My thoughts
Finished
A quick and fun sci-fi read that fails to have a cohesive narrative. The first half of the book consists of several bite-sized stories about "Ed" and his college roommate. These stories are quirky little vignettes that usually toy with 1 or 2 gear-grinding sci-fi concepts. If the whole book would have kept up with that formula this would be a 4+ star rating for me. Unfortunately the concept starts to fall apart when an overarching narrative is shimmed between chapters. While the chapters are still relatively encapsulated, there are a number of macguffins and messy story points that sort of kill the magic present in the first half in my opinion. There is also a weirdly sexist description of a "geek girl" that the main characters are friends with. That entire chapter could be taken out or rewritten and the book would be better for it; it soured the experience for me. I've read most of QNTMs other work and this is my least favorite so far. It's still a quick and fun read but it won't stick with me like Ra or VHIT have.