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The Quantum Curators #1
The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg (The Quantum Curators Series)
Anyone can track down a priceless artefact that's been lost for hundreds of years. Finding one that's been hidden on a parallel Earth . . . now that's a neat trick.
When Neith Salah--a quantum curator charged with traveling to our parallel Earth to rescue precious artefacts--is ordered to save a priceless Fabergé Egg, she figures it's just another job. The only she's not sure what the egg looks like. Or where it is. Or when it is.
Enter Julius Strathclyde, a mild-mannered Cambridge professor whose closest brush with death-defying treasure hunts is finding lost coins down the back of the sofa. Not the usual "save the world" type, but when Julius' best friend is murdered while searching for the egg, Neith realizes that this mild-mannered professor is the only person who can help her solve the riddles that will lead her to the egg.
She just has to keep him alive long enough to do it.
He's got the fountain pens. She's got the guns. They'll just have to hope that's enough to keep them ahead of the Russian Mafia, unknown assassins, and perhaps even other quantum curators who want the egg for their own dark purposes . . . and may not be picky about who they have to kill to get it.
When Neith Salah--a quantum curator charged with traveling to our parallel Earth to rescue precious artefacts--is ordered to save a priceless Fabergé Egg, she figures it's just another job. The only she's not sure what the egg looks like. Or where it is. Or when it is.
Enter Julius Strathclyde, a mild-mannered Cambridge professor whose closest brush with death-defying treasure hunts is finding lost coins down the back of the sofa. Not the usual "save the world" type, but when Julius' best friend is murdered while searching for the egg, Neith realizes that this mild-mannered professor is the only person who can help her solve the riddles that will lead her to the egg.
She just has to keep him alive long enough to do it.
He's got the fountain pens. She's got the guns. They'll just have to hope that's enough to keep them ahead of the Russian Mafia, unknown assassins, and perhaps even other quantum curators who want the egg for their own dark purposes . . . and may not be picky about who they have to kill to get it.
1 pages, Audio CD
First published May 24, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 314 reviews
June 8, 2020
If you like the Chronicles of St. Mary's then you will love this book.
March 5, 2021
This was an absolute mess of a book, there's just no other way to put it. While the concept was good in theory the execution left a lot to be desired. A lot.
Let's start with the problematic POV. Neith's chapters are first person. Just Neith's. Everyone else's are third person and to be clear, not really their chapters as a chapter marked to be Julius' trailed into Charles or in one irritating chapter trailed into Rebecca's with zero warning and back out again. I'm not sure if this was an attempt at an omnipotent third person but it was a failure either way.
Now let's look at the characters. Neith is Neith. She's a BAMF in case that hadn't been made clear. It hasn't because I'm not sure I ever witnessed anything that made me think she was properly competent at her job when so many things kept going wrong and she frequently forgot important things.
Julius is hot. Seriously. That's about the depth of his character exploration. He's a hot professor who doesn't take much notice of people.
Except for Neith.
This could have been done well. It was not. Because Neith is in an on-again-off-again relationship with a coworker that I never actually felt as though she liked? He was convenient and she liked that he cared about his sister but that was about it. Which admittedly is more than I felt between her and Julius.
There were other characters. They were there and pretty much stamped out stereotypes. Which was disappointing because if this book had been just about Charles and Julius and tracking down the lost Faberge egg it would have been good. There'd have been time to flesh out characters and build on the only relationship Julius seemed to have in his life. The branched universe and the Quantum Curators made this book worse than it had to be if it was just a straight up adventure mystery.
Which brings me to the Alpha/Beta Earth thing. I didn't care. It made the plot messy and unnecessarily complicated and didn't seem to do more than create a reason for people to be after the egg. Only it didn't? If you came out the other end of this knowing why Alpha Earth cared about relics from another Earth I'm going to need you to explain it to me. These artefacts don't give you any fancy powers, they're not really worth money on Alpha Earth because it's so peace loving and science focused and there's no famine and war and its basically full of a bunch of shiny happy people that would drive me insane.
Which is why they spend lots of money stealing culture from another Earth to study and enrich their lives.
