cover image Circadian Web

Circadian Web

Alistair Conwell. Roundtree, $24.95 trade paper (328p) ISBN 978-1-80341-828-5

Conwell (The Audible Life Stream) spins a dizzying web of quantum physics and alternate timelines in this often perplexing but ultimately satisfying apocalyptic novel. In 2022, Jeremy, an insecure Sydney freelancer, is looking for a scoop. Marvin, a disturbed science teacher living in 2139, sports a cheeky AI implant. Choepel, in 2038, is a Tibetan Buddhist monk facing oppression in Taiwan who begins to doubt his beliefs, and in 2061, Luke, a Latin tutor, is besieged by evil spirits inhabiting a militant churchgoer. Each man encounters an enigmatic woman who may hold the solution to his psychological conflict and each experiences quantum physical manifestations of earlier traumas, which Conwell integrates into a stunning finale. While the quantum theory may leave non-physicists glassy-eyed, the thrust of these moving and darkly funny visions of the future is effectively realized as each hero learns that, though the Earth may be doomed in some realities, humanity may manage to evade disaster in others. Fans of smart, philosophical science fiction will want to check this out. (Aug.)