The Practice Effect: A Novel

David Brin

Dec 2009 · Spectra

About this ebook

From one of the most critically acclaimed and well-loved authors of contemporary science fiction, a highly imaginative and exciting story as only David Brin can write . . . 

“High spirits and inventiveness . . . Dennis's adventures, which can only be called rollicking, are legion.”—Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

Physicist Dennis Nuel was the first human to probe the strange realms called anomaly worlds—alternate universes where the laws of science were unpredictably changed. But the world Dennis discovered seemed almost like our own—with one perplexing difference. To his astonishment, he was hailed as a wizard and found himself fighting beside a beautiful woman with strange powers against a mysterious warlord as he struggled to solve the riddle of this baffling world.

“A delightful, often very witty story, with the underlying thoughtfulness we expect from David Brin.”—Poul Anderson

Ratings and reviews

I really enjoyed this book until the end. Just by spending a little time with the robot he knew what had happened in the last millennia. So in effect you had a rushed ending and I don't know why. Perhaps the publishers put a restriction on the book at the last minute. Who can say. It spoilt the whole experience for me. I get more frustrated every time bad endings ruin a book. So now I am rather scathing when it happens.

A bit dumbed down. Not Mr brin's most memorable book.

Targeted towards a young audience, but a fun read and an interesting premise.

About the author

David Brin is a scientist and the bestselling author of Sundiver, The Uplift War, Startide Rising, The Practice Effect, The Postman, Heart of the Comet (with Gregory Benford), Earth, Glory Season, Brightness Reef, and Infinity's Shore, as well as the short-story collections The River of Time and Otherness. He has a doctorate in astrophysics and has been a NASA consultant and a physics professor.