What plot there was poked in between all the pointless and badly done world building was predictable. The twist at the end wasn't a twist at all and frankly, I have zero reason to go into the next book if Neith is going to be angry and whiny and Julius is just going to be there.
Also, Artemis Fowl trading eyes with Holly Short was done way better than this hash job of splicing.
Having written this rant of a review I have come to the conclusion that actually, I really didn't like this book.
Let's start with the problematic POV. Neith's chapters are first person. Just Neith's. Everyone else's are third person and to be clear, not really their chapters as a chapter marked to be Julius' trailed into Charles or in one irritating chapter trailed into Rebecca's with zero warning and back out again. I'm not sure if this was an attempt at an omnipotent third person but it was a failure either way.
Now let's look at the characters. Neith is Neith. She's a BAMF in case that hadn't been made clear. It hasn't because I'm not sure I ever witnessed anything that made me think she was properly competent at her job when so many things kept going wrong and she frequently forgot important things.
Julius is hot. Seriously. That's about the depth of his character exploration. He's a hot professor who doesn't take much notice of people.
Except for Neith.
This could have been done well. It was not. Because Neith is in an on-again-off-again relationship with a coworker that I never actually felt as though she liked? He was convenient and she liked that he cared about his sister but that was about it. Which admittedly is more than I felt between her and Julius.
There were other characters. They were there and pretty much stamped out stereotypes. Which was disappointing because if this book had been just about Charles and Julius and tracking down the lost Faberge egg it would have been good. There'd have been time to flesh out characters and build on the only relationship Julius seemed to have in his life. The branched universe and the Quantum Curators made this book worse than it had to be if it was just a straight up adventure mystery.
Which brings me to the Alpha/Beta Earth thing. I didn't care. It made the plot messy and unnecessarily complicated and didn't seem to do more than create a reason for people to be after the egg. Only it didn't? If you came out the other end of this knowing why Alpha Earth cared about relics from another Earth I'm going to need you to explain it to me. These artefacts don't give you any fancy powers, they're not really worth money on Alpha Earth because it's so peace loving and science focused and there's no famine and war and its basically full of a bunch of shiny happy people that would drive me insane.
Which is why they spend lots of money stealing culture from another Earth to study and enrich their lives.
What plot there was poked in between all the pointless and badly done world building was predictable. The twist at the end wasn't a twist at all and frankly, I have zero reason to go into the next book if Neith is going to be angry and whiny and Julius is just going to be there.
Also, Artemis Fowl trading eyes with Holly Short was done way better than this hash job of splicing.
Having written this rant of a review I have come to the conclusion that actually, I really didn't like this book.
September 20, 2023
This book reminded me a bit of the Invisible Library series where agents have to travel to an alternate worlds to retrieve important books. In this case there are only two worlds: Alpha and Beta Earth and they use a Quantum field to travel to retrieve important artifacts. I enjoyed the book - I like this type of story and the world building and characters were interesting. The narrators did a great job. The ending was rushed and a bit confusing, though. Not everything is resolved and left for book 2.
February 1, 2021
Expectations are very important- I came into this book expecting very little indeed, and actually it's not all that awful. It's a bit of fun! Picked it up for free with prime reading, and it's a fine little romp that doesn't overstay its welcome.
We have an organisation of "Quantum Curators" (don't worry about the name, just go with it), who visit an alternate reality in order to retrieve famous historical items before they are lost to the ravages of time. Lost masterwork paintings, famous swords, first edition folios, that sort of thing. It's a decent set-up, and it has a fun little Warehouse-13 fan-fiction vibe going on.
Ultimately the writing is pretty poor and the characters are pretty hilariously stereotyped. The thriller-style plot with its required action sequences and mandatory twists never manages to drag itself above mediocrity.
Regardless it's still an amusing little diversion, and while I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone offhand, I definitely wouldn't steer people away either. Sometimes you just need an entertaining and relatively mindless action flick, and that's what this feels like. Popcorn stuff.
We have an organisation of "Quantum Curators" (don't worry about the name, just go with it), who visit an alternate reality in order to retrieve famous historical items before they are lost to the ravages of time. Lost masterwork paintings, famous swords, first edition folios, that sort of thing. It's a decent set-up, and it has a fun little Warehouse-13 fan-fiction vibe going on.
