Chris Moriarty’s novel Spin State is an inspired attempt to mix quantum mechanics and coal mining. In commenting on Spin Control, the sequel to Spin State, I said Spin State didn’t work for me. I’ll give Moriarty credit for the attempt though.
Spin State at it’s is core a murder mystery with hard science speculative fiction elements. The SF elements center on cloning and genetic modification, quantum computing, and artificial intelligence. Catherine Li, the protagonist, is a disgraced UNSec operative who is hornswaggled into a chance at redemption. If she solves the murder of a famous quantum physicist, she can get back into the military. The murder took place on her home world of Compson’s Planet, where a mysterious material, termed “condensate”, is extracted from mined coal. Condensate enables faster than light travel.
There exists an uneasy peace between UNSec and the Syndicates. Syndicates are posthuman species that heavily use gene engineering and cloning to promulgate. UNSec has outlawed Syndicate technology and the small minority of their members who interact with homo sapiens are considered second class citizens. A couple of Syndicate members play central roles in the mystery. Complicating matters is that Li is 3/4’s Syndicate stock, passing as an unmodified human. Plus she was key in a critical battle to end war between UNSec and the Synidicates, a battle involving war crimes. To put it mildly, Li is a very conflicted character.
Spin State, while receiving quite a bit of laudatory recognition, didn’t click for two reasons. First, the emphasis on coal mining just didn’t resonate. When I pick up an SF novel I’m not looking for a heavy dose of old, Earthbound technology. With the perspective of time, I can acknowledge the plight of the condensate miners as commentary on oppression and otherness. Second, I just didn’t have any intuition about the science of quantum computing. Ergo, one of the central speculative elements was opaque to me. Not the author’s fault, I’ll admit.
I finished Spin State about a year ago, so there’s some distance between now and the reading experience. Subsequent to finishing, I got a heavy dose of quantum computing background for a project at work. Also, after enjoying Spin Control, I better appreciate Moriarty’s writing style. It would be interesting to reread Spin State now and see if I enjoyed the story more. I suspect I would.
All that said, I’m sort of neutral on Spin State. It wouldn’t be the first thing I’d recommend to someone, but I wouldn’t actively discourage anyone from picking it up. For most SF fans, it’s probably worth the time spent, and it would definitely help in the reading of Spin Control, a book I can definitely recommend.