Oh, it IS voodoo crap...
But voodoo crap by a fairly good writer...
He is the guy that wrote 'The Martian' and 'Hail Mary' - fun books that at least made an attempt at being 'hard' sci-fi...
(In reality they ended up being somewhat malleable sci-fi, or perhaps gooey sci-fi, but I appreciated the attempt and forgave his more egregious sins because he writes a pretty good story)