Ultimately the writing is pretty poor and the characters are pretty hilariously stereotyped. The thriller-style plot with its required action sequences and mandatory twists never manages to drag itself above mediocrity.
Regardless it's still an amusing little diversion, and while I wouldn't necessarily recommend it to anyone offhand, I definitely wouldn't steer people away either. Sometimes you just need an entertaining and relatively mindless action flick, and that's what this feels like. Popcorn stuff.
February 8, 2021
Time travel, snark, mysteries, and historical treasures. These books read as if they go along with Jodi Taylor's time travel books. They're very similar in that they're character-driven (sort of) time travel books that are just enjoyable romps. These ones, however, do try a bit harder in the diversity and representation department.
Anyone who likes Jodi Taylor books will likely like these. Lovely covers, great titles, and free with Kindle Unlimited.
Anyone who likes Jodi Taylor books will likely like these. Lovely covers, great titles, and free with Kindle Unlimited.
August 20, 2020
Feels plagiaristic to me
This was recommended to me because it is known I enjoy the works of Jodi Taylor. I had the distinct impression that much of the action, characterisation and phraseology were derivative. My apologies if this is simply coincidence.
However, I did take exception to the narrative straying from first to third person.
This was recommended to me because it is known I enjoy the works of Jodi Taylor. I had the distinct impression that much of the action, characterisation and phraseology were derivative. My apologies if this is simply coincidence.
However, I did take exception to the narrative straying from first to third person.
January 7, 2021
The Quantum Curators and the Faberge Egg features a team of 'Curators' from what they refer to as Alpha Earth venturing to an alternate version of Earth (Beta) and tasked with retrieving objects of historical significance before they are destroyed. It has the feel of Warehouse 13 crossed with Artemis Fowl, especially given all the covert technology they have to aid them in their task.
It's a fun premise but one that fails in its execution. It's a book full of unsubtle writing that constantly tells rather than shows, usually via one of the myriad information dumps featured throughout. The bulk of the book flits between two points of view chapter by chapter, Neith head of the Alpha retrieval unit and Julian of Beta Earth who is a frustrating caricature of a Cambridge academic.
As the pov flips so does the writing from first to third person presumably in an effort show the difference between Alpha and Beta earth peoples but regardless it makes for a very jarring read. The third person for Julian especially makes it hard to attach to the character in any meaningful way.
Overall it's a nice premise for a book that quickly gets bogged down in a poorly done spy drama and infighting over an object that never fulfils the interesting opportunities the setup provides.
It's a fun premise but one that fails in its execution. It's a book full of unsubtle writing that constantly tells rather than shows, usually via one of the myriad information dumps featured throughout. The bulk of the book flits between two points of view chapter by chapter, Neith head of the Alpha retrieval unit and Julian of Beta Earth who is a frustrating caricature of a Cambridge academic.
As the pov flips so does the writing from first to third person presumably in an effort show the difference between Alpha and Beta earth peoples but regardless it makes for a very jarring read. The third person for Julian especially makes it hard to attach to the character in any meaningful way.
Overall it's a nice premise for a book that quickly gets bogged down in a poorly done spy drama and infighting over an object that never fulfils the interesting opportunities the setup provides.
May 14, 2021
I didn't know what to expect going into this, and I'll be completely honest, I'm still not sure what went down or how I feel about it. This book was marketed as "fast paced" which concerns me because this has to be one of the slowest books when it actually comes to getting into the thick of it. Hell, neither main character knew the other even existed until around the 45% mark. That ending was real confusing too. I suppose they left us on a cliffhanger on purpose but c'mon, nothing was resolved. I haven't the foggiest clue what happened at the end.
I quite liked Julius' character, he was sweet and I felt like there was something quite real about him. Neith was also fun but it never really felt like we knew anything about her outside of the organisation. I would have liked to learn more about her. Ramin was nice and Charlie was fun but we didn't really see much of either of them.
I am a tad curious about what happens later in the series, but I really don't want to read it so I'll just skim the synopsis and hope for the best.
I quite liked Julius' character, he was sweet and I felt like there was something quite real about him. Neith was also fun but it never really felt like we knew anything about her outside of the organisation. I would have liked to learn more about her. Ramin was nice and Charlie was fun but we didn't really see much of either of them.
