Review: Quantum Vibe by Scott Bieser

Quantum Vibe is a sci-fi web-comic featuring the scientific duo Nicole Oresme and Seamus O’Murchadha. The Robot-girl enters the story late in the series, when she will insist with calculated indignation that she is an android, not a robot. Nicole hails from L-5 city and is the solar system’s first successful osmotic clone, meaning she’s the product of 12 distinct genetic donors. Seamus is from Luna and is one of the system’s leading scientific lights. The series is premised on his observation that human liberty thrives when society has a frontier, but when it doesn’t society stagnates and turns against itself. He aims to show that humans can access alternate quantum universes meaning a nearly infinite amount of alternative Earths that can provide an endless frontier.

If you want a really great summary of the general premise, check out The Quantum Vibe Jingle by Hannah Hoffman. It’s been playing on affiliates of the Liberty Radio Network for weeks and that’s what got me interested.

First and foremost, Quantum Vibe is just good sci-fi, completely with new futuristic slang, quasi-scientific tech speech, and a wide variety of speculative inventions and new technology. There’s also plenty of easter eggs hidden there for die-hard sci-fi enthusiasts. For example, Seamus looks remarkably like an overweight Dr. Who (the Tom Baker version).

Seamus even possesses Dr. Who’s ability to cheat death by regenerating his body. When he comes back from stasis he looks more like Lord Elrond played by Hugo Weaving in the Lord of Rings movies. Although Nicole is not a Vulcan, just a genetically modified human, halfway through the series she reveals that she has pointed ears, and on one occasion she even flashes the Vulcan hand gesture at a TSA agent. We even see the USS Enterprise, or something like it, in a flashback to the early years of space travel.

The liberty message is also very strong throughout the series. Nichole comes from L-5 City which is essentially a free society, while Seamus comes from Luna which is practically a police state complete with brainless bureaucracy, brutal law enforcement and kangaroo courts. The various oppression that Nicole encounters on Luna are all to familiar to us, but foreign to her, so we get to see them through her fresh eyes. Meanwhile Seamus as Luna native understands how to at least navigate the insanity. For example, the fine for carrying an unregistered weapon is less that then the fee for registering your weapon, so you’re better off breaking the law.

There’s plenty of liberty easter eggs strewn in the comic too. For example, one of the more mysterious villains is a bounty hunter named Mister Graves who is tasked with learning the secret of Seamus’s experiments by whatever means necessary. He eludes detection with a holographic face, which he uses to disguise himself as various sociopaths of the past.

During a show trial against Nicole for resisting arrest and assaulting a traffic cop on Luna we see Judge Judith Neapolitan and Judge Anthony Neapolitan (no relation) who bear an uncanny resemblance to two public figures in our day. Maybe they are ancestors or something.

Plus, take a look at Nichole’s defense attorney, George A. Ringo. Can you guess who his distant relative might be?

At times the series is laugh out loud funny, and at other times it tackles some pretty harrowing circumstances, like prison violence, or flying a nuclear bomb into the sun after your navigation system has shorted out. It’s well worth starting at the beginning and reading the whole series, because 400 pages in and it’s just getting started.

Visit http://www.SilverCircleMovie.com to learn more about our upcoming 3D animated film. Also, the Silver Circle graphic novel is available now at the following hyperlinks in full color and black and white.