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Nucleation
We are live, we are live, we are live . . .
Helen Vectorovich holds the unique distinction of failing at first contact—and she did it in both virtual reality and outer space.
Only the most elite teams of operators and navigators get to pilot in remote space-mining operations. And no one was better than Helen and her navigator. Together they secured a multibillion contract for establishing an interstellar gate to a distant star. But during a routine mission, what should have been an easy success turned deadly.
Helen, grounded in a desk job, has overeager junior pilots jockeying to take her place, jealous corporate rivals, and nasty rumors blaming her for the botched mission. Meanwhile, Helen's new discovery in space—the Scale—seems to be . . . evolving.
When someone—or something—wants to terminate her project, Helen must race to find out why before it is far too late.
Helen Vectorovich holds the unique distinction of failing at first contact—and she did it in both virtual reality and outer space.
Only the most elite teams of operators and navigators get to pilot in remote space-mining operations. And no one was better than Helen and her navigator. Together they secured a multibillion contract for establishing an interstellar gate to a distant star. But during a routine mission, what should have been an easy success turned deadly.
Helen, grounded in a desk job, has overeager junior pilots jockeying to take her place, jealous corporate rivals, and nasty rumors blaming her for the botched mission. Meanwhile, Helen's new discovery in space—the Scale—seems to be . . . evolving.
When someone—or something—wants to terminate her project, Helen must race to find out why before it is far too late.
288 pages, Paperback
First published November 13, 2020
23 people are currently reading
1082 people want to read
About the author
Kimberly Unger
16 books50 followersKimberly Unger has been a games industry professional for over 20 years, both as a freelancer and full-time employee. She writes tech-driven science fiction informed by these experiences.
She likes fast robots, big explosions and stabby things.
Kimberly holds degrees from both UC Davis and the Art Center College of Design. She currently works as a producer for Playchemy developing narrative adventure games, and lectures for the UCSC Baskin School of Engineering’s Masters degree in Games and Playable Media.
She likes fast robots, big explosions and stabby things.
Kimberly holds degrees from both UC Davis and the Art Center College of Design. She currently works as a producer for Playchemy developing narrative adventure games, and lectures for the UCSC Baskin School of Engineering’s Masters degree in Games and Playable Media.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 62 reviews
June 19, 2020
I was in a mood for an exciting science fiction adventure. I’d have probably settled for a somewhat entertaining one. But this book…let’s just say if it were a knife, it wouldn’t have cut through warm butter. I mean, I might have had more exciting time watching water boil than I did reading this book. Definitely have had more exciting time watching the cloud amble through the sky. Or just staring at the ceiling. In fact, the main characteristic of this book is its constant consistent lack of any excitement whatsoever. It doesn’t sound right, not when you read the description, not even when you go by individual sentences or paragraphs, but the sum total is torpidly tedious, like someone deliberately washed all the color and joy and fun out of it. Am I being too tough on this book? I don’t think so, I really don’t. It took a large percentage of my day to get through and at no time did it make it worth it. Not once. In fact, the very first chapter was so bland that had I not been such a freaking completist, this would have definitely been put aside and forgotten. But no, I plowed through. Lured in by a promise of a first contact story, which also…surprise, surprise…had got to be the least exciting one of those. There’s tons of tech jargon, meticulous procedural descriptions, loads (way too much) corporate espionage, uncompelling attempts at intrigue and suspense and also…zero excitement, zero fun, zero dynamism, zero wow factor and, notably, zero character development, like not at all, there are just there going through paces but displaying almost no personalities. It’s all so freaking mechanical somehow, technically faultless and strikingly unengaging and lackluster. It’s almost odd in a way, until the author’s bio tells you about her experience as a video game creator. Now I know video games these days are actually supposed to be very advance and indeed engaging, but it really isn’t for me and neither was this book in much the same way. Good graphics, but lifelike at best. If you’re into tech driven video game like science fiction, it might work for you. I wish I had nicer things to say about this book, since I am its first reviewer here on Goodreads. Sure, it has three high ratings, but no one has thought to say a single word about it before me and mine aren’t the most flattering, but tried as I might with this book, it turned out to be compete irredeemable waste of my time. So maybe my review can help someone save theirs. Thank Netgalley.
November 10, 2020
When I learned after finishing this book that Kimberly Unger is a video game designer, much more about this book began to make sense. Nucleation is a science-fiction novel that wants to wow you with its video game–like aesthetic—this is a novel that craves the label of cinematic for its descriptions of how its protagonist virtually manipulates robots in another star system in high-stakes, high-pressure situations. Nevertheless, even if such moments capture your attention (I’m not sure, for me, that they did), they do very little to hide this story’s paucity of plot or character development. I got this for free from NetGalley and Tachyon Publications, but that isn’t going to stop me from being brutally honest here.
Nucleation is a snooze-fest.
We open in space. Helen is virtually manipulating a robot in another star system from the comfort of her job back here on Earth. She and her partner run into a problem, and Unger unfolds what should be a nail-biting scene of intense action … except she holds it for too long before pulling us out and giving us enough exposition to understand what’s going on. This opening chapter drags on past its expiry date, establishing what becomes a theme throughout the book. Indeed, we’re a quarter of the way through the book before we’ve even moved past the inciting force, and well over halfway through before the main conflict really picks up steam. The urgency Unger wants us to feel when Helen is in her coffin, doing her virtual OP stuff, is nowhere within the scenes outside the coffin.
With that being said, this next critique might seem contradictory: this book is way too focused on its main plot. Seriously, though, the cast of characters here is slim, the sets are like something from a budget cable TV show, and the scenes are so restricted in scope I started to chafe. I think we get like … two parts of the book that take place outside of Helen’s work—a wake at a bar, and then later on in a hospital. Otherwise, all the scenes (not counting the parts in space, obvs) take place on the Far Reaches campus. Helen barely interacts with anyone outside of her team—and yes, Unger handwaves this because Helen is “sequestered” along with the rest of her team, fine. But even her interactions with other members of her team don’t work for me. Pretty much the only downtime we get are meals that actually serve as a chance for some exposition.
Meanwhile, Helen herself seems to have a single mood (“damn you all, I’m just trying to do my job while you’ve got one arm tied behind my back!”) without much range. She’s got depth but it’s like … not used. She gets stuck in that emotional feedback loop (probably because we don’t get to see her breathe, as discussed above), so focused on this single plot that takes too long to develop anyway. I wasn’t interested. I didn’t care about her beyond a base level of empathy.
This is all so unfortunate, because the science fictional premise of this story has legs! Tiny robot swarms in another system, building jump gates and possibly making first contact with alien robot swarms? Yes, sign me up for this adventure! Wait, you’re going to make me read repetitive chapter and repetitive chapter without really advancing the plot or telling me more until the very end of the book, in the hope that hey, I’ll stick around for book 2?
Eject. Eject. Eject.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
Nucleation is a snooze-fest.
We open in space. Helen is virtually manipulating a robot in another star system from the comfort of her job back here on Earth. She and her partner run into a problem, and Unger unfolds what should be a nail-biting scene of intense action … except she holds it for too long before pulling us out and giving us enough exposition to understand what’s going on. This opening chapter drags on past its expiry date, establishing what becomes a theme throughout the book. Indeed, we’re a quarter of the way through the book before we’ve even moved past the inciting force, and well over halfway through before the main conflict really picks up steam. The urgency Unger wants us to feel when Helen is in her coffin, doing her virtual OP stuff, is nowhere within the scenes outside the coffin.
With that being said, this next critique might seem contradictory: this book is way too focused on its main plot. Seriously, though, the cast of characters here is slim, the sets are like something from a budget cable TV show, and the scenes are so restricted in scope I started to chafe. I think we get like … two parts of the book that take place outside of Helen’s work—a wake at a bar, and then later on in a hospital. Otherwise, all the scenes (not counting the parts in space, obvs) take place on the Far Reaches campus. Helen barely interacts with anyone outside of her team—and yes, Unger handwaves this because Helen is “sequestered” along with the rest of her team, fine. But even her interactions with other members of her team don’t work for me. Pretty much the only downtime we get are meals that actually serve as a chance for some exposition.