I am a tad curious about what happens later in the series, but I really don't want to read it so I'll just skim the synopsis and hope for the best.
May 30, 2021
1.5
Could have been a decent concept, but needed some serious editing. The narration changes from first to third person indiscriminately, there are numerous spelling and grammatical errors, and the characters are generally boring and flat. Do yourself a favor and read The Invisible Library or The Chronicles of St. Mary’s instead.
Could have been a decent concept, but needed some serious editing. The narration changes from first to third person indiscriminately, there are numerous spelling and grammatical errors, and the characters are generally boring and flat. Do yourself a favor and read The Invisible Library or The Chronicles of St. Mary’s instead.
January 16, 2021
Really fun and interesting shorter read that had me reading into the depths of the night until my device ran out of battery! I loved the concept and characters and the sub-plot has me hooked. I'm excited to read the next book to find out more.
October 27, 2024
Alpha Earth and Beta Earth. Beta seems to be our Earth, Alpha is a world free of religious or political strife and without wars. It‘s a parallel Earth, parted from us at the burning of the Alexandria library. The Roman Empire never happened and their world took a different path.
There are quantum doors opening between worlds every now and then and Alpha Earth takes those doors to visit and save artifacts of all kinds from our destructive world. Neith Salah is a quantum curator and she has to save a Faberge egg from destruction. On Beta Earth there is Julius, a Cambridge professor, who is after the egg as well…
Murder, theft, a huge conspiracy and all that for some jewelry. Yes, very fancy and valuable jewelry. Still, I didn‘t really buy into the initial premise of this story and the importance of what the curators are doing. It was entertaining enough and I did like the male main character, so I might get the next one in the series if the mood strikes me for something light and short.
The audio has a female and male narrator. I was not a fan of the accent of the female narrator, Lucy Rayner. Additionally many of her sentences were spoken in the same cadence, which made her chapters very monotonous. My mind kept wandering off. Not ideal.
Reminded me of The Chronicles of St. Mary‘s. I read the first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another, in 2017. I only gave it three stars back then, but I just took a look at all the quotes I saved and it sounds pretty funny. I might have to re-read that one and maybe continue the series. Not saying that this one here is a rip-off or strongly influenced by that series, but considering other reviews I am not the first person to notice similarities.
There are quantum doors opening between worlds every now and then and Alpha Earth takes those doors to visit and save artifacts of all kinds from our destructive world. Neith Salah is a quantum curator and she has to save a Faberge egg from destruction. On Beta Earth there is Julius, a Cambridge professor, who is after the egg as well…
Murder, theft, a huge conspiracy and all that for some jewelry. Yes, very fancy and valuable jewelry. Still, I didn‘t really buy into the initial premise of this story and the importance of what the curators are doing. It was entertaining enough and I did like the male main character, so I might get the next one in the series if the mood strikes me for something light and short.
The audio has a female and male narrator. I was not a fan of the accent of the female narrator, Lucy Rayner. Additionally many of her sentences were spoken in the same cadence, which made her chapters very monotonous. My mind kept wandering off. Not ideal.
Reminded me of The Chronicles of St. Mary‘s. I read the first book, Just One Damned Thing After Another, in 2017. I only gave it three stars back then, but I just took a look at all the quotes I saved and it sounds pretty funny. I might have to re-read that one and maybe continue the series. Not saying that this one here is a rip-off or strongly influenced by that series, but considering other reviews I am not the first person to notice similarities.
