them truly blurred the main plot for me. The main character “Caro” was unlikeable, which I could get behind if it made sense to the plot but for me it didn’t. Instead of the focus being on Caro, the reader would’ve benefitted more from a multiple POV book rather than just focusing on Caro cause she was honestly bland and many other characters would’ve had more to add to the plot, especially George, who came up with the projects theory in the first place.
I don’t want to get too into my feelings about this book or else I would write a 10 page review, there’s just a lot to say and break down to prove my point against all of the praise. I don’t know what it was but I started skimming at the end and when I got to the epilogue, which was 3 pages, I fell asleep. I wish this book grasped me and that I understood why people liked it so much but this is another example of over-hyped. So much potential with this topic and instead it came off as pretentious and like the author copy and pasted the Wikipedia explanation for each theory because it was just bouts of information dumping.
Overall, if you plan to read this just make sure to do your own research on the observation theory, quantum entanglement, string theory, superposition, schrodingers box, the multiverse, and even a brief explanation of how scientists believe the universe itself was created because this comes up a lot. Oh, and if you can, read up on space and time and create your own opinion on why you think it always existed vs was a human creation, it’ll make your reading experience more enjoyable since you’ll have a better understanding of the referenced topics! :)
EDIT: I was done my review and then a thought crept up… what the heck happened with Ben Clarby??? Dude was murdered and we never even truly found out who did it? There was that religious “End Times” cult and I know he was tied to the black market but I still feel like that storyline was so interesting to have a general killer? It could’ve been so much better if it was personal or tied to the research facility. Anyways, now I’m annoyed cause I’ll never know.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
November 15, 2023
Wow! This may be my favorite read of 2023!
Such a great thought-provoking book. I wish I could read more works like this one!
I didn’t struggle with the physics part in this book since I’m familiar with quantum physics but I can imagine that someone who doesn’t have much knowledge on this topic could feel a bit lost at some points.
However, I do have a critique point.
Why was Caro such an annoying and selfish character?
Every time she opened her mouth, it was only to nag about something. Her constant disbelief in this whole project, even though she got the physics behind it explained over and oveeeer again, was also annoying af.
The way she had been stubbornly against implanting Watkins but when it was for her own selfish reasons she didn’t accept a no to get implanted herself?
Also, why did she have the constant need to make everything about herself? Any time a catastrophe happened, her first thought was “omg was it because of meeee?” -No caro, not everything is about you :)
And why did she fell in love or get attracted to every male character she encountered?
I could get on and on about how annoying caro was but to make it short: I very much would have enjoyed this book more without Caro being so negative towards the whole project
Such a great thought-provoking book. I wish I could read more works like this one!
I didn’t struggle with the physics part in this book since I’m familiar with quantum physics but I can imagine that someone who doesn’t have much knowledge on this topic could feel a bit lost at some points.
However, I do have a critique point.
Why was Caro such an annoying and selfish character?
Every time she opened her mouth, it was only to nag about something. Her constant disbelief in this whole project, even though she got the physics behind it explained over and oveeeer again, was also annoying af.
The way she had been stubbornly against implanting Watkins but when it was for her own selfish reasons she didn’t accept a no to get implanted herself?
Also, why did she have the constant need to make everything about herself? Any time a catastrophe happened, her first thought was “omg was it because of meeee?” -No caro, not everything is about you :)
And why did she fell in love or get attracted to every male character she encountered?
I could get on and on about how annoying caro was but to make it short: I very much would have enjoyed this book more without Caro being so negative towards the whole project
February 15, 2023
The high praise had my hopes up for the book. I was expecting a science-based thriller, but what I got was more of a cheap, recycled drama that was boring, slow paced, completely predictable, and unbelievable.
June 22, 2023
Caroline "Caro" Soames-Watkins is a talented neurosurgeon and after an accusation of sexual assault against another respected surgeon, she finds herself jobless, maxed out on her credit cards, and desperate to continue to support her sister, a single mother with two young daughters, one of whom is severely disabled.
Meanwhile, in the Caymans, Noble prize-winning scientist Sam Watkins, Caro's great uncle, has set up a research centre which delves into esoteric research into consciousness, time, reality, and immortality.
Sam extends Caro a job offer when he needs a neurosurgeon and after hesitation as she has never met the man, Caro accepts, and discovers that the research is soon to test the hypothesis of multiverses, which ties into Sam's search for immortality, which is particularly pertinent to him as he's in late stage cancer.
