Waiting on Wednesday (1): Quantum Coin

Waiting on Wednesday is hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine. It's a feature designed to spotlight upcoming novels we can't wait to get our hands on. Click the link for more!

Quantum Coin
by E.C. Myers
Series: Coin, #2
Release Date: October 23rd, 2012
Publisher: Pyr
Genre: Science Fiction
Goodreads 

Ephraim thought his universe-hopping days were over. He's done wishing for magic solutions to his problems; his quantum coin has been powerless for almost a year, and he's settled into a normal life with his girlfriend, Jena. But then an old friend crashes their senior prom: Jena's identical twin from a parallel world, Zoe.

Zoe's timing couldn't be worse. It turns out that Ephraim's problems have just begun, and they're much more complicated than his love life: The multiverse is at stake—and it might just be Ephraim's fault.

Ephraim, Jena, and Zoe embark on a mission across multiple worlds to learn what's going wrong and how to stop it. They will have to draw on every resource available and trust in alternate versions of themselves and their friends, before it's too late for all of them.

If Ephraim and his companions can put their many differences aside and learn to work together, they might have a chance to save the multiverse. But ultimately, the solution may depend on how much they're willing to sacrifice for the sake of humanity...and each other.

I read Fair Coin earlier this year and I thought the concept was pretty awesome. But I didn't realize it was part of a series! I'm excited to learn more about all the different worlds introduced in the first book. Luckily this comes out next week. :P

- Bill

Review: Human.4

Human.4
by Mike A. Lancaster (Blog | Facebook | Twitter)

Series: Point 4, #1
Published: March 8th, 2011 by Egmont
Pages: 272 (Paperback)
Genre: Sci-Fi
Source: Bought

Goodreads | Amazon | Indie 

It's a brave new world.

'My name is Kyle Straker. And I don't exist anymore.' So begins the story of Kyle Straker, recorded on to old audio tapes. You might think these tapes are a hoax. But perhaps they contain the history of a past world. If what the tapes say are true, it means that everything we think we know is a lie. 

And if everything we know is a lie does that mean that we are, too?

Human.4 (also titled 0.4) has become one of my favorite books. It's one of those stories that, when you finish that last page and set the book down, you think "Holy crap. What if this is real?" My mouth was literally hanging open for a large portion of the novel.

Review: The Obsidian Blade

The Obsidian Blade 
by Pete Hautman (Blog | Facebook | Twitter | Youtube)

Series: Klaatu Diskos #1
Published: April 10th, 2012 by Candlewick
Pages: 320 (Hardcover)
Genre: Sci-Fi
Source: Borrowed from library

Goodreads | Amazon | Indie

The first time his father disappeared, Tucker Feye had just turned thirteen. The Reverend Feye simply climbed on the roof to fix a shingle, let out a scream, and vanished — only to walk up the driveway an hour later, looking older and worn, with a strange girl named Lahlia in tow. In the months that followed, Tucker watched his father grow distant and his once loving mother slide into madness.

But then both of his parents disappear. Now in the care of his wild Uncle Kosh, Tucker begins to suspect that the disks of shimmering air he keeps seeing — one right on top of the roof — hold the answer to restoring his family. And when he dares to step into one, he’s launched on a time-twisting journey — from a small Midwestern town to a futuristic hospital run by digitally augmented healers, from the death of an ancient prophet to a forest at the end of time. Inevitably, Tucker’s actions alter the past and future, changing his world forever.

The Obsidian Blade by Pete Hautman was an exciting read that gripped me from beginning to end. The premise of the story is fairly simple: sometime in the future people built portals called Diskos that travel to various locations and times throughout human history. And now, some of the people from those times are finding the portals. The story follows Tucker Feye as he discovers and eventually learns the nature of these portals.