What do you think?
Rate this book
Quasar
Hired to care for the psychotic heiress Quasar Zant, psychiatric technician Ted Karmade is catapulted into the dizzying world of unrepressed ambition and exposed to deadly secrets that test his survival. Original.
- GenresScience Fiction
207 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published September 22, 1995
43 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews
Read
June 21, 2021I thought this was a really interesting book! My Twitter thread about it:
https://twitter.com/bogiperson/status...
(Spoilers marked; the beginning part has no spoilers)
________
Source of the book: Book swap
https://twitter.com/bogiperson/status...
(Spoilers marked; the beginning part has no spoilers)
________
Source of the book: Book swap
March 4, 2012
Disregard the negative reviews I've read on here. This is a great debt novel brimming with cyberpunk goodness. Not my favorite of Nasir's novels but great nonetheless.
August 30, 2009
Ack Phhfffffft! Wow, this is a totally non-sensical post apocolypitic sf book, obseessed with bad psychology and holograms. The world makes no sense,the apocolypse was caused by biological mutating agents, everyone lives in one city, (with the mutants locked in the basement, and people eat protien wafers, yet the economy is strong enough to send astronauts to uranus, and build mile high, several block radius skyscrapers for fun. It makes no sense. And the writer has an obsession with knocking out the main character at the end of every chapter, its the only transition he knows apparently, its really rediculous, our hero is like a blow up punching bag.
Oh and there are aliens, a multiple personality disordered heroine/love intrest, a psycholgist main character (who just gets carried along by the "plot"), stupid androids, and mutants galore. Man, its terrible.
Oh and there are aliens, a multiple personality disordered heroine/love intrest, a psycholgist main character (who just gets carried along by the "plot"), stupid androids, and mutants galore. Man, its terrible.
July 30, 2025
Before Jamil Nasir, the greatest science fiction author of all time, could write the greatest science fiction book of all time (the Houses of Time), he first had to perfect his craft. Quasar, Nasir’s debut novel published in 1995, is the work of a man who has not yet reached the peak of his writing prowess but who is not lacking in talent.
In Quasar, psychiatric technician Ted Karmade tries to help the psychologically disturbed heiress Quasar save the mutated inhabitants of a future, environmentally-decimated Earth. While reading, I found many similarities to The Houses of Time, including: a female love interest who is described as lithe and animal-like, a male protagonist wants to physically attack the female love interest at one point (66), fucking up someone’s brain chemistry for the Greater Good (86), someone believing something that is true is told they are clinically insane (77). What doesn’t happen in Quasar, but does happen in the Houses of Time, however, is an overall cohesion to the themes to leave the reader with something solid to ponder once the book is finished. Initially Quasar seems poised to thematically highlight the biochemical basis of life and the implications on our humanity: there are mentions of various specific neurotransmitters as the direct cause or desired effect of the characters’ actions; “He closed his eyes, took some deep breaths, and used an antiadrenergic mantra for half a minute, then tried to make a snap diagnosis. Probably some acute exacerbation of a hyperdopaminergic or bipolar syndrome…” (28) “the curve of its lips and black eyes, the lines of the jaw and small, straight nose, sent a rush of serotonin-mediated disturbance through him” (17), there is some mention of how Ted is initially only helping Quasar because of a “serotonin reward”. But mid-way through the book, there’s a section where main character Karmade is classically conditioned (by the bad guys) to associate pain/torture with Quasar — which feels one level abstracted away from purely neurochemical storytelling. And, by the end of the book, the book seems to totally shift gear to instead emphasize mankind’s destruction of Earth, a struggle of the powerful vs the powerless (the underclass, mutants, are forced to live in bleak conditions underground in the Warrens while the rich live in biocide-decontaminated penthouses), questions about what are the root causes of suffering (“‘There will always be evil and suffering on this world. You cannot eliminate it, or even diminish it one iota, by saving the mutants; nothing but a fundamental restructuring of the laws of nature could do that.’” (193), even AI safety (?) “He understood abruptly the City’s projection of the evils it had invented upon the mutants, that the Mayor and City Council were sociopathic paranoids controlled by the same industrial/cybernetic complex that had sold the human race into its wars, and which ran the City, and which had no human agenda because it was not human but an intricate system of machines the human race had entrusted with its safekeeping—“ (204) At the same time as we get too many themes thrown at us, the plot also feels undirected and rambley. It was hard to keep track of everything that was happening and in some cases there seemed to be unrealistic events or potential plot holes.
