Status
Call number
Collection
Publication
Description
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… (more)
User reviews
The Practice Effect is a decent yarn, but not really in the same league with Startide Rising or The Uplift War. I found the feudal politics and economics of the world to be superficial, and none of the characters to be particularly compelling (the love-interest princess and the evil villain both felt particularly thin). The strategy and tactics of the climactic battle are unconvincing, and completely ignore the profound implications of the planet's reverse entropy physics to boot.
Not a great novel, but I found it moderately satisfying in a guilty pleasure kind of way.