I was in the city a couple of weeks ago (July 2023) and, as usual, found myself at Dymocks Bookstore browsing. I wanted a quick read and saw what I thought sounded like a good book. The blurb read as follows
Dr. Tyson Hauser is a quantum physicist working at CERN in Geneva, Switzerland. He is a man completely dedicated to his research, which focuses on finding patterns in the data generated by the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). Thanks to a recent upgrade to the massive machine, Ty believes he's found a new pattern, what looks like an organized data stream, being broadcast over what Ty believes is a sort of quantum radio. Is it a message sent to us from someone in the future? Or possibly a signal from another universe? Or could the code be something else entirely?
It was hot off the presses, with a copywrite date of 2023, and was by an author whom I had not heard of.
I note in retrospect that Goodreads gave an overall rating of 4.16, with 45% of respondents giving it 5 stars out of 5. Well, I'm sorry but I found it quite underwhelming and stupid rather than mind blowing. It read so badly to me that I actually skipped 50 pages or so to get to the end quicker. And it will not be getting a spot on my bookshelf. It will be going OUT!
After an excellent premise and and exciting beginning, it quickly fell apart and entered the realm of the ridiculous.
Avoid at all costs!