The book is still worth reading though, as the sci-fi world-building/setting is incredible. In Quasar, we encounter psych technicians and CNS-rebalancing machines that can neurochemically fix whatever ails you, bioenvironment clubs where the rich can still experience Earth as it was before it was ruined, a decapitated head that is kept alive with electrodes and air tubes for interrogation and torture, and more. Great stuff.
Plot holes/points of concern/questions:
- Unrealistic, Ion and Arol risking their own lives to get Karmade into the Warrens. Why would they do this?
- Why did It test Karmade by making him think the androids were pouring biocides into the Warren? What is It exactly..?
In Quasar, psychiatric technician Ted Karmade tries to help the psychologically disturbed heiress Quasar save the mutated inhabitants of a future, environmentally-decimated Earth. While reading, I found many similarities to The Houses of Time, including: a female love interest who is described as lithe and animal-like, a male protagonist wants to physically attack the female love interest at one point (66), fucking up someone’s brain chemistry for the Greater Good (86), someone believing something that is true is told they are clinically insane (77). What doesn’t happen in Quasar, but does happen in the Houses of Time, however, is an overall cohesion to the themes to leave the reader with something solid to ponder once the book is finished. Initially Quasar seems poised to thematically highlight the biochemical basis of life and the implications on our humanity: there are mentions of various specific neurotransmitters as the direct cause or desired effect of the characters’ actions; “He closed his eyes, took some deep breaths, and used an antiadrenergic mantra for half a minute, then tried to make a snap diagnosis. Probably some acute exacerbation of a hyperdopaminergic or bipolar syndrome…” (28) “the curve of its lips and black eyes, the lines of the jaw and small, straight nose, sent a rush of serotonin-mediated disturbance through him” (17), there is some mention of how Ted is initially only helping Quasar because of a “serotonin reward”. But mid-way through the book, there’s a section where main character Karmade is classically conditioned (by the bad guys) to associate pain/torture with Quasar — which feels one level abstracted away from purely neurochemical storytelling. And, by the end of the book, the book seems to totally shift gear to instead emphasize mankind’s destruction of Earth, a struggle of the powerful vs the powerless (the underclass, mutants, are forced to live in bleak conditions underground in the Warrens while the rich live in biocide-decontaminated penthouses), questions about what are the root causes of suffering (“‘There will always be evil and suffering on this world. You cannot eliminate it, or even diminish it one iota, by saving the mutants; nothing but a fundamental restructuring of the laws of nature could do that.’” (193), even AI safety (?) “He understood abruptly the City’s projection of the evils it had invented upon the mutants, that the Mayor and City Council were sociopathic paranoids controlled by the same industrial/cybernetic complex that had sold the human race into its wars, and which ran the City, and which had no human agenda because it was not human but an intricate system of machines the human race had entrusted with its safekeeping—“ (204) At the same time as we get too many themes thrown at us, the plot also feels undirected and rambley. It was hard to keep track of everything that was happening and in some cases there seemed to be unrealistic events or potential plot holes.
The book is still worth reading though, as the sci-fi world-building/setting is incredible. In Quasar, we encounter psych technicians and CNS-rebalancing machines that can neurochemically fix whatever ails you, bioenvironment clubs where the rich can still experience Earth as it was before it was ruined, a decapitated head that is kept alive with electrodes and air tubes for interrogation and torture, and more. Great stuff.
Plot holes/points of concern/questions:
- Unrealistic, Ion and Arol risking their own lives to get Karmade into the Warrens. Why would they do this?
- Why did It test Karmade by making him think the androids were pouring biocides into the Warren? What is It exactly..?
September 11, 2025
Quasar really nails that 90s dark, dystopian cyberpunk vibe. The setting is near future enough to identify with, but the earth has evolved in such a way as to be interestingly different and alien. It's a short book - my print copy is only 207 pages, so it moves very quickly, but still manages to pack in a decent amount of interesting worldbuilding.
I enjoyed the writing-- its very detailed and purple, often skimming the line of being too much, but pulling back at the last second. The author does a great job of bringing to life both the extravagance of the mega-rich corpos and the absolutely horrendous filth of the dregs of society. The book is also quite weird and surrealist, there are lots of hallucinogenic scenes and it's all kind of reminiscent of stuff like VideoDrome and 90s Japanese cyberpunk films like Rubber's Lover.
