Review: A Life Full of Quarks by C W Johnson

 

Genre: Science Fiction

Description:

The novel follows John Chant from about age 5 until around age 30, when he meets the (other) love of his life. Occasionally the book claims to be a memoir, but I came to believe this was part of the fiction. The things that happen to John, and that he makes happen, would curl the hair of any normal parent. John does not have normal parents. His parents are scientists: they do not appear to have a safety cut-off. There is a lab in the garage. John, boy and man, has a vivid imagination.

Author:

C W Johnson trained in theoretical physics, mathematics, computers, science fiction, poetry and ‘many other impractical topics’. He is currently a professor of physics in the US. He has published short fiction in “science fiction magazines such as Analog, Asimov’s, and others” as well as poetry. His early SF influences were Joanna Russ, Peter S Beagle, Tim Powers, Algis Budrys and (the most important to him) Kim Stanley Robinson. Poets who influenced him include Becky Larkin, Shannon Marquez Maguire and Sue Owens. There are other C W Johnsons writing fiction, but this is our C W Johnson’s first novel.

Appraisal:

The first thing to say is that this is the best self-published novel I have read this year. I honestly don’t understand how it hasn’t been picked up by a major publisher and taken off like Andy Weir’s The Martian did.

There is obviously something of the author’s own life in it (although, for those inclined to try and repeat his experiments, he claims that he has skewed the science so you can’t build a probability drive out of sticky-backed plastic and cardboard).

The book is clever, sad and funny by turns – and, occasionally, all at once. The prose is entirely reliable: it tells you what you need to know then moves briskly on. Only later do you realise that as well as moving on, it is circling back around. The necessary coincidences feel unforced. Several metaphorical firearms are hung over the fictional fireplace and all are fired in due course, to laugh-out-loud or sharp-intake-of-breath effect.

If you were to mash together pretty much any bit of Kurt Vonnegut, a couple of scenes out of Back to the Future, Planet of the Apes, and Curse of the Thirty Foot Woman with an episode of The Big Bang Theory and one of Father Knows Best you might produce something like this book.

You do not need to know anything about science to enjoy this book. You do not need ever to have read anything else labelled ‘Science Fiction’. This is a completely stand-alone, one-of-a-kind novel. I recommend it to you unreservedly.

Buy now from:            Amazon US        Amazon UK

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Format/Typo Issues:

Rating: ***** Five Stars

Reviewed by: Judi Moore

Approximate word count: 135-140,000 words