Meanwhile, Helen herself seems to have a single mood (“damn you all, I’m just trying to do my job while you’ve got one arm tied behind my back!”) without much range. She’s got depth but it’s like … not used. She gets stuck in that emotional feedback loop (probably because we don’t get to see her breathe, as discussed above), so focused on this single plot that takes too long to develop anyway. I wasn’t interested. I didn’t care about her beyond a base level of empathy.
This is all so unfortunate, because the science fictional premise of this story has legs! Tiny robot swarms in another system, building jump gates and possibly making first contact with alien robot swarms? Yes, sign me up for this adventure! Wait, you’re going to make me read repetitive chapter and repetitive chapter without really advancing the plot or telling me more until the very end of the book, in the hope that hey, I’ll stick around for book 2?
Eject. Eject. Eject.
Originally posted on Kara.Reviews, where you can easily browse all my reviews and subscribe to my newsletter.
June 27, 2020
I found this gripping, a well-plotted nearish-future mystery in which the SF setting is integral.
Not your usual space opera, though large portions take place in space. Not your usual cyberpunk either, exactly. I mean, there's an evil corporation, but it's not the one the protagonist works for (that corporation is just kind of big and dumb but on the whole doing the right-ish thing, like real corporations, in my experience). And there's quite a bit of time spent, not in virtual reality, but embodied in remote robots using quantum entanglement, which was cool, even if I didn't completely buy every aspect of it all the time. At one point, there's only a single channel to use to the remote location, so the other characters are unable to communicate with the operator. Because her consciousness is so totally embodied in the remote that speaking to her through headphones wouldn't work; she wouldn't be able to hear them. That, to me, was implausible, though generally I found it easy to suspend my disbelief. There was a little bit of "your consciousness is so involved in the technological situation that a glitch in the tech can be dangerous to your brain," which I usually find hard to swallow, but here it was sold better than usual.
There are two mysteries. One is who the local bad actors are and what their deal is, and the other is: what, exactly, did the protagonist meet out there in space in the first chapter? Both of these mysteries progress through gradual revelation. I have to say, as an experienced consumer of fiction I found the foreshadowing a bit obvious, and was well ahead of the protagonist when it came to figuring out what was going on, particularly with the Earth-based mystery. But that's tricky to avoid, and I didn't feel it was done badly.
The writing mechanics are generally good, except that the author has a terrible comma-splicing habit and a tendency to hyphenate things she shouldn't, and uses all-caps instead of italics for emphasis. There are occasional errors of reference (pronouns not referring to what they should refer to, dangling modifiers). The pre-release version I saw from Netgalley also featured quite a few words dropped out of sentences (or left in after editing), some mispunctuated dialog, and some misplaced or missing apostrophes, but hopefully those will be fixed by publication. The quantity of all of these is not overwhelming, and a thorough edit would soon have it in good shape.
The characters are not nearly as hopeless, aimless, or alienated as is often the case with SF set in the relatively near future; the protagonist has a strong personal reason (eventually, more than one) to get to the bottom of the mystery, and it provides good direction and momentum to the plot.
Overall, a very decent SF suspense story, with a fresh premise well executed. I would read a sequel, and I'll look for more from this author.
Not your usual space opera, though large portions take place in space. Not your usual cyberpunk either, exactly. I mean, there's an evil corporation, but it's not the one the protagonist works for (that corporation is just kind of big and dumb but on the whole doing the right-ish thing, like real corporations, in my experience). And there's quite a bit of time spent, not in virtual reality, but embodied in remote robots using quantum entanglement, which was cool, even if I didn't completely buy every aspect of it all the time. At one point, there's only a single channel to use to the remote location, so the other characters are unable to communicate with the operator. Because her consciousness is so totally embodied in the remote that speaking to her through headphones wouldn't work; she wouldn't be able to hear them. That, to me, was implausible, though generally I found it easy to suspend my disbelief. There was a little bit of "your consciousness is so involved in the technological situation that a glitch in the tech can be dangerous to your brain," which I usually find hard to swallow, but here it was sold better than usual.
There are two mysteries. One is who the local bad actors are and what their deal is, and the other is: what, exactly, did the protagonist meet out there in space in the first chapter? Both of these mysteries progress through gradual revelation. I have to say, as an experienced consumer of fiction I found the foreshadowing a bit obvious, and was well ahead of the protagonist when it came to figuring out what was going on, particularly with the Earth-based mystery. But that's tricky to avoid, and I didn't feel it was done badly.
The writing mechanics are generally good, except that the author has a terrible comma-splicing habit and a tendency to hyphenate things she shouldn't, and uses all-caps instead of italics for emphasis. There are occasional errors of reference (pronouns not referring to what they should refer to, dangling modifiers). The pre-release version I saw from Netgalley also featured quite a few words dropped out of sentences (or left in after editing), some mispunctuated dialog, and some misplaced or missing apostrophes, but hopefully those will be fixed by publication. The quantity of all of these is not overwhelming, and a thorough edit would soon have it in good shape.
The characters are not nearly as hopeless, aimless, or alienated as is often the case with SF set in the relatively near future; the protagonist has a strong personal reason (eventually, more than one) to get to the bottom of the mystery, and it provides good direction and momentum to the plot.
Overall, a very decent SF suspense story, with a fresh premise well executed. I would read a sequel, and I'll look for more from this author.
February 6, 2021
Really four and a half stars—with a small deduction because the secret bad guy’s identity is obvious to me as the reader long before the penny drops for the characters, and in all other respects the characters are smart as whips. But otherwise really a fun romp, featuring a tough waldo jockey and a space war between nanites. Doesn’t end on a cliffhanger, but there’s lots of story left to go. On board for sequels.
June 29, 2020
Kimberly Unger's Nucleation is a tale that follows Helen Vectorovich’s perspective (told from the third person perspective) of the Line Drive project, with building an interstellar gate as it’s goal. Helen is the top operator for the parent company of the Line Drive project and her job is to remotely operate the main construction vessel nicknamed the Golf Ball from several lightyears away. On the Golf Ball’s maiden voyage, the team experiences “feedback” which kills one of the Line Drive team members. The rest of the story follows Helen’s attempt in uncovering what caused the feedback and how it could harm team members several lightyears away while also trying to shed the blame for the mission failure.
Despite some flaws, I really enjoyed this book. It kind of had a cyberpunk feel without the major cyberpunk themes. For example, the operators remotely control equipment from a “coffin” over a “quantum entanglement” feed and I guess you could consider Helen “hard-boiled”, yet there is no mentioned social order or corporate elite or other themes that you would typically associate with cyberpunk. I really enjoyed some of the unique ideas explored throughout this novel, such as literal golf ball sized spaceships and all space exploration is done remotely. The plot was interesting as well, with Helen trying to accomplish three major tasks: Find out how her teammate could be killed by noise over the quantum entanglement feed several lightyears away. Find out the source of the noise on the entanglement feed. Clear her name of the stigma that comes with piloting a failed mission.
As much as I liked this book, there were some major flaws that I can’t leave unaddressed. The whole premise of the novel relies on the “quantum entanglement” principle, which is how operators interact with their equipment and how the noise was introduced that killed Hellen’s teammate. Quantum entanglement was not explored or explained nearly enough. There were several times that I couldn’t understand what was happening because I didn’t understand the general boundaries of what quantum entanglement can and cannot do. I also thought that the ending was left a little too unfinished. I understand wanting to leave it open for the next installment of the series, but it would be nice for a little more closure on some of the plots.
Aside from the points listed above, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any fan of cyberpunk mixed with a little space opera.