June 4, 2020
The Quantum Curators and the Fabergé Egg by Eva St. John
Humorous Sci-Fi Time Traveling Relic Curators
While not quite the Indiana Jones and Men In Black promised in the book's description, I did find this book to be a delightfully fun read. The concept of having two versions of Earth was interesting. The book starts with a fantastic scene showing the quantum curators retrieving Excalibur in 7th-century Britain; it was a little trickier than they thought it would be. The book has a surprising amount of humor for science fiction, which I always enjoy because it is so unexpected. After we meet our intrepid team of time-traveling historical relic curators, we meet a professor who loves cataloging artifacts and other minutiae of academia. How these worlds come together and eventually work together I'll leave for you to discover. But if you enjoy humorous quest-based science fiction with an element of danger, you may enjoy this book.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
Humorous Sci-Fi Time Traveling Relic Curators
While not quite the Indiana Jones and Men In Black promised in the book's description, I did find this book to be a delightfully fun read. The concept of having two versions of Earth was interesting. The book starts with a fantastic scene showing the quantum curators retrieving Excalibur in 7th-century Britain; it was a little trickier than they thought it would be. The book has a surprising amount of humor for science fiction, which I always enjoy because it is so unexpected. After we meet our intrepid team of time-traveling historical relic curators, we meet a professor who loves cataloging artifacts and other minutiae of academia. How these worlds come together and eventually work together I'll leave for you to discover. But if you enjoy humorous quest-based science fiction with an element of danger, you may enjoy this book.
I received a free copy of this book, but that did not affect my review.
My book blog: https://www.readingfanaticreviews.com
October 2, 2020
A very entertaining, action-packed read with excellent characters and several good jokes - and no doubt some more I missed :) Reminiscent of ASH by Mary Gentle and the Rivers of London series.
The setup is intriguing and the Alpha world technology seems like magic to us Beta earthers. Looking forward to the second in the series.
The setup is intriguing and the Alpha world technology seems like magic to us Beta earthers. Looking forward to the second in the series.
September 28, 2024
3.5 stars
This book was a really fun lighthearted read. Yes, the grammatical errors are abundant, and sometimes the dialogue and characters fell a little flat, but it was also very engaging, and I'm excited to read the next one.
This book was a really fun lighthearted read. Yes, the grammatical errors are abundant, and sometimes the dialogue and characters fell a little flat, but it was also very engaging, and I'm excited to read the next one.
March 31, 2021
Really fun book - light-hearted and adventurous
February 25, 2023
This is not a genre I typically spend much time with so others may enjoy this more than I did. While I did appreciate Julius’ character as a studious researcher bringing to light lost and forgotten artifacts, none of the other players made much impression on me. I probably will not explore the series further.
March 15, 2023
finally, a good book this year!
I am grateful to have had it recommended to me, so when you read this, thanks ria 😀
I thought this book was cleverly written and well thought out. Besides that, it was still filled with emotions and feelings (mostly confusion) that I cant wait to experience again as I continue with this series
I am grateful to have had it recommended to me, so when you read this, thanks ria 😀
I thought this book was cleverly written and well thought out. Besides that, it was still filled with emotions and feelings (mostly confusion) that I cant wait to experience again as I continue with this series
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October 2, 2024DNF @ 30 pages; Poor, juvenile writing and flat characters :/
October 11, 2024
The good thing: it was very short. My expectations were probably a problem here as I was hoping for another St. Mary's. It isn't that. All of the characters are as stereotypical as one can imagine, the main characters being Ms. Mediocre and sexy and Mr. Alleged Genius and sexy. We are told the genius is in fact very intelligent, his actions tell of a different story. The world building is not very consistent or logical and you should absolutely not think about the morale of our supposed heroes. The plot is alright but not very original in any way. Also, it has an open ending.
July 31, 2021
Kindle Unlimited puts a lot of books in front of me that I wouldn't otherwise encounter. I am sometimes disappointed, but the good surprises easily make up for it. This book was a good surprise. Teams of experts time travel to humanity's past to recover antiquities before they can be destroyed or lost to time. Time travel is dangerous and uncertain. The experts must make their moves without being discovered.
It took me a couple of baffling chapters to understand the layout of the book, but after that, I had no problem with it. The shift from first-person to third-person in alternate chapters didn't bother me, either. I thought it was quite inventive. I liked the female characters. It was more difficult to get a feel for the male members of the team, though the professor the team picked up along the way was better developed
I downloaded the second volume of the series before finishing the first, and I look forward to reading it.
It took me a couple of baffling chapters to understand the layout of the book, but after that, I had no problem with it. The shift from first-person to third-person in alternate chapters didn't bother me, either. I thought it was quite inventive. I liked the female characters. It was more difficult to get a feel for the male members of the team, though the professor the team picked up along the way was better developed
I downloaded the second volume of the series before finishing the first, and I look forward to reading it.