Soon it becomes clear that someone has leaked the proprietary research when the outside world collides with the secrecy of the research compound.
So, basically, I did not enjoy this book. While I initially found the characters interesting, pretty soon the book was turned into a long description of one of the author's hypotheses, "the primacy of the observer" where nothing exists until someone observes it. This idea extends to the objects around us, and even to the universe itself.
Just as the book started to get interesting because of the character interactions, I just lost interest thanks to all the physics exposition and the story dragged itself to its not very interesting end.
Thank you to Netgalley and to The Story Plant for this ARC in exchange for my review.
Meanwhile, in the Caymans, Noble prize-winning scientist Sam Watkins, Caro's great uncle, has set up a research centre which delves into esoteric research into consciousness, time, reality, and immortality.
Sam extends Caro a job offer when he needs a neurosurgeon and after hesitation as she has never met the man, Caro accepts, and discovers that the research is soon to test the hypothesis of multiverses, which ties into Sam's search for immortality, which is particularly pertinent to him as he's in late stage cancer.
Soon it becomes clear that someone has leaked the proprietary research when the outside world collides with the secrecy of the research compound.
So, basically, I did not enjoy this book. While I initially found the characters interesting, pretty soon the book was turned into a long description of one of the author's hypotheses, "the primacy of the observer" where nothing exists until someone observes it. This idea extends to the objects around us, and even to the universe itself.
Just as the book started to get interesting because of the character interactions, I just lost interest thanks to all the physics exposition and the story dragged itself to its not very interesting end.
Thank you to Netgalley and to The Story Plant for this ARC in exchange for my review.
March 11, 2023
Personal Note: This book came along at a great time for me. Sometimes my brain gets into a weird place where I’ll set aside a book (or books) that I’ve only partially read, knowing that I’ll come back to them. When that happens I’ve learned to go with it, trusting that I’ll come back. This was an odd situation, though. When I picked up Observer, I was in the middle of no fewer than four books. But the novel pulled me right in and demanded that I finish it, which I did in just a couple of days. That seemed to do the trick. I went right back and tore through one of the stalled books -- a terrific sequel novel by an author I love (review pending) -- but even as I did so, Observer haunted me in a rare and unusual way. I still can’t stop thinking about it. I don’t want to spoil anything, so in my review I’m not going to give any kind of high concept summary. I could write a half dozen, every one of them different, but none could encapsulate it without ruining the experience for the observer... I mean the reader. There are too many big ideas, and too many unexpected twists. I’ll just say that wow, did my brain enjoy this one! I feel like it kind of rebooted my system.
This is a gripping, taut, and very well-researched techno thriller set in the world of present day medical research, neurobiology, and quantum physics. The main character, Caro Soames-Watkins, is a very smart, relatable, likeable, and cautiously skeptical professional neurosurgeon whose specialty is the insertion of the DBS implants used to manage the symptoms of Parkinson’s. Caro gets an unexpected and incredibly generous offer to join a Nobel Prize winning physicist and his team of researchers on a secret project in the Caymen Islands just as a family tragedy upends her life and career. I won’t say any more, but I will compare it to the best of authors like Blake Crouch, Andrew Weir, Steven King, Michael Crichton, and Paddy Chayefsky. There are moments of paranoia and abject horror interspersed with moments of breathtaking thrills and miraculous wonders, but in the end, I found it to be very reassuring and life-affirming. In short, I loved it and I feel certain I’ll reread it at some point.
This is a gripping, taut, and very well-researched techno thriller set in the world of present day medical research, neurobiology, and quantum physics. The main character, Caro Soames-Watkins, is a very smart, relatable, likeable, and cautiously skeptical professional neurosurgeon whose specialty is the insertion of the DBS implants used to manage the symptoms of Parkinson’s. Caro gets an unexpected and incredibly generous offer to join a Nobel Prize winning physicist and his team of researchers on a secret project in the Caymen Islands just as a family tragedy upends her life and career. I won’t say any more, but I will compare it to the best of authors like Blake Crouch, Andrew Weir, Steven King, Michael Crichton, and Paddy Chayefsky. There are moments of paranoia and abject horror interspersed with moments of breathtaking thrills and miraculous wonders, but in the end, I found it to be very reassuring and life-affirming. In short, I loved it and I feel certain I’ll reread it at some point.
