You don’t have to be a scientist to write science fiction but discerning fans live to catch authors in technical errors. “Gotcha!” will never happen with Robert A. Metzger – that’s Dr. Robert A. Metzger (Ph.D in Electrical Engineering), but feel free to spend five or six years of postgraduate study if you’d like to try.

Of course, once you have your scientific grounding you have to do something with it, speculate on what could happen if… In Quad World time suddenly freezes for its protagonist and when it resumes, he’s stuck in a parallel universe. But what a universe! With Joan of Arc and Elvis batttling the “Quads,” Metzger’s imagination is obviously at full throttle. Amazon reviewer Colin Wood, who compared the book’s scientific mystery to “peeling layer after layer away from some globe-sized onion,” said the book was so challenging, “My brain hurts.” “A turbo-speed puzzle that will require you to keep all your neurons engaged,” Wood concludes.

So, inform your neurons that something really big is coming their way, then pick up Quad World. If it makes your brain hurt too, take two aspirins and call us in the morning.

- Richard Curtis

(Pictured above, Ingres’ painting of Joan of Arc)