The Weekender
Qbits – The Perseids Adventure
By Peter Fitzgerald
Peter Fitzgerald’s Qbits is science and is fiction, but not a stereotypical science fiction novel. Rather, it’s an adventure tale that refers to science.
Tom Jackson, a first year lecturer and research physicist at University of Sydney, dabbles in small inventions, one of them a quantum storage device worn as a ring.
Tom is struck by lightning and the device becomes embedded in his body.
When he awakes he discovers that he can send and receive email, talk on the phone and access any information in the world, all from inside his head.
He is randomly teleported to a quantum universe through Watto, a portal key to the Great Hall where the Qbits reside. The Qbits are the modernised versions of Albert Einstein (Alby), Galileo Galilei (GG), Marie Curie (Mac) and Sir Isaac Newton (Newts).
There are no boundaries in this quantum universe. GG, the rebel of the bunch, discovers that a Perseids meteorite shower will hit Norway and takes it upon himself to notify the US president, the CIA and NASA.
Fitzgerald’s cast of past and present scientists takes the reader on a wild adventure. From the virtual Area 51 files to the outer regions of space, this extreme and exciting tale brings the wonderful study of science to life.
Dot Whittington
The Weekender