The Practice Effect
Ratings6
Average rating3.7
15
Ratings6
Average rating3.7
Physicist Dennis Nuel is the first human to probe the strange realms called anomaly worlds: alternate universes where the laws of science are unpredictably changed. But the world Dennis discovers seems almost like our own―with one perplexing difference. To his astonishment, he’s hailed as a wizard, meets a beautiful woman with strange powers, and finds himself fighting a mysterious warlord as he struggles to solve the riddle of this baffling world.
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After an uncertain start, this turns out to be a pleasant and amusing frolic. The central idea is novel and rather delightful; it's developed straightforwardly and competently into a fairly typical sf adventure story, but new spins on the basic idea continue to amuse along the way.
The Practice Effect itself seems so implausible in scientific terms that I'm tempted to class the book as fantasy. But I've no objection to fantasy, in moderation; and the fantasy is limited to one special effect, so it doesn't get out of hand.
It's only a minor novel, really, but I find it entertaining enough to reread now and then.
The story comes to a fairly definite end, indicating no plan to produce sequels. Evidently Brin decided to write a more serious kind of fiction after this.