The book is VERY dark - almost everyone is either horribly deformed or completely mentally deranged. The mutants are stuck in a horribly nihilistic existence and the rich corpos are insane and evil. It's an endless sea of dark imagery: all manner of torture (physical and virtual), filth and scum everywhere, endless conflict, scheming, etc. I swear there is someone on every page either sweating, crying, or bleeding. Or all of the above.
While the overall vibe is great, the book suffers from repetition and dull characters. The darkness here is ever-pervasive and there is nothing to balance it out. It's the kind of book that leaves you feeling depressed after every chapter. There are no characters or outcomes I cared to root for.
The main character is dull and rather unlikable. He has very little agency or character arc; he mostly just gets tortured (in some manner) repeatedly before being shuffled to the next place. The torture gets very repetitive and it's a constant cycle of the dude experiencing hardship, passing out, miraculously avoiding death, and then waking up somewhere else. It also gets harder and harder to believe that the random assortment of people he meets would be so willing to help him, always to their own detriment.
The main female, Quasar Zant, is annoying and largely unsympathetic. Yes, she had a horribly traumatic life, but the author didn't succeed in making me care whether the main guy rescues her or not. Also the trope where the "perfect", beautiful 20 year old "is compelled to" have sex with the 40 year old protagonist because of "mental illness" is pretty gross and wildly unnecessary. These scenes are handled artistically and both characters suffer immensely for it, but come on, this could have been achieved in a less cringe way.
The book kind of goes off the rails in the last quarter with confusing abstractness, and by that point I wasn't invested in the character(s) at all and didn't really care what happened. The end itself is abrupt and not satisfying.
Overall, worth reading for the masterfully executed dark, depressing cyberpunk vibe, but the story aspect is just mid. I'm curious to see how this guys other books are though.
I enjoyed the writing-- its very detailed and purple, often skimming the line of being too much, but pulling back at the last second. The author does a great job of bringing to life both the extravagance of the mega-rich corpos and the absolutely horrendous filth of the dregs of society. The book is also quite weird and surrealist, there are lots of hallucinogenic scenes and it's all kind of reminiscent of stuff like VideoDrome and 90s Japanese cyberpunk films like Rubber's Lover.
The book is VERY dark - almost everyone is either horribly deformed or completely mentally deranged. The mutants are stuck in a horribly nihilistic existence and the rich corpos are insane and evil. It's an endless sea of dark imagery: all manner of torture (physical and virtual), filth and scum everywhere, endless conflict, scheming, etc. I swear there is someone on every page either sweating, crying, or bleeding. Or all of the above.
While the overall vibe is great, the book suffers from repetition and dull characters. The darkness here is ever-pervasive and there is nothing to balance it out. It's the kind of book that leaves you feeling depressed after every chapter. There are no characters or outcomes I cared to root for.
The main character is dull and rather unlikable. He has very little agency or character arc; he mostly just gets tortured (in some manner) repeatedly before being shuffled to the next place. The torture gets very repetitive and it's a constant cycle of the dude experiencing hardship, passing out, miraculously avoiding death, and then waking up somewhere else. It also gets harder and harder to believe that the random assortment of people he meets would be so willing to help him, always to their own detriment.
The main female, Quasar Zant, is annoying and largely unsympathetic. Yes, she had a horribly traumatic life, but the author didn't succeed in making me care whether the main guy rescues her or not. Also the trope where the "perfect", beautiful 20 year old "is compelled to" have sex with the 40 year old protagonist because of "mental illness" is pretty gross and wildly unnecessary. These scenes are handled artistically and both characters suffer immensely for it, but come on, this could have been achieved in a less cringe way.
The book kind of goes off the rails in the last quarter with confusing abstractness, and by that point I wasn't invested in the character(s) at all and didn't really care what happened. The end itself is abrupt and not satisfying.
Overall, worth reading for the masterfully executed dark, depressing cyberpunk vibe, but the story aspect is just mid. I'm curious to see how this guys other books are though.
April 19, 2020
So, a few base observations first. You can tell that this is a first book. The author is quite intelligent. I’m not sure that it’s particularly good.
