Book Reviewed: Quantum Cage by Davis Bunn

The interstellar communication A NASA funded physics project accidentally cracked something extraordinary, an extrasolar communication with extraterrestrials. The alien transmissions to earth included fragments of a mysterious solution to a physical phenomenon crucial to preventing Earth’s extinction. The substance of the story is around a high-tech “glass cage” in the physics laboratory where Darren Costa, an accountant with no physics or mathematical knowledge experiences dreamlike visions of the alien world and their scientists. The human scientific team had accidentally created a path in spacetime to four alien species from the “glass cage.” From Darren’s visions humans learn that the alien transmissions are fragments of an incomplete mathematical formula that is grounded in quantum physics. The human scientists are baffled by the mystery behind the coded message and get more interested in the Darren’s visons. Several authors have addressed these fictional stories about alien-human communication: Arthur C. Clarke (Childhood’s End), Stanisław Lem (Solaris), and Carl Sagan (Contact). Sagan’s work was made into a Hollywood film in 1997 starring Jodie Foster. The present work has similarities to the work of Carl Sagan where aliens give humanity a coded message with advanced physics pointing toward deeper truths about physical reality of the material world. The alien code included a recipe to build a machine, a transport system that creates a quantum wormhole or spacetime gateway to the alien world. The writing of the book is terse, and I found difficulty in connecting with the story. The story of Darren’s personal life where he mourns the demise of his wife is similar to how Jodie Foster, as Ellie Arroway connect with her late father in the movie “Contact.” The aliens try to communicate with her through her father. Darren’s memories of his late wife and his “visions in the quantum cage” may have something to do with alien communication.