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Ra

Running thoughts while reading. Brain-churning hard fantasy that kept escalating. Jun–Jul 2025

Ra by qntm

Why this book?

Only started reading because it’s supposed to be better than Ed. I realised I don’t just want the story of a book, but something more from it. Nuance to remember and think about. To understand and expand the mind. Hopefully this book would be more about building a world and immersing yourself into it. Okay, let’s see, I’ll read it up just like that. Can’t help more.

Running Log

19-06-2025

  • Pretty interesting storyline. Lots of technical explanations to the stories and god, I would love to see this in a show format. It would be absolutely bonkers.
  • The concept of magic being harnessed like quantum energy, vast structures existing before the start or end of time. Pretty crazy if you think of it.
  • The story building is very good for a TV show format, with various slices of Laura being pointed, of her mother, and some randos who die and all that. Really good storytelling. Like a very well constructed story that I could ever write.
  • Only halfway through the book.

02-07-2025

  • Took this book up again after a long while (I mean, just stopped reading continuously) and it genuinely has some good stuff at the end. When the pieces fall together, it is fun. The book was very fun in the beginning and very fun at the very end. The story is very coherent, and all the science is very, very well handled I suppose.
  • I like the abstract war, simulacrum concept, and hypersphere, and more on that. It just made me think of the thought that.

03-07-2025

  • Took a long long time to complete it, but fun, and interesting. Lots of things to think about.

05-07-2025 (from written notes)

  • Took a long while to read the book, but kinda fun.
  • Concepts like “abstract war,” “Matrioshka brain,” linguistic barriers, deeply engaged magic, pretty brain-unnerving if you ask me and pretty exciting.

Characters

Very very imaginative and brain-churning. Few characters I was invested in:

Laura

  • God complex
  • Bossy, “I can save the world”

Natalie

  • Measured, scientific
  • Smart, finding solutions

King

  • Felt underdeveloped
  • Not “smart” enough
  • Acts like a leader but thrust into position

Exa

  • Strong character, like an assassin rather than smart
  • Overkill but interesting

Ed Hatt

  • Well written smart guy
  • Takes opportunities without any hesitation
  • Smart guy lived a long life into virtual consumption

How Magic Works (My Understanding)

The system is wild. Enchanters use staff to channel through a non-locality engine. Quantum receivers pick up the signal. Earth has a listening post that’s teleportable, connected to Ra, the shared computer (which is actually the Sun, running a mega computational structure). The real Earth is tiny compared to the whole setup. There’s a virtual human world running on Ra’s computation, with unlimited mana/energy. The whole thing is a Matrioshka brain situation: fake earth with humans, powered by a stellar-scale computer. Absolutely nuts worldbuilding.

Parts of Interest

  • The Iceland sequence (every smartly written sequence)
  • The Abstract War simulation
  • The last Sirius Society act
  • The “glass man” fight sequence

My Take

  • No one is smarter than the both of them (Laura & Natalie). “But we didn’t think this would happen!” Of course, someone can’t break through 50 years without figuring out a loophole.
  • The aftermath of the abstract war is stupid. “1 year” to figure out stuff? Bull. But I understand. It’s just post-traumatic stress disorder playing out.
  • I like that they didn’t break the speed of light. Very interesting constraint. The solutions to problems are very well thought of, like something they would think through rather than just babble around.
  • Maybe I’m just moving away from this, but it’s been a long long while since I read something that excited my brain as much as Blindsight and Echopraxia. This very well steals a place alongside them.
  • I’m less inclined to it these days. And hence I might not rank it as highly as I want to. Who knows. Only time will be able to tell.
P.S.

qntm does this thing where the scope of the story keeps expanding until you look back at chapter one and can’t believe you ended up here. Ra starts as a story about a girl studying magic at university and ends as a story about stellar-scale computation, simulated realities, and abstract warfare. The escalation is seamless, and that’s what makes it work.

P.P.S.

The comparison to Blindsight keeps coming back because both books commit to making you uncomfortable with how their world works. Watts does it with consciousness, qntm does it with the nature of reality itself. Different flavours of the same brain-hurt.