I can’t remember if I read Lena before Tycho and Gabe over at Penny Arcade recommended There Is No Antimemetics Division, but since the mind-warping experience of the latter, I’ve consumed everything qntm has published. Most recently, that’s Ra, the final entry in the Tetraquark Bundle.

Ra imagines a world where magic is treated as a hard science—quantifiable, testable, programmable. Universities teach theoretical magic and thaumic engineering. It’s not quite like The Magicians (which I have only watched on TV), but it scratches the same part of my brain that lights up when fiction sets nerds loose on the mystical to make it feel real.

As with much of qntm’s work, things get weird. Settings shift suddenly. Concepts drop in without warning. Some of the worldbuilding is dense enough that I’m still not sure I understand it. I’m undecided if that’s a feature or a bug.

It’s entertaining, ambitious, and fun. While Ra didn’t break my brain open quite how Antimemetics did, it still forced me to consider some previously unimaginable possibilities. It’s a good read.