Despite some flaws, I really enjoyed this book. It kind of had a cyberpunk feel without the major cyberpunk themes. For example, the operators remotely control equipment from a “coffin” over a “quantum entanglement” feed and I guess you could consider Helen “hard-boiled”, yet there is no mentioned social order or corporate elite or other themes that you would typically associate with cyberpunk. I really enjoyed some of the unique ideas explored throughout this novel, such as literal golf ball sized spaceships and all space exploration is done remotely. The plot was interesting as well, with Helen trying to accomplish three major tasks: Find out how her teammate could be killed by noise over the quantum entanglement feed several lightyears away. Find out the source of the noise on the entanglement feed. Clear her name of the stigma that comes with piloting a failed mission.
As much as I liked this book, there were some major flaws that I can’t leave unaddressed. The whole premise of the novel relies on the “quantum entanglement” principle, which is how operators interact with their equipment and how the noise was introduced that killed Hellen’s teammate. Quantum entanglement was not explored or explained nearly enough. There were several times that I couldn’t understand what was happening because I didn’t understand the general boundaries of what quantum entanglement can and cannot do. I also thought that the ending was left a little too unfinished. I understand wanting to leave it open for the next installment of the series, but it would be nice for a little more closure on some of the plots.
Aside from the points listed above, I really enjoyed this book and would recommend it to any fan of cyberpunk mixed with a little space opera.
July 26, 2024
It starts with what looks like an industrial accident. Our protagonist, Helen Vectorovich, is operating a waldo, a remote-control robot, via a multi-light-year quantum link, and something goes disastrously wrong. She barely gets out, and then discovers her Navigator, supposedly the safer position, is dead.
The further things go, the more she feels like things aren't on the up and up. Not just the comforting lies about Ted being in the hospital when his family had already pulled the plug. There's also the way she'd being treated as if she were toxic, when people aren't babying her and acting like she's no longer up to the job.
Far from driving her off, it only fuels her grim determination to get the necessary medical clearances and recertification to go back out there and find out what happened, not just to the waldo she was driving, but also to the quantum connection that has proven disastrous to two NAVs.
And then Keller, the man she trusts to guide her through things when she goes back out there, dies under extremely suspicious circumstances. No, this isn't just a very bad accident. Someone wants her to fail, and is willing to kill to do so. And she may be next.
It does end in a satisfying conclusion, although a door is left open for a possible future volume in which we learn more about the origins of the mysterious Scale. However, as of yet there has been no sign of any such novel, and it's possible the author wanted to leave this book a stand-alone, since a sequel would have to be a different type of book than this one.
The further things go, the more she feels like things aren't on the up and up. Not just the comforting lies about Ted being in the hospital when his family had already pulled the plug. There's also the way she'd being treated as if she were toxic, when people aren't babying her and acting like she's no longer up to the job.
Far from driving her off, it only fuels her grim determination to get the necessary medical clearances and recertification to go back out there and find out what happened, not just to the waldo she was driving, but also to the quantum connection that has proven disastrous to two NAVs.
And then Keller, the man she trusts to guide her through things when she goes back out there, dies under extremely suspicious circumstances. No, this isn't just a very bad accident. Someone wants her to fail, and is willing to kill to do so. And she may be next.
It does end in a satisfying conclusion, although a door is left open for a possible future volume in which we learn more about the origins of the mysterious Scale. However, as of yet there has been no sign of any such novel, and it's possible the author wanted to leave this book a stand-alone, since a sequel would have to be a different type of book than this one.
October 22, 2021
Nucleation is a very clever twist on a space opera and a quantum physics story. Kimberly Unger's writing reminds me of the glory days of Asimov's short story magazines.
Combining a unique take on space exploration using quantum entanglement and the horribly real environment of corporate and government infighting, every page is a barn burner.
There is a freshness about the world building and the characters that I haven't seen in quite a while, Unger promises to be a strong contender in the Science Fiction field.
I'm going to eagerly watch for her next book. I hope it will be soon. This is a highly recommended read.
Combining a unique take on space exploration using quantum entanglement and the horribly real environment of corporate and government infighting, every page is a barn burner.
There is a freshness about the world building and the characters that I haven't seen in quite a while, Unger promises to be a strong contender in the Science Fiction field.
I'm going to eagerly watch for her next book. I hope it will be soon. This is a highly recommended read.
November 11, 2020
Disclaimer: I would like to thank the publisher, Tachyon Publications, for kindly providing a review copy of this book.
"Nucleation" by Kimberly Unger is an exciting high tech scifi thriller that is nicely reminiscent of a Michael Crichton novel. "Nucleation" was both easy to read and hard to put down. Some of the hard core scifi themes that help make the book exciting include space development via quantum entangled instant communication, nanobots, and alien contact.
I look forward to reading more scifi by Kimberly and recommend this book to people who like hard core scifi.
"Nucleation" by Kimberly Unger is an exciting high tech scifi thriller that is nicely reminiscent of a Michael Crichton novel. "Nucleation" was both easy to read and hard to put down. Some of the hard core scifi themes that help make the book exciting include space development via quantum entangled instant communication, nanobots, and alien contact.
I look forward to reading more scifi by Kimberly and recommend this book to people who like hard core scifi.
February 11, 2021
The story stops in the middle, but I won’t be bothering to read the next book. It’s not badly done; Ms. Unger has a firm grasp of grammar and spelling, and the editing is thorough, so the book is already head and shoulders above the usual run of self-published slush. Not that this is self-published (Tachyon Press is an actual publisher), but three pages of glowing reviews by gaming-industry folks and other SF authors rather than actual critics is a warning sign that it’s probably a case of who you know rather than what you wrote.
Anyway, there are two main reasons why I’m not interested enough to find out what happens.
1) The main character, Helen Vectorovich, just isn’t very compelling. She’s semi-hostile to everybody she meets and paranoid that people are out to do her dirt, from her fellow “operators” to management to medical--but not in a smart-apple or angry way, just kind of low-level disconnected from humans in general and thus prone to view them as potentially hostile. Not murder-y, which actually turns out to be a mistake on her part, but annoying. She doesn’t treat her mentors or partner any more warmly than she does anybody else, so her grief at losses doesn’t seem real; she feels a “[person]-shaped hole” in her psyche, but no memories of fun or warm interactions, just echoes of advice about playing corporate politics. The only things I know for sure about her are that she has no family (a throw-away line), that she hates cats (ha ha, the antagonist’s name is also Cat), and that she really, really, really loves remote-operating mechanical drones (“waldos”) through full-body quantum entanglement tech. She really, really likes that. She’d rather do that than anything else, which is maybe why she doesn’t have any other interests or backstory or personality color at all. But she’s good at it, and good at improvising when things go wrong. In missions involving waldos. Have I mentioned that she really, really, really wants to just get back in that “coffin” and go drive waldos?
2) Ms. Unger has written a thriller that isn’t thrilling. I’m sure that she knows exactly what’s going on, why it’s scary, and what the action is--but as a reader, I’m left out of the loop. For example, I don’t understand why dust in the tunnels of an asteroid mine is a bad thing, and the whole mine scene is over by the time Helen impatiently explains to one of her team that dust is bad for waldos (it gets into the joints), so the fact that there was dust shows that something had gone deeply wrong with the mining-mechs’ instructions. OK, that would’ve been nice to know in the moment, so there could be a sense of creepiness or foreboding or something thrilling. That kind of after-the-fact happens quite frequently, and sometimes it seems like Ms. Unger is trying to keep key information back for a big reveal later, but those mainly fall flat. Like concealing the name of the alien presence for several pages, allowing me to forget that I’m even curious about it, and then it turns out to be (sorry, Ms. Unger) just lame (and possibly an infringement on Apple’s trademarks).
Also, the title of the book, “nucleation”? Doesn’t actually come up as a concept. I did love one thing, though, that’s going to stick with me forever: calling nano-machines “eenies.” I just really like that.
Anyway, there are two main reasons why I’m not interested enough to find out what happens.
