The Practice Effect is a totally cool, totally fun, and totally non-serious science fiction book with fantasy-like effects. It has one of the coolest ‘magic’ systems I have ever read.
Will you like it? Well, that depends. Do you like hard sci-fi? I do, and I love it. Do you like magic system ‘whodunits’? I do, and I loved this book. Do you like “She hated me before she loved me” romances? I sometimes do, and there’s that too. How about traveling through gates between worlds? How about a robot that misunderstands its orders and ends up saving the day? How about a really cool alien creature that is onboard for the ride? Yup, I love all those too.
Now, if after all that you need me to summarize the plot, this book may not be for you. If you didn’t get that, it’s about a guy who goes through a gate to another world, finds a girl who hates him, and has a robot who misunderstands his orders and saves the day. And a fun little alien who goes along for the ride as he tries to figure out what on Earth is going on with the magic system and how to save himself, the girl, and the entire nation of good guys well, then, there isn’t much hope for you, is there?
The only drawback to reading The Practice Effect is that it isn’t the start of a series. It isn’t even like any other book I’ve read by the same author. It is unique, a one-off, standing alone.
From one of the most critically acclaimed and well-loved authors of contemporary science fiction, a highly imaginative and exciting story as only David Brin can write . . .
“High spirits and inventiveness . . . Dennis’s adventures, which can only be called rollicking, are legion.”—Isaac Asimov’s Science Fiction Magazine
Physicist Dennis Nuel was the first human to probe the strange realms called anomaly worlds—alternate universes where the laws of science were unpredictably changed. But the world Dennis discovered seemed almost like our own—with one perplexing difference. To his astonishment, he was hailed as a wizard and found himself fighting beside a beautiful woman with strange powers against a mysterious warlord as he struggled to solve the riddle of this baffling world.
Ha!
Jennifer, if I were to pick this book up on my own, I’d probably put it right back down.
But you make this book sound so fun!
Thanks, Dave. Arthur wrote the review and I think I’d like the book too…