Thank you to NetGalley for the eARC of EXCHANGE by Paul L. Nowicki

Anything that boasts traversing the multiverse - sign me up!

I enjoyed reading this, it definitely kept me turning pages.

Thrills in space? Sign me up! This was the perfect genre read for me. Fast and thrilling, it was a highly enjoyable experience.

Enter the Multiverse with this interesting take on parallel universes with alternate realities, coaxed into existence by 3 strange goddesses.

Alex and Zandra discovered how to make interstellar travel a reality. They are running a trial when they are forced to stop. They have a choice and the outcome will create another universe... even if they don't even dream about it. If Zandra survives, Beta-27 will continue it's existence. If Alex survives, Rho-1 will be created.

We follow Alex and Zandra on their universes for 10 years, before both of them have enough resources to run another trial on the same experiment and, somehow, end up together.

Read this book if you like to learn things... and if you really want to know if they, finally, make interstellar travel a reality.

Exchange
The Quantam Triangle #1
Sci-Fi
Paul L. Nowicki
⭐️⭐️⭐️.5

Parallel universes, Alien AI, physics

The premise of this book is very interesting. I did like the plot but it was a bit confusing at times.

I liked the little factoids that were given in between each chapter.

The MCs, Zandra and Alex, were likeable and well developed. Zandra was my favourite though because of her psychic abilities and her mannerisms.

The pacing was slow at times and there were info dumps that would make me want to skip paragraphs here and there.

Overall, this was an ok read but I don't think I'll be reading the next book.

*Thank you to @Netgalley and the publishers for providing this ARC. This is my own opinion and an honest review, which I am leaving voluntarily*

Interesting concept/idea for a mostly modern space adventure. If you have Holdout, Mickey 7, The Apollo Murders or other such books your your shelf, this is probably a book you’d like.
There is a split parallel dimension thing going on in the plot which I found compelling, but the love story missed the mark a little. Just didn’t feel it and writing the Russian accent of the female character seemed strange to me.
Overall, the story was interesting. If the science particulars of quantum physics bog you down, you might want to take a pass. Also, this is book one in a series and I’m not sure I’m reeled in enough to invest in book two.
Solid effort
3.5 rounded up

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the digital review copy!

The pacing is fantastic and kept me turning pages. I can't wait to see where the rest of the series goes.

Let me start off by saying this was fantastic and everything I wanted.

Right from the beginning, I was hooked and, for a first book in a series, this laid good foundations for future books. I always appreciate authors who can blend high concept scientific storytelling with a great human story, and Nowicki did just that. I love the idea of alternate dimensions and trying to work across those dimensions towards a similar goal but for different reasons. Both characters were so well fleshed out.

Excellent book.

4 stars

Its parallel universes again, and the start of a series, which made my heart sink a touch. But no need, for while Exchange and its Quantum Triangle series seem to be playing in the multiverse sandbox, there are some rules here. Not least the presence of omnipotent alien AI's who seem to sanction the creation of parallel universes after significant events. While that is not explained and is a little silly, it does mean that you can be confident that we are only playing with these two divergent universes. It also throws a hidden threat in the mix as that inter-dimensional travel could cause the AI's to destroy these universes.

That instigating incident, a space accident around an experiment for instantaneous long-distance travel. In one universe the male scientist dies in the accident, and this Universe has a terrible war, destroys most of the world whose survivors then make peace, and start new experiments. In the other universe, the female astronaut (with a touch of sixth sense) dies, and the scientist's discovery is turned into a super-weapon, preventing mass global destruction but basically underpinning a fascist regime. One of the exciting things here is that the universe which is coded good (the not fascist one), is also the one with the most dead. Anyway five years after the accident, more science accidentally zaps the female astronaut into the fascist world, and there is a fair bit of running around to replace them.

So this is pure hokum, with all sorts of assumptions and shortcuts to make the adventure plot work. But crucially it is good hokum, everything drives the story, and that central hook of the divergent point being the death of two sides of a romantic couple who then get reunited, is really rather compelling. The terrible fascist is basically a pseudo Trump, and even I had difficulty with him being constantly and unironically referred to a The Boss (not least as I am a Springsteen fan). But this is a tight adventure that makes the most of its wild set up, and I'd be interested to see where it goes next - intra-dimensional warfare I daresay.

"Exchange," the first installment in The Quantum Triangle Series by Paul L. Nowicki, and it took me on quite the journey.

Right from the beginning, I was hooked and, for a first book in a series, this laid good foundations for future books. I always appreciate authors who can blend high concept scientific storytelling with a great human story, and Nowicki did just that. I love the idea of alternate dimensions and trying to work across those dimensions towards a similar goal but for different reasons. Both characters were so well fleshed out.

"Exchange" was a quick read for me because the pacing just kept me going all the way. I can’t wait to see what happens next.

Excellent book.