Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic

By: Nick Carr

Narrated by: William Jackson Harper

Length: 1 hr and 55 mins

Publisher's Summary

Growing up is hard enough without the added pressure of a hiccup in the fabric of space-time.

Wally Roux is a teenage genius with a big imagination and a big heart, who just moved to Savannah, GA, from Maine with his mom, who adopted him when he was an infant. In this charming and sweet solo performance, Wally investigates what is causing a number of strange events and occurrences. He explores and gets lost within space-time—an infinite, indefinable, and mysterious void that you can’t see but when you slice into it you can feel it.

Part science fiction and part coming-of-age story, Wally Roux follows one boy’s journey of self-discovery and self-identity.

Playwright Nick Carr was awarded a commission through the Audible Emerging Playwrights Fund, an initiative dedicated to developing innovative original plays driven by language and voice. As an Audible commissioned playwright, he received funding and creative support to develop Wally Roux, Quantum Mechanic.

Note: Wally Roux contains adult language. 

©2019 Nick Carr (P)2019 AO Media LLC

1) Excellent performance; 2) But why the F-bombs?

The story is interesting — magical realism by way of science fiction in Savannah, Georgia — and William Jackson Harper is maybe the best narrator I’ve heard with any audiobook. It actually sounds more like — and probably should be — a one-man show. He renders the character of Wally completely naturally and believably, but he manages to do the same with the others characters whether major or minor. Seriously: this could be a masterclass In monologues. I’m not generally a prude, particularly in audiobooks — look, I’m a guy in my 50s without kids, so my own language can get colorful in the right (read: wrong) settings. But it really bothered me that this story about a 13- to 15-year-old kid (I was never clear about his age, to be honest, but I think he’s supposed to be 15) had the F-bombs it had without any warning in the description on Audible. I would have still listened to it, but it’s marketed as practically a middle-grade science fiction story — and otherwise could be — but I can imagine a number of parents would like to know if the language is tougher than they want their sixth-or-so grader listening to. But if William Jackson Harper stages this as a one-man show: by all means, take the kids and fu…uh, forget the language considerations!

Good story, great narration, but TOO MUCH NOISE

I'd give the book 4 stars overall and 5 for the narration if it had been produced differently. But the sound effects were annoying and sometimes louder than the narration. The story was good, the narrator was great. There was just way too much noise there, too. It did not enhance the listening experience, but instead distracted from it. Example: I do NOT need to hear the sound of someone chewing with their mouth open in order to envision the scene. I can picture that sound well enough in my head already, thank you.

Extreme mind mending quantum coming of age book

Warning PG17 for explicit language, underage drinking, and mature situations What a wonderful coming of age story. Love it! I normally hate drama type books. but I'm a sucker for potential quantum explanations. The book lightly danced over quantum mechanics itself and discussed some of the more profound questions that get presented when approaching quantum theory. Plus finally a book that addresses being smart black kid who still is black in a not so black friendly society. Acting was brilliant. Characters were realistic. Storyline was so believable that I hated for it to end. BRAVO!

Not for kids!

I was hoping my 10-year-old son could enjoy this, but it has a ton of bad language. Other than that, cute story line. Good performance. I do wish all the language was clean.

I almost peed my pants!

First of all, I suggest you don't listen to this as you try to fall asleep, like I did. Especially if you use a CPAP machine because you'll end up either suffocating as you laugh into your mask, or peeing yourself because you're laughing so hard and you can't get the mask off in time to make it to the bathroom. At the very least you'll just end up staying awake to listen to the entire thing. The writing was smart and refreshing, and they literally couldn't have found a narrator better matched in tone and personality. Though, being a fan of The Good Place, it was sometimes hard to separate Harper's voice from that of Chidi Anagonye. Even still (or maybe because of) it was a five star performance all around. There were a few inconsistencies, at first he was 15, then later he was 13, or maybe I just missed a defining moment. And another reviewer mentioned that the language was too mature for a character Wally's age, but I've been around my fair share of teens and nowadays, it is definitely within the norm for a lot of them to speak that way. Overall, it felt true to life (beyond the tears in space and time), especially his responses to some of the assumptions his mother makes. They're relationship was probably my favorite, and the story she shared about her childhood bully was absolutely hilarious. I'm so glad Audible now offers the two free originals each month. It gives me an opportunity to take a chance on listens I might otherwise never give a shot.

So disappointing.....there isn’t more!

Loved this short story and immediately looked for another in the Wally Roux series, Nick Carr, or Stories narrated by William Harper only to find there wasn’t any and only a few books none of which are sci-fi. Hope to see more in the future.

Coming of age as a super genius (and black)

Wally is 13 years old and having a rough time after moving to the South with his single white mother. There he deals with racism, bullies, falling in love for the first time, oh, and stopping the laws of physics from destroying the world. You see, Wally is a bone fide super genius with a natural talent for fixing anything... thanks including the fabric of time and space on the quantum level. The race thing, is always there, but not always front and center. The story does not preach at you on that topic... there plenty of other stories to do that. This story transcends petty bigotry. Instead the message here is to be yourself, an individual, regardless of the idiots around you trying to make you be like them. The story speaks to all of us and particularly to all teens going through discovering who they are and who they want to become. Well done and recommended.

Don’t Listen to the Prudes

I’m seeing a lot of people write about how there was too much swearing—please ignore them. The few f—bombs that were dropped did not detract in any way from the story. The kid talked like my friends and I did growing up. Made the whole thing extremely believable despite the obviously sci-fi premise. Additionally, Harper’s voice and speech mannerisms made this worth listening to alone. I mean discounting the amazing story, he really brought it home. I recognized it immediately because I watch “The Good Place”. One of the best audiobooks you could listen to.

Almost perfect

It’s a great story and the narration is terrific. I just wish there was less swearing. It would otherwise be a great story to share with my teenage kids.

Laughed, laughed some more, thought really hard, and felt my heart swell

I loved the narration to this story. He had great comedic timing and inflection keeping you on the edge of your seat excited for the next sentence and laughing out loud. The writing was wonderful, and though there were moments of science, it wasn’t anything too heady. I would love to hear more stories about Wally Roux!