Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist, and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits... read full description
reviews
Jan 28, 2012
Dan
rated it: 
After being busted out of the Dilemma Prison by an Oortian warrior named Mieli, legendary master thief Jean Le Flambeur is taken to the Oubliette, one of the Moving Cities of Mars, and is tasked with the ultimate heist. Opposing him is a brilliant young detective named Isidore Beautrelet. But there is more to each man's quest than meets the eye...
My summary doesn't do the book justice. There are so many ideas crammed in it's slim 331 pages. Before Le Flambeur can even get starte More...
My summary doesn't do the book justice. There are so many ideas crammed in it's slim 331 pages. Before Le Flambeur can even get starte More...
26 comments
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Oct 07, 2011
Joel
rated it: 
There are authors who don't cotton to hand-holding, and then there are authors who drop you off in the middle of Times Square on New Year's Eve, distract you with a party favor, and then run the other way as fast as they can. Maybe you'll eventually find your way in the throng, even if you are tear-streaked and sniffling by the time you do (did I mention you are 5?). Maybe at the end of it you've learned something (most likely that there are a bunch of people in Times Square who desperately want
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11 comments
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(32 people liked it)
Aug 23, 2011
Stephanie
rated it: 
The Quantum Thief, the debut novel from Finnish speculative fiction author (and uber-smart string theory expert) Hannu Rajaniemi, has been the source of much gossip and speculation since selling on the strength of its first chapter for a number involving plenty of zeroes. It's a novel I've been eagerly anticipating, so I was rather delighted when the lovely team at Gollancz Australia sent me a copy for review. Needless to say, having spent the past day trying to get my tiny humanities-oriented b
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(5 people liked it)
Jun 07, 2011
Kathleen
rated it: 
I originally included the plot summary from Amazon in this review, but you know what? You can click up there and read it for yourself if you want, right? So let's shorten this up a bit.
I quite enjoyed this book; however, I can see that it would be annoying to someone who is not into hard sci-fi. The reader is dumped into confusing action and unfamiliar vocabulary and jargon without pause for explanation. About a third of the way in, the reader is handed some background, so if they ha More...
I quite enjoyed this book; however, I can see that it would be annoying to someone who is not into hard sci-fi. The reader is dumped into confusing action and unfamiliar vocabulary and jargon without pause for explanation. About a third of the way in, the reader is handed some background, so if they ha More...
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(4 people liked it)
Oct 17, 2011
Alex
rated it:
Every now and again, when you finish reading a book, you want to turn back to page one and start all over again. This can happen for a number of reasons; sheer enjoyment, a lack of comprehension, a guilty feeling that you have read something good too quickly. All of these reasons contributed to my desire to turn back to the beginning when I finished this fantastic book earlier today.
The first novel of a Finnish mathematician, this Sci-fi novel - one of my favourite and oft-derided genres - is un More...
The first novel of a Finnish mathematician, this Sci-fi novel - one of my favourite and oft-derided genres - is un More...
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(2 people liked it)
Aug 06, 2011
An intriguing debut novel. Hannu Rajaniemi is an amazingly creative author, who has invented 3 or 4 different societies and an entire new vocabulary as backdrops. There's enough material in here for a series of 5-6 books, rather than just one 300-page story. Individual threads of the book are fascinating, but it gets hard to put the whole story together, partly because the text keeps jumping from first- to third-person from one paragraph to the next, and also because the motivations of the main
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Feb 17, 2012
Tanmay
rated it:
Sometimes in the matter of a sentence or two, a book can achieve a moment of pure beauty, which can elevate it to something beyond just a heist novel, Hard SF or any other conservative branding. Example:
I take her hand. She embraces me. She beats her wings and we rise up, through the glass sky, away from guns, memories and kings.
Similar sentences and passages of great beauty and wonder pepper this the narrative of this debut novel-which would be a great debut novel, if the people th More...
I take her hand. She embraces me. She beats her wings and we rise up, through the glass sky, away from guns, memories and kings.
Similar sentences and passages of great beauty and wonder pepper this the narrative of this debut novel-which would be a great debut novel, if the people th More...
Jan 18, 2012
Josh
rated it:
This one is just about perfect. An excellent combination of questions about objective reality and questions about what it means to be human (objective humanity, as it were).
This compares best to Charles Stross's Accelerando, but is better written and overall a better read. (As a side note, this is one of the very few hard sci-fi books where I prefer the American cover to the British one.)
The inner portions of the solar system, inside the orbit of Mars, are controlled b More...