1) The main character, Helen Vectorovich, just isn’t very compelling. She’s semi-hostile to everybody she meets and paranoid that people are out to do her dirt, from her fellow “operators” to management to medical--but not in a smart-apple or angry way, just kind of low-level disconnected from humans in general and thus prone to view them as potentially hostile. Not murder-y, which actually turns out to be a mistake on her part, but annoying. She doesn’t treat her mentors or partner any more warmly than she does anybody else, so her grief at losses doesn’t seem real; she feels a “[person]-shaped hole” in her psyche, but no memories of fun or warm interactions, just echoes of advice about playing corporate politics. The only things I know for sure about her are that she has no family (a throw-away line), that she hates cats (ha ha, the antagonist’s name is also Cat), and that she really, really, really loves remote-operating mechanical drones (“waldos”) through full-body quantum entanglement tech. She really, really likes that. She’d rather do that than anything else, which is maybe why she doesn’t have any other interests or backstory or personality color at all. But she’s good at it, and good at improvising when things go wrong. In missions involving waldos. Have I mentioned that she really, really, really wants to just get back in that “coffin” and go drive waldos?
2) Ms. Unger has written a thriller that isn’t thrilling. I’m sure that she knows exactly what’s going on, why it’s scary, and what the action is--but as a reader, I’m left out of the loop. For example, I don’t understand why dust in the tunnels of an asteroid mine is a bad thing, and the whole mine scene is over by the time Helen impatiently explains to one of her team that dust is bad for waldos (it gets into the joints), so the fact that there was dust shows that something had gone deeply wrong with the mining-mechs’ instructions. OK, that would’ve been nice to know in the moment, so there could be a sense of creepiness or foreboding or something thrilling. That kind of after-the-fact happens quite frequently, and sometimes it seems like Ms. Unger is trying to keep key information back for a big reveal later, but those mainly fall flat. Like concealing the name of the alien presence for several pages, allowing me to forget that I’m even curious about it, and then it turns out to be (sorry, Ms. Unger) just lame (and possibly an infringement on Apple’s trademarks).
Also, the title of the book, “nucleation”? Doesn’t actually come up as a concept. I did love one thing, though, that’s going to stick with me forever: calling nano-machines “eenies.” I just really like that.
November 13, 2020
I picked up Nucleation expecting a standard space opera. What I got was a thriller that kept me occupied for days.
Read the rest of the review at Lightspeed Magazine: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/no...
Read the rest of the review at Lightspeed Magazine: https://www.lightspeedmagazine.com/no...
July 5, 2020
A pretty good scifi story. It won't be for everyone due to the amount of technical jargon and the lack of empathy for the characters since there's little development and it's not a first-person narrative. However, the story shows the author's imagination. I stayed mostly engaged partly because there's some cool tech and some mystery along the way. I look forward to her next work.
Thanks to Tachyon for the ARC for review!!
Thanks to Tachyon for the ARC for review!!
June 28, 2020
Interesting story but too much technobabble
On the positive side, the story was interesting and well-paced. There was some character development but not much and I didn’t feel much empathy for the protagonist or any of the other characters. There was also way too much techno-babble that was hard to follow and took away from the story. But the book did hold my attention and overall I did enjoy the read, hence the 4-star rating.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
On the positive side, the story was interesting and well-paced. There was some character development but not much and I didn’t feel much empathy for the protagonist or any of the other characters. There was also way too much techno-babble that was hard to follow and took away from the story. But the book did hold my attention and overall I did enjoy the read, hence the 4-star rating.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.
June 20, 2020
Nucleation starts with a very creative and interesting story: The idea of exploring and exploits the universe without truly being there by using quantum entanglement as a way to control droids remotely.
The central character, some sort of those "droid pilot" is obsessive to determine why one of those "trips" went bad, and most of the book is focused on it.
The hard part is that the book doesn't explain the main "magic" and, if I remember well, it doesn't dare to explain what is "quantum entanglement", using all the time the word "entanglement", leaving the "quantum" to the reader. One page of explanation will allow this book to be interesting for nontech people.
Another point that disturbs me in a book is the lack of description of the participants. I don't know the main characters' looks and this makes it hard to imagine the overall setup.
As a sci-fi book, I don't expect any deepness of the players but this book makes all looks flat and without any other emotion except their jobs.
Finally, it seems that the book is part of a series because the ending leaves almost everything open and partially unsolved.
I only can recommend this book by the overall concept but the lack of deep on the characters made me sad. A great idea as this one, deserves more details and a tad of passion and humanity.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review an advanced copy of this book.
The central character, some sort of those "droid pilot" is obsessive to determine why one of those "trips" went bad, and most of the book is focused on it.
The hard part is that the book doesn't explain the main "magic" and, if I remember well, it doesn't dare to explain what is "quantum entanglement", using all the time the word "entanglement", leaving the "quantum" to the reader. One page of explanation will allow this book to be interesting for nontech people.
Another point that disturbs me in a book is the lack of description of the participants. I don't know the main characters' looks and this makes it hard to imagine the overall setup.
As a sci-fi book, I don't expect any deepness of the players but this book makes all looks flat and without any other emotion except their jobs.
Finally, it seems that the book is part of a series because the ending leaves almost everything open and partially unsolved.
I only can recommend this book by the overall concept but the lack of deep on the characters made me sad. A great idea as this one, deserves more details and a tad of passion and humanity.
Thanks to NetGalley for allowing me to review an advanced copy of this book.
November 15, 2020
This is billed as a first contact book, which it is, but more accurately it’s a slowly paced sci-fi thriller. It’s not focused so much on the aliens as it is on uncovering possible corporate espionage and untangling the events surrounding a deadly accident.
In the future, companies like Far Reaches use quantum entanglement to allow OPs (operators) to control waldos – purpose designed machines – mostly for the purposes of mining. Each OP is paired with a NAV (navigators) who keeps the OP on task and manages the flow of information. Helen is one of the best OPs, and she’s delighted to be the first to connect with the Golf Ball, a tiny construction ship whose job is to build a jump gate that would allow actual human exploration. But from the start something is wrong. The Golf Ball is only partially built, and the eenies – as the nanobots are known – seem to not be following the mission parameters. But all that is eclipsed by the death of her NAV, Ted. Reeling in grief, Helen finds herself pulled off the mission and “promoted” to a desk job. Helen’s sole purpose now is to figure out what happened – and to prevent it from happening again.
Helen is not a people person. I think at points this did effect the way the story hit. For instance, her reactions to Ted’s death didn’t feel quite right to me, and she struggles to deal effectively with the rest of her team. So while there are very human drivers, like Helen wanting to find out what happened to Ted and clear her name, this is essentially a plot-driven novel, rather than character-driven. She bemoans her lack of people skills at various times – it was something that Ted handled skillfully – but she doesn’t really make any progress in that area in this book. So while I sympathized with her, I never quite connected to her or the other characters and that did mute some of the tension for me.
There are two threads to the story: what’s happening on the Golf Ball and what’s happening back at the company. It’s very narrow in setting because of that. Helen spends the majority of her time on the Far Reaches campus, and even remotely she only visits three sites. Even with all those restrictions, I found the tech, especially the eenies, quite fascinating. My favorite parts were when Helen was piloting the various waldos. Those were also the most action-packed sequences.
The book ends with several plot threads left unresolved, so I’m wondering if this was meant to the be the first in a series. Overall, I’d give this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. It definitely has a lot of promise, and I’ll be watching for further books from the author.
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
In the future, companies like Far Reaches use quantum entanglement to allow OPs (operators) to control waldos – purpose designed machines – mostly for the purposes of mining. Each OP is paired with a NAV (navigators) who keeps the OP on task and manages the flow of information. Helen is one of the best OPs, and she’s delighted to be the first to connect with the Golf Ball, a tiny construction ship whose job is to build a jump gate that would allow actual human exploration. But from the start something is wrong. The Golf Ball is only partially built, and the eenies – as the nanobots are known – seem to not be following the mission parameters. But all that is eclipsed by the death of her NAV, Ted. Reeling in grief, Helen finds herself pulled off the mission and “promoted” to a desk job. Helen’s sole purpose now is to figure out what happened – and to prevent it from happening again.
