Physics Incarnate Paperback – January 20, 2012

My first impression of physics incarnate was that I was not privy to what was going on for a great part of the first few chapters. It wasn't until Chapter 10 did I feel like I understood what was going on, when the protagonist explains his superpowers to his student/girlfriend. The classroom scenes pretty much went over my head,with all the E=MC2 talk and all. I wanted to skip over some of them to get to the action, but the whole super-hero thing left me going "huh? What just happened here?" That being said, I think the action scenes were the strongest in the whole story.I didn't find the characters very relatable, and didn't come away with any sense of liking any of them. But for its genre of fantasy, I think it was well-written.Very few typos or other mechanical errors.

A bit Fantastic 4, a little University drama , mixed with big bold science fiction themes delivered with truly unique prose that fits it's themes. Give it a look!

I really enjoyed reading Physics Incarnate despite the fact that I am very persnickety when it comes to science fiction. The plot is engaging and written with intelligence and the descriptions are vivid and paint a lucid picture of the characters and environment. This book is highly recommended.

Physics Incarnate by Jesse PohlmanThe title hints at a book that is action-packed with characters that have special powers but, unfortunately, those powers are only occasionally used throughout the book. This is disappointing and the unnecessary details that seem to be packed into a lot of the book’s narrative did not add to its appeal for this reader. The main character, Physicist Emmett Eisenberg is the “incarnate” figure of the title. Emmett seems to possess an awareness of how objects work at an atomic level, though I was never too clear about how he came by these powers. He also has the ability to use his powers for “good or evil” and much of the story is taken up with him expressing regret at bad things he did in the past. There is too much time wasted with explanations and discussions in restaurants etc, in a book that could have had a lot of incredible “science-action” in it.As a retired Physics teacher I found a lot of the “basic physics” explanations tedious and a little patronising to the reader, but perhaps it is more gripping to a layperson? It did feel like a science textbook at times. Even so I consider that Jesse Pohlman has missed a trick in this book. It needs a lot more action and a lot less explanation. It is not until Chapter 10 that you really feel like you know what went wrong in Emmett’s past when he explains things to his girlfriend.I could not relate to any of the characters and felt quite neutral about most of them, apart from Maria who has more depth in my opinion, but I rarely cared about what happened to most of them. I think the nub of the thing is that the book is like a collection of events rather than a story that develops and builds to an ending. Plus, if the characters have superpowers, the reader wants to see them in action and be on the edge of their seat when turning each page. One particular thing was sending a foe to orbit the sun! There was just not enough in the tale about that amazing idea. Too much time was spent in restaurants talking about superpowers rather than expanding on the incidents when they were being used. Far too much attention is paid to small details, like who has what drinks and in what order; and who shakes hands with whom and again in what order.Finally, I found the telling of the story very jerky and clunky throughout. It did not flow at all and there were several strange expressions used that reflected a poor command of written English. The apostrophe was incorrectly used so many times that I found myself looking for the next error rather than following the plot. Overall this was a very good idea that was poorly expressed on the written page.

Physicist Emmett Eisenberg is physics incarnate - he can wield the principles of physics as a superpower - and during my favorite moments in this book, Emmett is aware of how things work at the molecular level, as people use everyday objects or make ordinary actions. As a science lover, this take on superpowers wows me, and if I were a grade school science teacher I would be devising ways to work parts of this novel into my curriculum. Other characters also have more traditional superpowers.I wanted to like the characters and as the book progressed I did warm up to them (mostly because of occasional, unexpected bursts of wit) but I never came to care what happened to them. What I learned about them was pretty mundane stuff, superpowers aside.The plot is more a collection of incidents than a story that builds to a climax and the end is more appropriate as a mid-way chapter ending than the novel's conclusion. And - maybe I'm old fashioned, but - when characters have superpowers, I need them to engage in action and adventure! There is little of either here. The ideas are there, but skimped upon: at one point, for example, Emmett and a superpal overpower a foe and send him to orbit the sun until he calms down. That is AWESOME and deserves at least a couple pages of detail, but the novel doesn't cover it much more thoroughly than I have here. These superpowers spend more time in restaurants than they do wielding their powers.There is way too much attention paid to niggly details. Some of this is justified because that is how Emmett views the world. But most of it could be cut. For example, when a group of people meet, it is sufficient to say they shook hands all around, rather than itemizing who shook whose hand in what order.This would make a kick-ass graphic novel and converting to that format would distill what is best here.Four stars for ideas, two stars for execution.I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.