August 20, 2021
I really enjoyed this! The timeline bounces between two worlds and two characters with very very different perspectives so if that's not your jam you'll want to skip this, the timelines sync fairly quickly and I thought it was really well linked though so it didn't bother me (or feel disconnected) at all.
It takes a few chapters to get your head around the different worlds and timelines though- pay attention to the name and alpha/beta at the beginning of each chapter. I did really like the set up though, it's a really unique world that's being built and I think it's going to be fun to see what other historical events we get to crash into!
It's action driven and fun, the characters are a wide range of personalities (although individually they're not that complex but I found that the fast pace and mix meant that didn't matter to me)
It takes a few chapters to get your head around the different worlds and timelines though- pay attention to the name and alpha/beta at the beginning of each chapter. I did really like the set up though, it's a really unique world that's being built and I think it's going to be fun to see what other historical events we get to crash into!
It's action driven and fun, the characters are a wide range of personalities (although individually they're not that complex but I found that the fast pace and mix meant that didn't matter to me)
sampled-not-interested
November 5, 2021I didn't really get far enough into this to call it a true DNF. After about 12% and a lot of skimming, I just decided it goes back to the library.
The premise looked promising -- a group of time tripping "curators" routinely pop over to a parallel Earth to save rare objects for their own museum-to-beat-all-museums. The execution of the premise, however...no. It just has the feel of an amateur fanfic of something. It also has some shades of books I've read in the past in weirdly specific things. The POV wanders all over the place, and the point of most of the dialog seems to either be snark or "as you know Bob."
The premise looked promising -- a group of time tripping "curators" routinely pop over to a parallel Earth to save rare objects for their own museum-to-beat-all-museums. The execution of the premise, however...no. It just has the feel of an amateur fanfic of something. It also has some shades of books I've read in the past in weirdly specific things. The POV wanders all over the place, and the point of most of the dialog seems to either be snark or "as you know Bob."
October 17, 2021
Good start to a series. A missing Faberge egg has been found and a lot of people are after it. Lots of time travel, betrayal and adventure along the way. Will definitely read the next one in the series.
February 11, 2021
Good concept. If you enjoy Chronicles of St Mary's by Jodi Taylor, worth giving a go.
May 4, 2021
This really took me by surprise! Strong characters, fast paced and comical at times. Very pleased I found this series.
July 14, 2022
I do not know how but I ended up with two books that had something from the Russian revolution as part of the plot line in a row. The previous book they were time travelers who traveled to the time of the revolution. In this book its a group of people from an alternate universe who apparently can come to our universe and grab interesting artifacts right before they are destroyed. They can do this by traveling to the past and grabbing them or in some cases they go to things that are happening in our world at the same time as its happening in ours. I do not quite get the reasoning, all they would have to do is wait until its all over then go back a week or whatever and safely grab it but they choose to try and grab it live. How they know it was going to be destroyed when its a live event I did not quite catch. So to be clear, the people could travel in time they just chose to put themselves in serious danger rather than wait.
As you can imagine things do not go well for them because of this seemingly idiotic decision. The story is good there is just that major plot hole that I guess if they closed would have eliminated the very story so how could they! For the most part it was good, I am glad I read it. I just wont be putting it on the top shelf of my favorite books.
As you can imagine things do not go well for them because of this seemingly idiotic decision. The story is good there is just that major plot hole that I guess if they closed would have eliminated the very story so how could they! For the most part it was good, I am glad I read it. I just wont be putting it on the top shelf of my favorite books.
January 26, 2024
Was so excited to find a book like my 2 fav series, St Mary’s and Invisible Library. This fell flat & doesn’t live up to the others. Surface level characterizations, plot, and too simplistic/straightforward of a writing style for my taste. Still, an enjoyable read and cool concept. Loved description of the Fabergé egg and everyone’s obsession with research.
August 19, 2022
This is a book. It was free on prime and it reads like a free book. I gave it two stars for a good premise.
With lines like "Neighbour for the win", I wonder if anyone offered advice before publication.
With lines like "Neighbour for the win", I wonder if anyone offered advice before publication.
January 14, 2022
3.5/5
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