This compares best to Charles Stross's Accelerando, but is better written and overall a better read. (As a side note, this is one of the very few hard sci-fi books where I prefer the American cover to the British one.)
The inner portions of the solar system, inside the orbit of Mars, are controlled b More...
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Dec 11, 2011
Tony
rated it:
Although I would consider myself a fan of science fiction films and fiction, I only read a handful of science fiction novels a year. Around five or so, and those I've liked best in recent years are by writers like Ian MacDonald, Richard Morgan, and Connie Willis. I was drawn to this one partly due to the effusive critical reception it seemed to be getting, and partly because the plot summary invoked a kind of swashbuckling rogue at the center of the plot, and I love rogues as protagonists (think
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(1 person liked it)
Nov 27, 2011
Adam
rated it:
OK. For those of you paying attention at home, this is something like my 8th book review today. That's what happens when you go on vacation and read a bunch of books and delay until the holiday weekend to review them all, so here goes.
I liked this book, I even really liked this book, at least enough to get over the hump from 3 to 4 stars. I really wish this book had been better.
This book has a great setting, and interesting plot, and reasonably well developed characters. Thi More...
I liked this book, I even really liked this book, at least enough to get over the hump from 3 to 4 stars. I really wish this book had been better.
This book has a great setting, and interesting plot, and reasonably well developed characters. Thi More...
Oct 27, 2011
Cassandra
rated it:
I am putting this under the fantasy heading since I don't read enough science fiction to have a shelf for it, but guys keep in mind this is 100% Sci-fi. I don't know if it's fair to rate something solely on it not being your "cup of tea" per say but it certainly was not something that I really related to. I liked the science in it. I liked a lot of his futuristic ideas. I didn't like the brashness of so many of the characters, there was no lightness to it. I also had a hard time connec
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Oct 05, 2011
Andreas
rated it:
Hannu Rajaniemi's 'Quantum Thief' is a fantastic read. It combines futuristic technology and societies with a dystopian world to create a thrilling science fiction novel, in which Hannu Rajaniemi proves his visionary and creative abilities.
In a distant future on Mars, where time is most precious and minds are in jeopardy to be stolen, a thief and a detective follow their own agenda, unknowing that their fates will soon be tied closely together. The amazing thing about 'Quantum Thief' More...
In a distant future on Mars, where time is most precious and minds are in jeopardy to be stolen, a thief and a detective follow their own agenda, unknowing that their fates will soon be tied closely together. The amazing thing about 'Quantum Thief' More...
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(1 person liked it)
Sep 18, 2011
Jeremy
rated it:
This was a book I thought I wasn't going to like. After some grim perseverance, I ended up making it to the end intrigued. Rajaniemi, a Finnish PhD in string theory who runs a British mathematics think tank, presents a playful romp through a bizarre future that includes the godlike descendants of pasty geek MMORPG players; alien machine fascists; and the rebellious inhabitants of Mars on an 18th century European revival holiday. The protagonist is the best interstellar thief in the galaxy, who b
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Sep 12, 2011
Sheri
rated it:
When I first started reading this book, I initially thought it might be the book that an upcoming movie is based on. But the further I read, the more I concluded that the connection was merely coincidental. The quantum thief of the title is apparently the best thief in the known universe, and at the outset of the story, he's liberated from prison (quite a prison it is, too) by forces who want him to steal something special. The author has some brilliantly creative ideas about the futuristic u
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Jul 06, 2011
James
rated it:
The resurgence of science fiction on my reading shelf has been enlightening. The days of robots, green-tentacled aliens, cyborgs, and the matrix have been supplanted by stories like this where the fabric of reality is woven with technology and man's intention to filter it, manipulate his interactions with it, and in general pretty much master it. Science fiction has entered a wonderfully new and heady age. This reminded me of David Louis Edelman's Jump 225 trilogy.
The writing is sha More...
The writing is sha More...
Jun 17, 2011
Althea
rated it:
I expected to like this more than I did. Maybe it's that I'm not familiar enough with quantum theory to really appreciate aspects of it. I felt somewhat the same way regarding Catherine Asaro's "The Quantum Rose" - the plot is supposed to illustrate the behavior of quantum particles, but to me it just seemed like a fantasy novel.
Still, I don't think my issues with the book really had to do with the math. I found the continual present tense it's written in distancing.
It's al More...
Still, I don't think my issues with the book really had to do with the math. I found the continual present tense it's written in distancing.
It's al More...
