Quantum Heist: A Review of Randomize by Andy Weir

Randomize by Andy Weir
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Andy Weir seemingly shot out of nowhere to become one of the biggest contemporary sci-fi authors with his book The Martian. With his blend of realistic science and dark humor, I fell completely in love with it and recommended it to so many people. I even loved the Ridley Scott movie adaptation that came out later. When an author becomes an overnight sensation, the next questions people ask is what will they write next and will it be just as good as his first work. While I have yet to read Mr. Weir's sophomore novel, Artemis (I'm getting to it!), after reading this short story, I do believe that Mr. Weir's narrative powers will hold up just fine over a long and promising career.

Set in a Las Vegas casino in the near future, Mr. Weir relates a tale of a high-risk, high-reward heist. The thieves though are not a bunch of hardened master criminals straight out of Ocean's Eleven, but a brilliant husband and wife team with an intimate knowledge of quantum mechanics, quantum computing, and how it can be used to rig a Keno game. In less than 30 pages, Mr. Weir both engages the reader with his heist story and does a fairly good job of explaining quantum mechanics and computing to novices like me. And, like Mr. Weir's other characters, when the chips are down the characters in this book must rely on their wits to get themselves out. Like his other works, Mr. Weir makes being smart cool and completely necessary to succeed.

One thing that is lacking from this book is Mr. Weir's signature humor. While none of the characters are particularly dour, neither are any of them particularly humorous. Of course, not every Andy Weir work has to be funny, but, especially towards the end, a little humor to break the tension would have been appreciated.

Overall, this is an excellent short story that one can knock out in about an hour. For anyone who has been hesitant to pick up an Andy Weir novel, this could be a good introduction to one of the best sci-fi authors working today.

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