“I signed up to ride waldos, not play private detective.”
Helen is not a people person. I think at points this did effect the way the story hit. For instance, her reactions to Ted’s death didn’t feel quite right to me, and she struggles to deal effectively with the rest of her team. So while there are very human drivers, like Helen wanting to find out what happened to Ted and clear her name, this is essentially a plot-driven novel, rather than character-driven. She bemoans her lack of people skills at various times – it was something that Ted handled skillfully – but she doesn’t really make any progress in that area in this book. So while I sympathized with her, I never quite connected to her or the other characters and that did mute some of the tension for me.
There are two threads to the story: what’s happening on the Golf Ball and what’s happening back at the company. It’s very narrow in setting because of that. Helen spends the majority of her time on the Far Reaches campus, and even remotely she only visits three sites. Even with all those restrictions, I found the tech, especially the eenies, quite fascinating. My favorite parts were when Helen was piloting the various waldos. Those were also the most action-packed sequences.
The book ends with several plot threads left unresolved, so I’m wondering if this was meant to the be the first in a series. Overall, I’d give this 3.5 stars, rounded up to 4. It definitely has a lot of promise, and I’ll be watching for further books from the author.
I received an advance review copy of this book from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
August 31, 2020
Kimberly Unger’s debut novel opens with a brilliant premise: space exploration, overcomes the vast distances involved by squirting “eenie” nanobots through very tiny wormholes. The eenies then follow their programming to construct whatever’s needed to explore and exploit their material surroundings, such as an alien moon. Included are particles that allow an Earth-based human operator and her navigator to remotely manipulate robotic devices. This is such a nifty set-up, I was hooked from the start. Almost immediately, however, Things Go Wrong. As fast as the eenies can build machinery, other nanobots “the Scale,” are tearing it down, and these are alien, not human-created nanobots – but to what purpose? Who programmed them? Where did they come from? And can our heroine stop the process before the alien bots gain access to inhabited planets and launch a major remodel of Earth?
The story quickly morphs into a murder mystery industrial espionage thriller space-gadget adventure with a most satisfying, intelligent, and determined female protagonist. Unger moves the reader from one vivid scene to the next, skillfully weaving in context and background. Even the most exotic, remotely accessed environments become accessible as we follow our characters from Earth to the far-flung stellar mining outposts. Corporate power structures and personal relationships emerge through action, so that even complex, subtle aspects are balanced with dynamic plot twists. Unger’s handling of breath-taking tension and reflection held my attention, page after page.
The verdict: A spectacular debut novel, at once thoughtful and exciting, packed with innovative ideas and plot twists. I’m looking forward to Unger’s next!
The story quickly morphs into a murder mystery industrial espionage thriller space-gadget adventure with a most satisfying, intelligent, and determined female protagonist. Unger moves the reader from one vivid scene to the next, skillfully weaving in context and background. Even the most exotic, remotely accessed environments become accessible as we follow our characters from Earth to the far-flung stellar mining outposts. Corporate power structures and personal relationships emerge through action, so that even complex, subtle aspects are balanced with dynamic plot twists. Unger’s handling of breath-taking tension and reflection held my attention, page after page.
The verdict: A spectacular debut novel, at once thoughtful and exciting, packed with innovative ideas and plot twists. I’m looking forward to Unger’s next!
March 16, 2021
Nucleation is part cyberpunk, part space exploration and a whole lot of fun.
The plot was well written with lots of suspense, action and mystery. I found the middle dragged a bit though as it felt like the plot wasn't really progressing and instead just revolving around itself as Helen wonders if it is aliens or corporate espionage. The conclusion was awesome and I was shocked by it.
Helen was a interesting character. She was tough, strong, dependent, intelligent and determined to discover the truth. When her teammate dies I really sympathized with her and wanted her to discover the truth. I really liked her. The secondary characters were good, especially the main protagonist. She was a great villain with the perfect blend of egotism, intelligence, cold-hearted ways and lies.
I'm not usually a fan of cyberpunk but I really enjoyed this novel. Some of the scientific information background got a little much but everything was needed.
The world building was unique and fantastic. I was a little confused at the beginning but once that got cleared up I could quickly get immersed in the story. I liked the ideas of exploration being done through human controlled robots.
Overall this was a good cyberpunk/space exploration SF novel. If a sequel is made I would definitely read it.
The plot was well written with lots of suspense, action and mystery. I found the middle dragged a bit though as it felt like the plot wasn't really progressing and instead just revolving around itself as Helen wonders if it is aliens or corporate espionage. The conclusion was awesome and I was shocked by it.
Helen was a interesting character. She was tough, strong, dependent, intelligent and determined to discover the truth. When her teammate dies I really sympathized with her and wanted her to discover the truth. I really liked her. The secondary characters were good, especially the main protagonist. She was a great villain with the perfect blend of egotism, intelligence, cold-hearted ways and lies.
I'm not usually a fan of cyberpunk but I really enjoyed this novel. Some of the scientific information background got a little much but everything was needed.
The world building was unique and fantastic. I was a little confused at the beginning but once that got cleared up I could quickly get immersed in the story. I liked the ideas of exploration being done through human controlled robots.
Overall this was a good cyberpunk/space exploration SF novel. If a sequel is made I would definitely read it.
June 23, 2021
An excellent hard sci fi story with strong women characters who are remarkable for their intelligence, skills, flaws, and bravery WITHOUT obligatory scenes of undressing, boob shots, compromising their strengths to appeal to male characters, or drunken personal regrets (of an abortion, or a divorce, or any of that crap). Clearly a set-up for a follow up novel but that's OK - ends on an interesting note. Hope the next installment lives up to this introduction!
August 7, 2021
Overall: For a science fiction tale, this book not only impressed me with its use of physics, specifically entanglement of particles, but blew me away with its scope of imagination. The characters leap off the page with such personality, and the book kept twisting and turning with surprises every step of the way. The story follows the tale of an operator who works for a corporation exploring the far reaches of space. Helen plugs herself into the company's quantum entanglement system and sends her consciousness to a "waldo," where she operates robot machinery in a far away solar system. Her work is fairly mundane at first - eject the payload, which is the necessary ingredients for the nano technology (called "eenies") to collect matter around that system's star until enough is reached to build the jumpgate. Except Helen discovers that the spacecraft housing the payload is covered in a weird dust that shouldn't exist (all their eenies recycle all non-used stuff, so no dust or other matter should exist) but then a feedback signal fries her navigator's brains. This horrifying incident catapults Helen into a dangerous and wild mystery full of corporate espionage, possible aliens, quantum weirdness, and rivals trying to silence her attempts to find answers.
Characters: Helen, Keller, Ivester, Hofstaeder, and the rest of the cast all felt unique and superbly drawn. Each held motivations that overlapped or conflicted with others to create delightful tension. Also, PTSD and trauma were covered and dealt with in humane ways that made sense to the world and to the reality of how trauma actually affects humans, which was incredibly refreshing to see in a novel.
Plot: What a wild ride this was!! The plot followed a loose three act structure, and had me guessing and wondering where we'd go next, and just when I thought I figured out the mystery, a surprise unleashed which had me reexamining my theories. I felt that the ending was a bit abrupt, and I do wish it could have been neatly tied up, but then the ending does leave room for any sequels if the author wishes to explore this world and its unique technology again.
Recommend? Yes. Definitely worth the read!
Characters: Helen, Keller, Ivester, Hofstaeder, and the rest of the cast all felt unique and superbly drawn. Each held motivations that overlapped or conflicted with others to create delightful tension. Also, PTSD and trauma were covered and dealt with in humane ways that made sense to the world and to the reality of how trauma actually affects humans, which was incredibly refreshing to see in a novel.