Those aside, this is definitely a book that suffers rather than benefits from being “real” or “hard” science fiction. The explanation of neural phenomenon and his descriptions of neurochemistry are largely correct, albeit exaggerated in effect. This can be chalked up to future society achieving what we can only imagine etc. However, it’s hard to read. Like, really hard. I understand what he’s talking about (at least somewhat) and I found it a pain. And it doesn’t really need to be there. The book is essentially an allegory for war and the military industrial complex, which the author basically states outright towards the very end of the book. The revelation made the whole book seem rather pointless. Obviously you had some societal critiques throughout the whole work, and you could tell Quasar was being taken advantage of by her guardian. Hell, even the crazy sadist aunt fit the story of corrupting power, all the more relevant as we learn more and more about how sick some of the people who run our world are, a la Epstein. But then over the course of a few pages and an admittedly mediocre hallucination sequence he turns it into something about the military industrial complex and the cosmic proliferation of evil? If that’s the point he wanted to make he should have done it sooner because entwining it with a massive, poorly defined twist at the end makes the entire rest of the story seem trite and unneeded. There were bits where the security guards actions obviously were meant to let us decry the control over our lives that the government has, but the ending takes it way further with literally no sound basis in my opinion. I don’t mind Deus Ex Machinas. Life is by and large governed by chance, sometimes we are saved randomly by a conveniently unstable rock formation, and sometimes there is just randomly a gun lying around when the bad guy tries to get you. But binding up what seems to be the chief theme of your work into a complete D.E.M. at the very end of the book is just poor writing.
Those aside, this is definitely a book that suffers rather than benefits from being “real” or “hard” science fiction. The explanation of neural phenomenon and his descriptions of neurochemistry are largely correct, albeit exaggerated in effect. This can be chalked up to future society achieving what we can only imagine etc. However, it’s hard to read. Like, really hard. I understand what he’s talking about (at least somewhat) and I found it a pain. And it doesn’t really need to be there. The book is essentially an allegory for war and the military industrial complex, which the author basically states outright towards the very end of the book. The revelation made the whole book seem rather pointless. Obviously you had some societal critiques throughout the whole work, and you could tell Quasar was being taken advantage of by her guardian. Hell, even the crazy sadist aunt fit the story of corrupting power, all the more relevant as we learn more and more about how sick some of the people who run our world are, a la Epstein. But then over the course of a few pages and an admittedly mediocre hallucination sequence he turns it into something about the military industrial complex and the cosmic proliferation of evil? If that’s the point he wanted to make he should have done it sooner because entwining it with a massive, poorly defined twist at the end makes the entire rest of the story seem trite and unneeded. There were bits where the security guards actions obviously were meant to let us decry the control over our lives that the government has, but the ending takes it way further with literally no sound basis in my opinion. I don’t mind Deus Ex Machinas. Life is by and large governed by chance, sometimes we are saved randomly by a conveniently unstable rock formation, and sometimes there is just randomly a gun lying around when the bad guy tries to get you. But binding up what seems to be the chief theme of your work into a complete D.E.M. at the very end of the book is just poor writing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 29, 2025
Classic science fiction.... Very detailed mathematical and neuroscience sequences.... Robots.... Mutants... Unhealthy relationships... Erotic fixations... Torture... Panic attacks... Hallucinations... Angels... And so on... What more could you ask for ???
May 7, 2021
A strange and muddied allegory about the dangers of discrimination told through a cyberpunk adventure of androids, mutants, and sewer people? Sign me up!
Seeing two of the top reviews being so low, I expected a much worse book. Many of their criticisms are valid: the psychological babble is a bit too prevalent and the ending is kind of a deus ex machina, but I still found it to be a fun sci-fi adventure if you’re into pulpier genre fiction.
Seeing two of the top reviews being so low, I expected a much worse book. Many of their criticisms are valid: the psychological babble is a bit too prevalent and the ending is kind of a deus ex machina, but I still found it to be a fun sci-fi adventure if you’re into pulpier genre fiction.
April 19, 2008
This was a totally shit-tacular far-future dystopian post-apocalyptic crap book with mutants and psychological engineering and "exos" (read aliens) who either want to rape us, enslave us, or save us, and a -really- terrible city structure with the rich literally at the top and the mutants literally at the bottom. Man, I tell you, I wanted terrible and I got terrible. This book --sucks--.
March 6, 2013
A strikingly imaginative sf fantasy
Displaying 1 - 10 of 10 reviews