Roux the Day

It seems like ski season may have ended early. (Right now, Colorado resorts are only officially closed for one week, but... yeah, right.) Yet while winter was in force (and COVID-19 was not), I was fortunate to get in a lot of skiing. On one of the long drives into the mountains, my husband and I passed the time with an audiobook novella: Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic.

This is a story released exclusively on Audible, written by Nick Carr. Protagonist Wally Roux has been uprooted from his home in Maine by his Mom, to now live Savannah, Georgia. But his struggles to fit in at a new school aren't the most pressing problems on his agenda. He keeps discovering strange anomalies in the fabric of space-time -- and as the only one qualified to even recognize the problems, he takes it upon himself to fix them.

Whether you'll be satisfied by this story depends a great deal on your expectations. That brain-tickling title would set many up to expect a tangled sci-fi extravaganza... which is decidedly not the focus of the story. Science fiction is merely the accent, the spice in the meal, to add flavor to what is very much a character study. Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic is really an examination of adolescent awkwardness, particularly when dealing with issues of race and adoption. And even though the story clocks in at less than two hours, it takes its time unspooling this, weaving its themes throughout.

Nick Carr is good with a clever turn of phrase. This is an excellent exercise in fully developing the world view of a single character and writing exclusively from his point of view. Wally Roux has relatable problems (aside from the space-time anomalies), and the attitude he wears as an armor to face them is also relatable as a response. He's funny and witty... but also conflicted and troubled.

I think this is a good story to make available in the audiobook format, as much of the appeal comes from the performance of William Jackson Harper. Fans of The Good Place (and if you aren't one, you should be) will know him as Chidi, and there are many superficial connections between that character and Wally Roux that make him an ideal narrator for this story. Harper knows how to play a character cursed with too much awareness. But he gets a chance here to stretch in other ways; not only is Wally Roux also a sassier character than Chidi, Harper also effectively voices other characters and embues them with different personalities.

I'd have to say that the end of the story isn't as compelling as the journey itself; though it starts out quirky and clever, Nick Carr ultimately writes to an ending that feels more conventional than all that, pretty standard introspection about "the road not taken." But I also think it's likely that in this tight a package, no ending really could have done any better. Again: this isn't actually a science fiction story, it's a character study using science fiction as its medium.

Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic is a solid B. If you're already on Audible and looking for something small and manageable as opposed to a 30+ hour epic, you might want to consider it.