Plot: What a wild ride this was!! The plot followed a loose three act structure, and had me guessing and wondering where we'd go next, and just when I thought I figured out the mystery, a surprise unleashed which had me reexamining my theories. I felt that the ending was a bit abrupt, and I do wish it could have been neatly tied up, but then the ending does leave room for any sequels if the author wishes to explore this world and its unique technology again.
Recommend? Yes. Definitely worth the read!
December 7, 2020
Wikipedia defines nucleation as "the first step in the formation of either a new thermodynamic phase or a new structure via self-assembly or self-organization. Nucleation is typically defined to be the process that determines how long an observer has to wait before the new phase or self-organized structure appears."
I try to give debut novels a bit more leeway than others, but this novel is aptly named, because I felt like I was waiting the whole time I was ready for something to appear. It never did.
Helen Vectorovitch, is an Operator. The novel opens as she and her Navigator partner, Ted, are investigating the status of an outpost where nanobots have been building a gate. They are injured by an unknown source, and Helen spends the rest of the novel investigating what happened.
Helen has little development throughout the story. It feels as though, when the author was composing scenes, she'd suddenly recall that Helen was supposed to be a bad-ass, and she'd throw some mild vulgarity in there. While Helen thinks she has purpose, some of her actions feel hapless. She confronts the person who she believes has been sabotaging the project, congratulating herself that she's tough, but there seemed to be no benefit gained by this, other than to alert the baddie that Helen and her team were on to them.
The biggest issue for me in the book was that it's written in third-person, but we spend the entire novel in Helen's head and seeing things from her POV. This has the effect of distancing Helen even more from the reader. I really struggled to care about any of the characters. The technical jargon wasn't offputting, but the story could have used a "McCoy" to whom Helen could explain some of the tech.
It's not a bad novel, just fairly formulaic and the characters are stock. I don't know what the step that follows nucleation is called, but I do know that I am unlikely to pick up any sequels to find out.
I received a free copy from Tachyon Publications in exchange for an honest review.
2.5/5 stars
I try to give debut novels a bit more leeway than others, but this novel is aptly named, because I felt like I was waiting the whole time I was ready for something to appear. It never did.
Helen Vectorovitch, is an Operator. The novel opens as she and her Navigator partner, Ted, are investigating the status of an outpost where nanobots have been building a gate. They are injured by an unknown source, and Helen spends the rest of the novel investigating what happened.
Helen has little development throughout the story. It feels as though, when the author was composing scenes, she'd suddenly recall that Helen was supposed to be a bad-ass, and she'd throw some mild vulgarity in there. While Helen thinks she has purpose, some of her actions feel hapless. She confronts the person who she believes has been sabotaging the project, congratulating herself that she's tough, but there seemed to be no benefit gained by this, other than to alert the baddie that Helen and her team were on to them.
The biggest issue for me in the book was that it's written in third-person, but we spend the entire novel in Helen's head and seeing things from her POV. This has the effect of distancing Helen even more from the reader. I really struggled to care about any of the characters. The technical jargon wasn't offputting, but the story could have used a "McCoy" to whom Helen could explain some of the tech.
It's not a bad novel, just fairly formulaic and the characters are stock. I don't know what the step that follows nucleation is called, but I do know that I am unlikely to pick up any sequels to find out.
I received a free copy from Tachyon Publications in exchange for an honest review.
2.5/5 stars
November 10, 2020
Virtual reality (VR) combines with an outer space mission in this sci-fi thriller. Helen Vectorovich is the VR operator of spider-like machine positioned billions of miles away from the Earth. Her purpose is to use the machine and a form of nanotechnology called eenies to create an interstellar gateway to a distant star and further space exploration. A mission fails and this leads to murder and the uncovering of corruption.
I selected this book because the idea of pilot operating space machinery from the safety of Earth interested me. The book started with a bang. A routine mission goes mysteriously wrong and results in catastrophic failure. Unfortunately, the action dwindles and by the middle of the book, much of the story’s dynamic beginning was replaced with technical jargon and slow reactions scenes. Things pick up in Act Three, and there are a few twists I didn’t see coming. I also really enjoyed Helen’s dynamic personality. She’s a powerful force in a competitive environment, although her struggles became repetitive. However, the other characters are not given as much thought of development, which makes it difficult to cheer for them, or feel empathy when hardships arise.
I would also have loved to see more of this creative storyworld. The story doesn’t expand on this alternative future where we’re exploring space and trying to open portals to new worlds. The plot predominately takes place in the same few settings, which becomes monotonous. Also, there is a “first contact” tease which doesn’t live up to the hype. I think if the story had been condensed and the action scenes hyped with greater detail to character development, it would have held my attention better. I still recommend it to readers interested in heavy tech science fiction, but it didn’t work for me.
I selected this book because the idea of pilot operating space machinery from the safety of Earth interested me. The book started with a bang. A routine mission goes mysteriously wrong and results in catastrophic failure. Unfortunately, the action dwindles and by the middle of the book, much of the story’s dynamic beginning was replaced with technical jargon and slow reactions scenes. Things pick up in Act Three, and there are a few twists I didn’t see coming. I also really enjoyed Helen’s dynamic personality. She’s a powerful force in a competitive environment, although her struggles became repetitive. However, the other characters are not given as much thought of development, which makes it difficult to cheer for them, or feel empathy when hardships arise.
I would also have loved to see more of this creative storyworld. The story doesn’t expand on this alternative future where we’re exploring space and trying to open portals to new worlds. The plot predominately takes place in the same few settings, which becomes monotonous. Also, there is a “first contact” tease which doesn’t live up to the hype. I think if the story had been condensed and the action scenes hyped with greater detail to character development, it would have held my attention better. I still recommend it to readers interested in heavy tech science fiction, but it didn’t work for me.
November 15, 2020
First contact stories have been a part of science fiction for decades. Humans are fascinated by the concept of there being other races out there, other beings for us to communicate with. Underlying that fascination is the simple question: are we alone?
Kimberly Unger's debut novel, NUCLEATION, doesn't start out as a first contact novel. Helen Vectorovich is one member of a two person team which is on a very high profile project: the construction of a wormhole gate that would connect earth to, well, "out there" - interstellar space. She is connected via quantum entanglement to a waldo, a robot hundreds of light years away. She and her partner Ted are amongst the best in the business, and thus they have been assigned to this very high profile mission. All is going well, and the team is going through the standard system checklists checklists when something goes very wrong - that can't be
much of a surprise, of course - and Ted is killed.
The mission is put on hold, of course. This kind of thing *never* happens; if anyone is in danger, it is the pilot, not the navigator. And so, an investigation ensues. There are all sorts of possibilities, of course. Industrial espionage is the number one suspect, of course. Any number of companies and hot shot young teams would like to take over the project and make a name for themselves. But what if it's not that? What if what killed Ted was a new life form that humans haven't encountered previously? Another team is sent out to investigate, and more problems occur. As the person with the most experience, Helen is part of the team leading the investigation, but as one of the top suspects in the accident, her job is difficult, with many roadblocks thrown up in front of her.
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the answer to the problem is a combination of espionage and alien life forms. But who is leading the sabotage, and how are they working with what appears to be a new life form that is essentially destroying Helen's team's corporate equipment?
NUCLEATION is a well written, fun, fast paced, and interesting debut novel. It's a whodunnit, a "whydunnit", and a "what's gonna happen next?" kind of story. This is an idea novel, the kind of novel that many of us used to read as kids when we were starting to get our feet wet in science fiction. This is really not a character driven novel, other than the fact that the characters are there to move the plot along. And that's okay, as plot and idea are among the core tenets of science fiction. If you're looking for deep dives into the backgrounds of the characters in NUCLEATION, you won't find them, as those deep dives aren't necessary. Unger tells us just enough of what we need to know to move the story along. There isn't massive world building and character development, but it's not necessary for the story; I find this a benefit, not a detriment. The story works because of it.
There is definitely room for a sequel. The story has really just begun, and I'm interested in finding out what comes next, whether it's in the NUCLEATION universe or something else from Kimberly Unger. I believe she's a writer to watch.
