The Flicker Men

Starred review from May 4, 2015
Kosmatka (Prophet of Bones) effectively harnesses his impressive imagination in the service of a mind-blowing plot in this outstanding SF thriller. Struggling physicist Eric Argus, who has been contemplating suicide, gets a chance to rehabilitate his career by taking a provisional job at Massachusetts’s Hansen Research. The parameters of his work are loose enough to allow him to conduct whatever research he wants, as long as it has scientific merit. Despite, or perhaps because of, this freedom, Eric is unable to gain any traction—until he decides to recreate the classic wave-particle experiment on the nature of quantum mechanics. Eric finds that conscious observation somehow affects the position of electrons passing through a slit. When he takes the inquiry a step further, to see whether animals could affect electrons by observing them, he gets an unexpected result that ends up having highly dramatic consequences. Ingenious plot twists, well-realized characters, and superior prose elevate this above similar books. Agent: Seth Fishman, Gernert Company.

A technical breakthrough by a scientist who is grappling with his drinking sets in motion a fantastical chain of events that is often challenging for the listener to follow. Keith Szarabajka's narration captures the intensity of the story as physicist Eric Angus's research evolves into a near-global pandemic. Szarabajka's voices are well done--in particular, those of a villain who is hell-bent on obstructing Angus's work, an Indian colleague whose singsong intonation is consistent and appropriate, and a menacing henchmen from Down Under. The story is a heady one, to be sure--so this is for listeners whose interests lie in technical aspects of physics, science fiction, and fantasy. M.B. © AudioFile 2015, Portland, Maine