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[BOOKS IN BRIEF]A quantum leap in tedium

Published: 07 Sep. 2007, 21:18

Quantum Spies: The series

“Quantum Spies: The series” is a cartoon with accompanying audio about two quantum travelers and private investigators who jump from one tale to another. The purpose of the publication is to improve the English language skills of readers.
There are four tales in the book; “The Emperor and the Moon,” “Ratavinagus,” “Rainy Days” and “Paris Story.” After finishing each story, the reader is given the opportunity to become a private investigator to determine whether a tale is real or just the opposite. The stories are bizarre with a hint of a twist but not all that interesting, even for readers ten years old or younger, which seems to be the target audience. The audio does try to help, but compared to other audio books for young children, the gaps between conversations are just too wide to hold the reader’s interest.
The book attempts to make use of colloquial language like “another one bites the dust,” “bro,” and “chill,” but this isn’t enough to hold the reader’s interest. The cartoons and stories are not compelling, and although the book revolves around the interesting topic of dimension-jumping detectives, this premise does nothing to save it from tedium.
By Lee Ho-jeong