Kimberly Unger's debut novel, NUCLEATION, doesn't start out as a first contact novel. Helen Vectorovich is one member of a two person team which is on a very high profile project: the construction of a wormhole gate that would connect earth to, well, "out there" - interstellar space. She is connected via quantum entanglement to a waldo, a robot hundreds of light years away. She and her partner Ted are amongst the best in the business, and thus they have been assigned to this very high profile mission. All is going well, and the team is going through the standard system checklists checklists when something goes very wrong - that can't be
much of a surprise, of course - and Ted is killed.
The mission is put on hold, of course. This kind of thing *never* happens; if anyone is in danger, it is the pilot, not the navigator. And so, an investigation ensues. There are all sorts of possibilities, of course. Industrial espionage is the number one suspect, of course. Any number of companies and hot shot young teams would like to take over the project and make a name for themselves. But what if it's not that? What if what killed Ted was a new life form that humans haven't encountered previously? Another team is sent out to investigate, and more problems occur. As the person with the most experience, Helen is part of the team leading the investigation, but as one of the top suspects in the accident, her job is difficult, with many roadblocks thrown up in front of her.
It shouldn't be much of a surprise that the answer to the problem is a combination of espionage and alien life forms. But who is leading the sabotage, and how are they working with what appears to be a new life form that is essentially destroying Helen's team's corporate equipment?
NUCLEATION is a well written, fun, fast paced, and interesting debut novel. It's a whodunnit, a "whydunnit", and a "what's gonna happen next?" kind of story. This is an idea novel, the kind of novel that many of us used to read as kids when we were starting to get our feet wet in science fiction. This is really not a character driven novel, other than the fact that the characters are there to move the plot along. And that's okay, as plot and idea are among the core tenets of science fiction. If you're looking for deep dives into the backgrounds of the characters in NUCLEATION, you won't find them, as those deep dives aren't necessary. Unger tells us just enough of what we need to know to move the story along. There isn't massive world building and character development, but it's not necessary for the story; I find this a benefit, not a detriment. The story works because of it.
There is definitely room for a sequel. The story has really just begun, and I'm interested in finding out what comes next, whether it's in the NUCLEATION universe or something else from Kimberly Unger. I believe she's a writer to watch.
November 7, 2020
I want to give it 3.8 stars but Goodreads doesn’t have fractional options...
As an operator for the company Far Reaches in an age of private space exploration, Helen Vectorovich’s job is to pilot vehicles, known as waldos, billions of miles away. She does so from her “coffin”, which allows her to merge her own senses with those of her distant waldo. Helen is an elite explorer who never directly faces danger - until she suddenly does. When a routine mission turns deadly, Helen must fight to save both her job and her life while searching for the saboteur. Junior pilots jockeying to replace her, rival companies trying to take control of the botched mission, and bad rumors about her sanity spreading give Helen more than enough challenges. Her situation gets worse when it begins to appear that the mission’s failure may not have been an accident. From the first page, Nucleation has no shortage of perils and surprises, but the fierce, ingenious character of Helen carries the story as much as the plot. As an operator, Helen has to exist in and understand two places - her own world and that of her waldo. This tension is the story’s mainspring. For readers who find the large number of scientific and technical terms confusing, the dialogue between Helen and her colleagues and the momentum of the plot keeps the story intriguing. Helen is part Hermione Granger and part Lara Croft blazing through a fast-paced story that is part science fiction, part space western. Nucleation can feel like too much action crammed between the covers, but this is a forgivable excess. I recommend this novel for middle grade and YA readers who enjoy speculative fiction adventure, fast-paced action, and resourceful female characters and don’t mind some colorful language.
As an operator for the company Far Reaches in an age of private space exploration, Helen Vectorovich’s job is to pilot vehicles, known as waldos, billions of miles away. She does so from her “coffin”, which allows her to merge her own senses with those of her distant waldo. Helen is an elite explorer who never directly faces danger - until she suddenly does. When a routine mission turns deadly, Helen must fight to save both her job and her life while searching for the saboteur. Junior pilots jockeying to replace her, rival companies trying to take control of the botched mission, and bad rumors about her sanity spreading give Helen more than enough challenges. Her situation gets worse when it begins to appear that the mission’s failure may not have been an accident. From the first page, Nucleation has no shortage of perils and surprises, but the fierce, ingenious character of Helen carries the story as much as the plot. As an operator, Helen has to exist in and understand two places - her own world and that of her waldo. This tension is the story’s mainspring. For readers who find the large number of scientific and technical terms confusing, the dialogue between Helen and her colleagues and the momentum of the plot keeps the story intriguing. Helen is part Hermione Granger and part Lara Croft blazing through a fast-paced story that is part science fiction, part space western. Nucleation can feel like too much action crammed between the covers, but this is a forgivable excess. I recommend this novel for middle grade and YA readers who enjoy speculative fiction adventure, fast-paced action, and resourceful female characters and don’t mind some colorful language.
May 1, 2021
Helen Vectorovich works in space, but lives on Earth, connecting remotely to robots light years away entangled with quantum magic, and using them as though her own body to accomplish the goals of her employer. Until one mission things go wrong, her backup dies and the only explanation seems to be some kind of alien robots interfering with the mission. But they're only part of the problem, there's complex business dealings and a potential saboteur in their own ranks, one who might want them dead, and who's goals could threaten all of humanity.
I was eager going into this book. Then my interest progressively waned. And I suppose part of it is my own fault, in that I didn't read the official synopsis especially carefully. I caught the line "failing at first contact... both in outer space and virtual reality" and was sold. I didn't stop there, but the rest of the description, talking about grounded in a desk job and someone at the project wanting to terminate it, didn't have as much impact to me as the idea of her failing at first contact. First contact! That's what I wanted to read about!
Instead I got a long story mostly about corporate espionage and maneuvering where First Contact's almost an afterthought. It takes more than half the book before they even confirm (with huge room for uncertainty) that what happened in the previous missions did involve alien technology. A lot of time was spent on the particular ins and outs of how the remote-piloting-with-quantum-entanglement-and-nanotechnology stuff all worked, and that was interesting, up to a point, but... I wanted my first contact tale. I wanted to learn about the Scale or what intelligence deployed them. Instead I got a tale with human antagonists with motives that verged on cartoon supervillainy and I just did not give a $!@$!.
I will say that I did particularly like the final confrontation and how it played out, but by that time I'd already resigned myself to this book not being the story I wanted from it. Maybe it would have been better if I started that way, but I think now all I'll remember from the book was my disappointment and lack of any substantive answers. It may be part of a series and the answers given then, but... the author hadn't sold me with this one and I don't think I'll care enough to go back.
2 stars.
I was eager going into this book. Then my interest progressively waned. And I suppose part of it is my own fault, in that I didn't read the official synopsis especially carefully. I caught the line "failing at first contact... both in outer space and virtual reality" and was sold. I didn't stop there, but the rest of the description, talking about grounded in a desk job and someone at the project wanting to terminate it, didn't have as much impact to me as the idea of her failing at first contact. First contact! That's what I wanted to read about!
Instead I got a long story mostly about corporate espionage and maneuvering where First Contact's almost an afterthought. It takes more than half the book before they even confirm (with huge room for uncertainty) that what happened in the previous missions did involve alien technology. A lot of time was spent on the particular ins and outs of how the remote-piloting-with-quantum-entanglement-and-nanotechnology stuff all worked, and that was interesting, up to a point, but... I wanted my first contact tale. I wanted to learn about the Scale or what intelligence deployed them. Instead I got a tale with human antagonists with motives that verged on cartoon supervillainy and I just did not give a $!@$!.
I will say that I did particularly like the final confrontation and how it played out, but by that time I'd already resigned myself to this book not being the story I wanted from it. Maybe it would have been better if I started that way, but I think now all I'll remember from the book was my disappointment and lack of any substantive answers. It may be part of a series and the answers given then, but... the author hadn't sold me with this one and I don't think I'll care enough to go back.
2 stars.
