TETRASTATUM

A debut sci-fi novel spins a tale about a government researcher sucked into an interdimensional quest regarding the nature of time and space.

Everyone thinks that Dr. Tim Smith’s job is winding up atomic clocks at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. In reality, he is assigned to the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, where he leads the Quantum Teleportation Project, the goal of which is to “teleport matter across space-time at a speed exceeding that of light—contrary to” the basic tenets “of known physics!” His colleague there is Dr. Richard, an eccentric scientist who wears a red lab coat resembling Hugh Heffner’s smoking jacket and insists that the temperature always be kept at 69 degrees. Richard is also the pioneer of Psychothotonix, a complex theory involving the ways human perception shapes reality. Still reeling from the death of his wife and daughter in a car accident three years ago, Tim exists on the cusp of a breakdown: driving his car at night with the headlights turned off, sustaining himself on Scotch, and talking to the ghost of the banker who once owned his house. One morning, he decides to transport himself through space and time in order to save his family, though it doesn’t go quite according to plan. Tim wakes up in a sanatorium, where a hallucination of Richard continues to speak to him about the history of physics. Electroshock treatment zaps Tim to an alternate dimension, where he meets Ahura Mazda, the manager of a cosmic garden supply store. Mazda reveals that Tim Smith is actually a Time Smith and that his destiny is to protect the space-time continuum from the interference of humanity. Can Tim rise to the occasion, right the wrongs he’s done, and save his wife and daughter? First, he’ll have to convince everyone he isn’t insane. Authors Dr. Richard and Smith (which are pen names) tell their cerebral story with a heady mix of dense theory and absurdist humor. Sometimes, particularly when Tim is narrating, they manage to translate the science into intriguing vernacular: “The brain fills in the blank spots….After working in this place for over four years, I can tell you with certainty there is a hell of a lot more out there that the brain is incapable of visually assimilating, yet exists.” But elsewhere, in-depth discussions of physics bring the plot to a frustrating halt. The characters are rendered with an appreciable dose of personality, though the authors tend to sexualize every woman to a cartoonish extent. Accompanied by impressive ink illustrations by Krekeler (Dry Spell, 2015, etc.) and 90 pages of appendices going into great scientific detail, this book should satisfy a particular sort of sci-fi reader who is deeply interested in quantum physics and related fields. More casual sci-fi fans, even those who like a good mind-bender, will likely find themselves in over their heads.

An imaginative but difficult tale that cares more about its underlying scientific theories than its plot.