Planesrunner

Planesrunner by Ian McDonald combines my two favorite science-fiction elements:  quantum physics and steampunk. 
       Everett Singh is a decently happy kid.  His mother and his father are divorced, and even his father often has his head in the world of quantum physics while his mother spends most of her time with Victoria Rose, Everett's little sister, Everett has plenty of friends owing to his superior skill as a goalie and a gamer.  But his life is shattered into a million pieces when his father is kidnapped . . . and the police try to cover the whole thing up. 
        After receiving a map of all the alternate realities in every universe, Everett has definite proof that things really are fishy.  He meets up with the people who control the gates that lead to the other universes, the Planitplatories, and, against their wishes, jumps into and earth that hasn't left the steam age yet.  With the captain and crew of the Everness, a flying steamship of sorts, Everett must race against time to reunite his family, save his new friends aboard the Everness, and escape from the members of the Planeplatory who want him gone. 

For starters:  Excuse me if I spelled anything wrong.  I don't have the book in front of me while I'm typing this, and I don't really know how to spell Planitplatories. 
        Now, I don't believe I've mentioned this, but steam punk is my favorite genre.  It involves Victorian-era clothing and flying steamships.  In this book it also includes a United States that has been divided into three parts:  Amexica, The Confederate States, and the United States, a race of people who are widely discriminated against, the Airish, the people who fly the ships, and a lot of age-old customs and traditions. 
      Quantum physics is the next best thing, because I love to imagine all the possibilities and 'could've happens' that could be represented in an alternate universe. I try not to, though, because it would drive me mad. 
      The characters in this book don't meet any of their alternate selves, and for the better, because that would've complicated the plot line a bit more than it needed to be complicated.  It is funny, though, when Everett brings out the different types of technologies he's brought from this world, an iPad, a bluetooth system, and shows them to his new friends who don't really know what to make of them.  I also love the mix of old and new:  the people on E3 have elevated trains and flying ships, but they've never heard of a telephone. 
       I do love the characters in this book as well.  Sen, the captain's daughter, is a bit of a devil, but you love her all the same.  Everett is passionate about his heritage and his family but he, like any other kid of his age, is exhilarated to find himself in a place where no one from his world has ever gone before.  Captain Anastasia seems hard and cold at first, but as the story progresses you come to see that she might just be a woman who loves what she's doing, but who might be trying to balance too much at once. 
        This book was written in England, so there are some terms and punctuation differences that I really had to think over.  It a part of a planned trilogy, but it was published in the states in 2011, and I haven't been able to find any other of the books yet, so I don't think they've been published.  But they better be . . . the ending was a real cliff-hanger.  :)