Entanglement - Quantum and Otherwise

By: John Danenbarger

Narrated by: David de Vries

Length: 11 hrs and 11 mins

Publisher's summary

“Gritty characters solidify an intelligent story and an abstract concept.” (Kirkus Reviews)

They look like the perfect family. But every family has its secrets. Can we ever know the people we love?

Imagine flipping through old family albums. The faces are familiar; their true stories lost to time — half-forgotten family anecdotes woven together by generations of proud aunts and kindly grandmothers conceal more than they reveal.

Entanglement explores the blank spaces in our family trees.

The lives of eight souls intertwine in a sprawling family history. The family story is a legacy of addiction, kidnapping, crime, and murders unresolved and unforgiven.

Enjoy this epic achievement in the experimental tradition of David Mitchell and Ian McEwan, with the darkly exotic undertones of books like Mexican Gothic and The Cutting Season and the magical realism of Gabriel Garcia Marquez.

First Place Fiction — Royal Dragonfly Book Awards

First Place Mystery — Royal Dragonfly Book Awards

First Place Audiobook — Royal Dragonfly Book Awards

Grand Finalist — Eric Hoffer Book Awards

Fiction Honorable Mention — Eric Hoffer Book Awards

Somerset Grand Prize Finalist Contemporary Fiction — Chanticleer International Book Awards

U.S. Review of Books recommended

Five-star Rated by Readers’ Favorite 

©2019 StormBlock Publishing (P)2019 StormBlock Publishing

Great Listen

Entanglement-Quantum and Otherwise is the first book from John Danenbarger, a business blogger who has just started his career in literary crime fiction with this beautifully written adventure through generations.

The story guides the listeners through a quietly gripping exploration of the different generations of one ill-fated family and shows him how a tragic event could change forever the flow of time and life for those yet unborn. Filled with well developed, but truely flawed characters, vivid descriptions and a sense of urgency that will keep you involved until the end, Entanglement-Quantum and Otherwise is entertaining, immersive, atmospheric and quite diferent from other books out there.

The audiobook version of Entanglement-Quantum and Otherwise is performed with talent by David de Vries. He does a fantastic job bringing all the characters to life and infusing the story with his original delivery, but I wouldn't expect anything less from an actor of his calibur. For those not familiar with is work, David de Vries is an Audie and Odyssey Award–winning narrator for his performance in Pam Munõz Ryan’s Echo and has voiced over 100 titles in every genre, so, this story is right up his alley.

The overall audio recording quality is great and the production is enriched by the addition of original short cello interludes that elevate the level of immersion evenhigher.

I really eenjoyed the story, the characters and the narration very much and can recommend this book, but especially the audiobook, to anyone looking for a good mystery drama.

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Intriguing story!

Intriguing story!

Danenbarger pens an intriguing story in Entanglement: Quantum + Otherwise. I was fortunate to also be able to listen and review the associated audiobook. The narration and presentation of the story was great, and easy to listen to. In the story, there were a lot of characters, but they were created with individuality and realistic. The author's writing style matched grandly with the narration, and is interesting and definitely fit this story. Yes, it's a crime story, but it is so much more. This author brings the stories to life. Since I read the story, I was able to keep up with the different characters, as there are a treasure trove of them, but they all belong in the story, and are very, "entangled" with each other. The story brings in the believable, even if almost impossible. I have fast become a big fan of Danenbarger. I look forward to reading and even listening to more by this author. This book is a definite recommendation by Amy's Bookshelf Reviews.

Good performance for interesting mesh of storlines

I have to praise the author for coordinating so many intersecting storylines. The approach to storytelling was rather complex and well-mapped out. The scientific ideas which were teased throughout made for some underlying intrigue, but I felt these ideas never had a chance to be fully fleshed out and never had a payoff.

At times I felt very engaged with the story, but at other times I felt disconnected with it. There were times that the beautiful prose wandered into being overly verbose and needlessly complicated.

The way in which the characters were slowly developed shows a lot of forethought and planning. Ultimately, this may have been the strength of the writer, the way in which the characters are unveiled. However, it was quite difficult to actually identify with the characters. They were written as flawed people, yet it was not easy to like them. Perhaps the biggest sticking point for me in reading this book was that I couldn't form an emotional attachment to the characters. I didn't really care about them so when something significant was unveiled about them, the emotional impact was not there. It seemed that most of them were humorless and sad, but some of the messages throughout the book did seem to convey this idea as a whole. The most colorfully written character/part of the story involved a small side character (a distant cousin in a phone conversation).

Overall, I enjoyed reading this story. I expected it to weigh a bit more heavy on the science side of things. Maybe some deeper elements of the science aspect were at play, but if so, it wasn't clear. Perhaps it was the intention of the writer to leave things feeling a little nihilistic. I think I was hoping for some satisfying resolution or something to be left pondering with regards to the scientific aspects, but maybe my attention drifted and I missed the whole point altogether.

The performance by the narrator was superb. The cello segues were a nice touch.