Finity by John Barnes

This review contains spoilers.  If you don't want the story ruined, don't read any further.

The book started out as an interesting mystery.  Immediately, the main character gets a note telling him that he can't trust the man he's about to interview with for a job.  Then we start learning the setting, apparently in the future, with functional AI driving cars, etc.  Again, all very interesting and well presented.

But then the verisimilitude begins to stumble.  The main character is attacked on his plane.  There's evidence that his plane has been used earlier that day, and his AI thinks he was the one who used it.  This is demonstrated in the story to be nearly impossible to fake.  Then he continues with vacation plans, treating all these weird events as merely minor annoyances.  His attitude and his conversations with his girlfriend virtually ignore everything that has been going on.

I just couldn't buy that.  If I were subjected to those events they would have been the entire focus of my attention for weeks.

Anyway, strange things keep happening and soon even these characters can't ignore them.   Off they go on an adventure, trying to get into America.

Early in the book, the future history of the US was one of the most intriguing parts of the setting.  Germany had won the war but wasn't able to occupy the US.  The US was still around, but was basically a second tier country.  The story started in New Zealand, generally considered a backwater nation and largely ignored by the super powers.

Unfortunately, the author didn't stick with that setting.  Fairly early in the book it became clear that this was a Many Worlds story.  That's not inherently bad, but I sure was looking forward to seeing more of the original setting.  So I was disappointed when they diluted the setting by explaining some of the alternate worlds they entered.

Next came the explanation of how people jumped between worlds, and that I just couldn't buy.  Basically, that our use of quantum computers causes the continual bifurcation of the universe.  Our use of computers or phones (both using basically the same quantum network system) causes them to jump between worlds.

No, no, no.

The entire universe is constantly undergoing quantum interactions.  There's nothing magic about putting them in a computer.  And why would the collection of particles that make up a person's body be affected when they put a phone up to their ear?   What would make the particles jump between worlds?  It just doesn't make sense.  There's no reason the particles of a person and their clothing would jump and not the chair they're sitting in, or a chunk of ground they're standing on.  Once again, there's nothing magic about the particles that make up a person.

I managed to keep reading after this was revealed, despite my annoyance.

There was an odd intermission where some of the characters spend time in an idyllic world that turns out to be virtual reality.  It seemed strangely out of place.   They spend a great deal of subjective time there, which we're later told is very little "real" time.  I didn't quite understand how they got there.  I think it was maybe supposed to be a plant for the explanation of what happened to the US.   But I found it too jarring.

Eventually, the adventure story continues on.  They make it to the US and avoid the evil computer program and live happily ever after.

Started out interesting.  Then it got contrived.  I really wanted to like this book, but the verisimilitude broke down on me.  Then the drama evaporated.   On Mighty's Total Book Value Scale, Half-price.

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