By Julie Sara Porter
Bookworm Reviews
PopSugar Reading Challenge: A book about or by a woman in STEM
Spoilers: R.E. McLean's Multiverse Investigations Unit is a unique series in which the protagonists solve crimes in various parallel universes. It is like an exciteable physics professor giving a lesson on quantum theory with very bright flash cards and loud special effects. It's interesting and informative, but mostly it's a lot of fun.
Alex Strand, a young post-doctorate student in physics is studying quantum theories particularly how it pertains to the frequent death and resurrection of her cat, Schrodinger. (Get it, like Schrodinger's cat experiment? Yes, it's that kind of book.)
Unfortunately, she gets up close and personal to these experiments when reclusive billionaire, Claire Pope is found dead. Two mysterious police officers, Monique Williams and Mike Long tell her that they need her help to prevent the murder of... reclusive billionaire, Claire Pope.
Before Alex can say "Wha-?," she is taken to the Multiverse Investigations Unit, a secret organization which investigates and prevents crimes in the Multiverse, the various alternate universes. The MIU needs Alex's expertise in quantum physics to investigate. Alex is partnered up with Mike and the two explore Silicon City, an alternate version of San Francisco that is connected to the Hive, an artificial intelligence. The duo try to prevent Claire's murder while Alex explores this new world and conducts her own deeply personal investigation.
I haven't enjoyed a murder mystery satire this much since Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next series. This is one of those book series that is a complete delight to read and be amazed at the fantasy trip the author puts us on. McLean captures the alternate universe milieu perfectly. Silicon City is a brilliantly realized setting. The details from the fashion, to the slang, to the social customs are well thought out. There is also a real sense of the sociopolitical difficulties of a populace physically connected to an artificial intelligence that limits their freedom.
There are some brilliant clever touches to the series that lends itself to the concept of alternate universes such as different versions of the same people and how even if certain things change, they are still the same people underneath. Claire for example is a billionaire in different businesses. In one universe, she created a pet food empire and in another invents accessories for ear pieces that hook up to the Hive. However in any world, she is still an agoraphobic recluse with very few friends and one ex-husband.
The MIU has an employee named Madge Ciccone who was named for Madonna because she was born the same time that the pop singer had her first number one hit, "Into the Groove." However, Madge has prematurely aged, a fad in her universe. Silicon City has its own counterpart in Madge with Madonna, who looks and dresses like the pop singer, but lives in a world that has never heard of her.
There is a clever interactive experience between McLean, the series, and the Reader. McLean has a website that describes the various other alternate universes such as one in which the British won the Revolutionary War and another in a dystopia. These other universes offer intriguing possibilities for future volumes that should be just as fascinating to explore.
The website is also a mock recruitment process for potential Multiverse Investigations Unit professionals including a quiz to join and cases (book synopsis). It takes one back to the late '90's-early '00's when websites such as Galaxy Quest's or The Blair Witch Project's were created specifically to give fans a full interactive fourth-wall-breaking experience.
Besides the fun, the series stands out by giving us fascinating characters otherwise the book would just be a travelogue into weirdness. Mike is the typical veteran with a bad history that has yet to be elaborated upon. Though there are hints that somehow he lost a partner. His facial hair goes through some unintentional peculiar metamorphoses that changes every moment from a beard, to a van dyke, to a goatee, to a handlebar etc.(apparently an after-effect to some trip gone awry.)
Alex is also well-written: the brains to Mike's brawn. Fortunately, she is a lesbian so it saves us a "will-they-won't-they" scenario between our lead partners. However, she does fancy another MIU employee so we may see a potential office romance.
She also has a painful past and a lot of guilt that has consumed her life. When she enters Silicon City, she does not look around only for scientific curiosity. She also looks for information about her past and in an emotional moment, she receives it.
Murder in the Multiverse is a brilliant first step in this fun and exciting series. It is a brilliant work in this and any other universe.
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