Title: The Quantum Ghost
Series Title: Quantum World
Author: Jonathan Ballagh
Illustrator: Ben J. Adams
Date Added: April 14, 2017
Date Started: April 29, 2017
Date Finished: May 20, 2017
Reading Duration: 21 days
Genre: Young Adult (YA), Mid-grade, Science Fiction, Post Apocalyptic/Dystopian, Speculative Fiction
Pages: 206
Publication Date: April 29, 2017
Publisher: Self-Published
Media: eBook/Kindle
Shares Paradigms With: The Matrix, Final Fantasy VII, Chrono Trigger
On a cold autumn night, twelve-year-old Remi Cobb makes a startling discovery—a mysterious object floating on the pond in her backyard. With no idea where it came from, or how it got there, Remi is compelled to unravel its secrets. Her quest for answers takes her on a perilous journey across realities, where she finds a crumbling world—and the dark forces behind its ruin. Here she learns the truth about her connection with the strange object, and of those that will stop at nothing to destroy them both.
But even if she can find a way to survive, can she find a way home?
Mr. Ballagh not only does it again with this second foray into his Quantum Worlds, but he manages to do it better. Any of the minor issues I had with The Quantum Door were utterly absent from novel. The author doesn’t waste any time with the narrative. He jumps right into the action of the book, and it’s instantly engaging.
Remi was an interesting character in her own right even without being a parallel universe explorer. She has some sort of ailment that keeps her home from school and perfectly explains why she was so susceptible and available for, er, quantum entanglement (too good to pass up). I liked that the illness wasn’t really explained, leaving the reader to speculate on its nature, and since this world clearly takes place in the (near) future, it obfuscates it even more. There’s also the question of whether or not Brady and Felix’s (the brother main characters from the prior book) actions might have had something to do with it. They are mentioned in a way that firmly places Ghost as a sequel to Door.
There were some old characters brought back with new motivations and explanations for some of their behaviors in the first book, and there were also some characters that had been more antagonistic in Door that were far more sympathetic in Ghost. The true villain was menacing nor was their identity given away that easily even when Remi first runs into them, and new and prior antagonists were shown to have more than one layer.
Like the prior book, there are clever references hidden in names like Alethea, which means “truth,” and this individual is an integral fount of that. There’s another person named Naveah, which is “Heaven” spelled backwards. I don’t want to say too much about these characters as their identities wade into spoiler territory.
The author has a gift of describing a scene without over-describing it (something I’m guilty of and need to learn to balance), and Ghost (and Door, too) would honestly be perfect for film. I hope one day that comes to fruition (if it’s something the author so desires), because I could see many a Matrix fan adding this to their sci-fi collection.
5 stars.
The Shameful Narcissist Speaks 
I might see if there’s an audiobook of this. Sounds like it could be up my street.
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If you’re into AI and robots (or if your kids are), I’d definitely check it out! It…may have an audio version? I know the author is self-published, but I have another friend who’s the same, and she has audio versions, so anything is possible.
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A lot of books on Audible are self published, so I’ll have a look around!
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I’ve actually considered doing voice work for books. There are sites and whatnot where you can try out. If my stupid voice wasn’t so fickle due to taking asthma medicine, I probably would. I like that it’s available to indie and self-published author’s too.
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Great review! I think it’s an amazing feat when an author improves with a second trip to their world, instead of disappointing readers. I am very guilty of over-describing things. It’s something I’ll have to work on if I ever want to achieve my own pipe dream of becoming an author. 🙂
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He actually emailed me again and offered to send me signed copies of his books! I think most authors tend to improve because you have more experience. I’ve definitely seen a change in my writing from 5 or even 1 year ago. The more you do it, the better you get!
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Oh wow! That is very nice of him. It’s so great to see an author appreciate loyal readers 🙂 I know I’m going to have to rewrite the whole first half of my book. My writing style changed so much as I rambled along, haha.
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Ugh you and me both…maybe not entirely rewrite, but I have so much to fix/correct. I matured quite a bit in the last 5-10 years hehe. It’s a never ending struggle.
He’s such a nice guy! I need to reply to his email. I’m waaaaay behind in all of that and was hoping I could use the long weekend we have for Memorial Day to catch up.
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I’m so jealous of your long weekend! At least we had one last weekend, haha. Thank you Queen Victoria for being our figurehead of state. 🙂
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