November 11, 2022
Observer is a new collaboration between Dr. Robert Lanza, the renowned medical science researcher, and Nancy Kress, the veteran award-winning science fiction writer. It is a fictional vehicle for Dr. Lanza’s theories of biocentrism. Instead of the conventional understanding that matter and evolution gave rise to consciousness, biocentrism says it’s the other way around - consciousness gave rise to both matter and time. This perspective is explained and developed in several of his non-fiction speculative science books, beginning with Biocentrism: How Life and Consciousness Are the Keys to Understanding the True Nature of the Universe, in 2009. It is not an accepted conventional perspective in the scientific community. I’m not interested in criticizing or defending it here, but it does work very well in a speculative fiction context.
The setting is near-future, although there are a couple of technological speculations that are extremely advanced from current state. There is a brain implant, that allows the consciousness of the test subject to enter an alternate branch of the multiverse. Their mind creates an alternate universe (a la biocentrism), after which that world persists on its own. And there is a scanning machine, known as Enhanced Functional MRI, which produces an actual video image of the thoughts of the test subject. This capability is so far beyond the physical possibilities of functional MRI, that it honestly should be called something else. But the terminology tends to enhance plausibility, unless you happen to have worked in the field.
The main character is Caroline Soames-Watkins, a young neurosurgeon, whose career is destroyed by the publicity of having reported sexual abuse by a powerful and denying colleague. Having lost her job so publicly, she is unlikely to be hired at any new hospital. She is also the financial support for her sister Ellen, a single parent of two children. Out of desperation, she is recruited by her wealthy uncle to join his mysterious research project in the Cayman Islands. She is emotionally insecure, and having buried herself in her work, somewhat fragile. Her sister is an even more extreme case, both of them growing up traumatized by their dysfunctional parents. She is likeable, and well described. There is also a romance, which while a little over-idealized, was not intrusive to the rest of the story.
The plot is thrilling, eventually life-threatening, and is driven by runaway up-to-date social media responses and conniving players in the research project. The reveal of the central mysteries as to what the project is, and why it is being done, is paced nicely to the reader through Caro. Dread and panic seep in as unintended and unsavory applications of the research begin to surface. Unfortunately, there are a few too many passages where characters need to explain biocentrism and its relation to quantum mechanics to one another. The initial explanations made to Caro were enough, I thought.
I enjoyed the novel, came away with a lot to think about, and recommend it to others. 4.5 stars, rounded up. I read an advance Digital Review Copy of Observer in an ebook format, which I received from The Story Plant through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 10 January 2023.
The setting is near-future, although there are a couple of technological speculations that are extremely advanced from current state. There is a brain implant, that allows the consciousness of the test subject to enter an alternate branch of the multiverse. Their mind creates an alternate universe (a la biocentrism), after which that world persists on its own. And there is a scanning machine, known as Enhanced Functional MRI, which produces an actual video image of the thoughts of the test subject. This capability is so far beyond the physical possibilities of functional MRI, that it honestly should be called something else. But the terminology tends to enhance plausibility, unless you happen to have worked in the field.
The main character is Caroline Soames-Watkins, a young neurosurgeon, whose career is destroyed by the publicity of having reported sexual abuse by a powerful and denying colleague. Having lost her job so publicly, she is unlikely to be hired at any new hospital. She is also the financial support for her sister Ellen, a single parent of two children. Out of desperation, she is recruited by her wealthy uncle to join his mysterious research project in the Cayman Islands. She is emotionally insecure, and having buried herself in her work, somewhat fragile. Her sister is an even more extreme case, both of them growing up traumatized by their dysfunctional parents. She is likeable, and well described. There is also a romance, which while a little over-idealized, was not intrusive to the rest of the story.
The plot is thrilling, eventually life-threatening, and is driven by runaway up-to-date social media responses and conniving players in the research project. The reveal of the central mysteries as to what the project is, and why it is being done, is paced nicely to the reader through Caro. Dread and panic seep in as unintended and unsavory applications of the research begin to surface. Unfortunately, there are a few too many passages where characters need to explain biocentrism and its relation to quantum mechanics to one another. The initial explanations made to Caro were enough, I thought.
I enjoyed the novel, came away with a lot to think about, and recommend it to others. 4.5 stars, rounded up. I read an advance Digital Review Copy of Observer in an ebook format, which I received from The Story Plant through netgalley.com in exchange for an honest review on social media platforms and on my book review blog. This new title is scheduled for release on 10 January 2023.
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