November 14, 2024
~~Helen Vectorovich is an operator. Which means that she lies in a "coffin", where her nervous system is fully entangled with a robot (called waldos in this novel) light years away, through quantum physics. Her missions are assisted by a navigator who is linked to a lesser degree. While operating a waldo for her company Far Reaches, as part of a mission to eventually open a wormhole gate, something goes terribly wrong. Her navigator, Ted, suddenly begins seizing. The medics are unable to save him. Helen is unsure what happened, but she knows Ted shouldn't have died. She's determined to clear her name, avenge Ted's death, and regain her status as an elite Operator....if she can stay alive long enough to do all that.
First two sentences: The Golfball was reaching the end of its line drive--the hole in one an orbit around an orphan star. No planets depended on that burning ball of resources for life.
Vital Statistics: Author's home: The San Francisco Bay area
Year written: 2020
Length: 275 pages
Setting: A city on Earth at an undisclosed future date. The robots (or waldos) are flung far and wide across the galaxy.
Genre: Science fiction with a heavy emphasis on technology. It almost has a video game feel.
Read if: You are obsessed with cutting edge technology and where the future of VR may go.
My two cents: I hate handing out one star ratings, but this is truly a mess of a novel. The premise is intriguing--Unger's characters use quantum entanglement to pilot robotic equipment that is light years away. However, despite the exciting premise, the story itself dragged, the characters lacked development, and there was virtually no world building. I didn't flag a single quote. :( The final straw for me was the numerous grammatical errors--frequent enough to be distracting. Given 1 star or a rating of "Bad." Only recommended as a library checkout if you have committed to reading books from every author like I have. :)
Further reading: A link to the Wikipedia page on quantum entanglement theory for you nerds out there. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Quantum...
May 17, 2023
It’s a debut so I don’t expect a masterpiece, and this isn’t one. That said it IS a good book. It starts with a bang. Jacked in remote controlled construction of a stargate when the proverbial hits the fan and the plan goes sideways. Then it sadly gets bogged down for a large chunk of mundane office politics that would sit perfectly well in a drama about a large accounting firm. The SF stops. However it is worth pushing through this. About halfway through the book the SF story starts again when they go back out to start working out what went wrong the first time.
The secondary characters are cookie cutters. They’re all the same and interchangeable. This doesn’t really affect the story though. What they say is what’s important not who said it. There were a few places where I couldn’t even work out who the character was, particularly in the office politics section, but it didn’t matter.
While I’m talking about the office politics, it’s actually well written and credible. I’ve spent 30 years working in a large office and seen everything being described. She even has the management-speak as honed as a Dilbert cartoon. The problem is it’s overdone for its relevance to the story. Some is necessary to setup one of the main characters for the second half of the real story, but not the amount that’s included.
The ideas and tech are central to the story and they are well envisioned and described. And above all crucial to the story. They’re not just a tacked on SF skin.
All in all, a good book. Not brilliant, but one I’d recommend.
The secondary characters are cookie cutters. They’re all the same and interchangeable. This doesn’t really affect the story though. What they say is what’s important not who said it. There were a few places where I couldn’t even work out who the character was, particularly in the office politics section, but it didn’t matter.
While I’m talking about the office politics, it’s actually well written and credible. I’ve spent 30 years working in a large office and seen everything being described. She even has the management-speak as honed as a Dilbert cartoon. The problem is it’s overdone for its relevance to the story. Some is necessary to setup one of the main characters for the second half of the real story, but not the amount that’s included.
The ideas and tech are central to the story and they are well envisioned and described. And above all crucial to the story. They’re not just a tacked on SF skin.
All in all, a good book. Not brilliant, but one I’d recommend.
June 6, 2021
The tech in this book is fantastic! I mean, who doesn't love the idea of being able to "jack in" to robots in space and operate them via quantum entanglement?? I devoured this book in a day, strung along by the unfolding mystery like I was watching a great episode of Star Trek. This story primarily revolves around Helen, an experienced robot operator/pilot. Her brain shows up in a robot on a high-profile mission only to see everything suddenly go sideways, ending with the equipment compromised and her teammate severely injured. Every subsequent team that links up with the system finds more and more inexplicable deterioration. Helen is determined to figure out what is going wrong and why while everyone around her scrambles frantically for answers. I truly enjoyed the world with its familiar company and governmental structures complemented by cool and believable high-tech neural interfaces, data analysis, AI algorithms, and robots (both large and "eenie"). I agree with other reviewers that the characters lacked depth, but in this case I didn't mind because the science itself was interesting enough to keep me going. Having a PhD in engineering will do that to you, I suppose... I look forward to the second book!
November 24, 2020
Boy.... this is a challenging review as this was a strange read. I'm not even sure how to put it unique character into words? I was drawn to this book by the core concept of driving a drone, using quantum entangled particles, from light years across space. And the writing itself was compelling.... but at the same time unrewarding.
The bulk of this book read like a corporate soap opera and the characters all felt paranoid and standoffish... like everyone was walking on glass. And the unusual ideas presented in the story were never described in such a way that I felt I really had a full understanding of them - like describing a cube by just detailing one of its faces.
And there were a few word/phrase repetitions that started getting annoying. I'm not sure I've ever read any book that used the words "protocols", "checklist", and "checkmarks" as much as this one did. If this book had an editor, it felt like they were very "hands off".
I wanted to like this book, but its focus on corporate matters and it's defensive characters just kept pushing me away.
The bulk of this book read like a corporate soap opera and the characters all felt paranoid and standoffish... like everyone was walking on glass. And the unusual ideas presented in the story were never described in such a way that I felt I really had a full understanding of them - like describing a cube by just detailing one of its faces.
And there were a few word/phrase repetitions that started getting annoying. I'm not sure I've ever read any book that used the words "protocols", "checklist", and "checkmarks" as much as this one did. If this book had an editor, it felt like they were very "hands off".
I wanted to like this book, but its focus on corporate matters and it's defensive characters just kept pushing me away.
January 11, 2021
Kimberly Unger had a creative idea for a premise here, but unfortunately wasn't able to thread it into a truly compelling narrative. To give credit where it is due, I was intrigued by the idea of exploration, engineering, combat, and other endeavors taking place in deep space on the scale of nanomachines. I thought Unger's descriptions of the protagonist's perceptual experience of engaging with and controlling said machines by dissociating from her physical body across billions of miles of space via a quantum entanglement feed were wild. Alas, the lack of character development (especially on the emotional front), the very limited scope of the settings and environments (along with having only one point of view), and the general dragging of the narrative right until the very end of the story left me uninvested in the characters and what happened to them. It was almost as if the entire novel were one drawn-out prologue for the real story, and unfortunately, I don't care enough to pick it up with book two.
Three stars; neat premise, readable enough to finish.
Three stars; neat premise, readable enough to finish.
September 2, 2022
A brilliant sci-fi story based on the futuristic idea of a technology allowing operators to project their consciusness and abilities through deep space to a far away "waldo", a robot of appropriate form depending on the job to do, while lying on a techological "coffin" on earth, and connected to the network to share and download data , with "nav" and the rest of the team monitoring the operation from an office. The plot starts during such a job, when a weird accident causes great damage both to people at work on earth and to the project equipment in the deep space. As more similar accidents happen, the main character , who ends up repeatedly risking her life in a short time, realizes, together with a small team of colleagues, that they might have come into first contact with an alien species, while sabotages on earth (from expected and unexpected opponents) may be attempts to cover the exceptional events. This is a thrilling novel, full of plot-twists and fascinating details about the future earth and alien technologies, and it ties all the loose threads at the end but also opens up for an interesting future.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 24, 2021
This is a page-turner! Picked it up one evening and didn't put it down until the end. Intrigue, action, and neat descriptions of what it feels like to embody different sorts of robots — from mining rigs to the microscopic.
I would happily read a sequel.
That said, if you need your stories to have characters who develop relationships, or complex villains, that sort of thing isn't this novel's strong suit.
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