Jun 06, 2011
Nathan
rated it:
Doctorow takes modern memes (Maker culture, 3d printers, gold farming in online games, online privacy) and turns them into books set near the modern time. Stross's books take modern memes and sets them in normal-like worlds. Rajaniemi takes modern themes (Prisoner's Dilemma, privacy controls, simulations, gamification) and sets them in a glittery future Mars with quantum dots everywhere and shadowy non-Earth species in the background. It's glorious.
I sometimes wonder how normal peop More...
I sometimes wonder how normal peop More...
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May 29, 2011
Lightreads
rated it:
I really think that selling on the strength of only a few thousand words for a rumored exorbitant amount of money is one of the worst things that can happen to a debut novel. Because let’s be honest here: nothing is that good.
Including this, a trippy and imaginative post human romp about a thief who can (and does) literally steal a moment of someone’s life away, and the detective chasing him. There is a lot of good stuff here, but it takes a while to come into play. Because seriously More...
Including this, a trippy and imaginative post human romp about a thief who can (and does) literally steal a moment of someone’s life away, and the detective chasing him. There is a lot of good stuff here, but it takes a while to come into play. Because seriously More...
May 29, 2011
Jon
rated it:
The Quantum Thief is PostHuman / post Singularity fiction, which is prone to being a little too abstract. Other books in the same genre handle the craziness a little bit better, titles like Glasshouse or Altered Carbon present a future where consciousnesses bounce between virtual spaces and reality gradually, warming the reader up to new vocabulary and concepts. The Quantum Thief just sort of dumps you into the thick of it.
Right from the beginning you are presented gogol's being sol More...
Right from the beginning you are presented gogol's being sol More...
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May 17, 2011
Lucy
rated it:
I probably wouldn't have picked up The Quantum Thief if I hadn't been given a copy. I'm glad I did read it. I love sci fi but tend to struggle with 'hard' sf novels where science is presented in technical terms without explanation or support for us poor non-scientists. From reading the blurb I would have thought QF was another such book. Instead, once I tentatively cracked the first pages open, I found science gleefully tossed together with a classic heist, Mars, a city so complex at times I cou
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(1 person liked it)
May 09, 2011
Amanda
rated it:
This Review original appeared here: "No Prison, Except in Your Mind: A Review of The Quantum Thief"
In the opening of The Quantum Thief, Jean Le Flambeur, the most notorious thief in the Heterarchy, is stuck in the Dilemma Prison where he is forced to kill twisted copies of himself everyday before they can kill him. Countless times, he is killed and brought back to life, always fearing that the next time will be the last time he wakes up. So when the mysterious woman Mieli, More...
In the opening of The Quantum Thief, Jean Le Flambeur, the most notorious thief in the Heterarchy, is stuck in the Dilemma Prison where he is forced to kill twisted copies of himself everyday before they can kill him. Countless times, he is killed and brought back to life, always fearing that the next time will be the last time he wakes up. So when the mysterious woman Mieli, More...
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Apr 05, 2011
Jacob
rated it:
(Repost from http://drying-ink.blogspot.com/2011/04/r... )
I haven't reviewed any SF for a while, but The Quantum Thief is a novel you're compelled to talk about. It's a rarity in SF: an essentially character-driven hard SF novel. Set in a future solar system, The Quantum Thief is driven by a few protagonists, but first among these is the titular thief: Jean le Flambeur, imprisoned in the Dilemma Prison, a vast game run by the Archons, in which Jean and his fellow prisoners must compete with More...
I haven't reviewed any SF for a while, but The Quantum Thief is a novel you're compelled to talk about. It's a rarity in SF: an essentially character-driven hard SF novel. Set in a future solar system, The Quantum Thief is driven by a few protagonists, but first among these is the titular thief: Jean le Flambeur, imprisoned in the Dilemma Prison, a vast game run by the Archons, in which Jean and his fellow prisoners must compete with More...
Nov 04, 2010
Justus
rated it:
I found the beginning offputting -- felt like too much gratuitous high-techese. Of course, if you're trying to craft an immersive, realistic future how does one get around it? Hard to say. Guess that's what makes the truly brilliant novel stand out.
Once they get to Mars things settle down a bit and I found myself liking it quite a bit more. Unfortunately, the central hook is that hoary old trope -- lost memory. Fucking amnesia? In my high concept science fiction? I don't care how much More...
Once they get to Mars things settle down a bit and I found myself liking it quite a bit more. Unfortunately, the central hook is that hoary old trope -- lost memory. Fucking amnesia? In my high concept science fiction? I don't care how much More...
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Aug 28, 2010
Marcus
rated it:
Before going away on holiday, I told myself that I wasn't only going to read Gollancz books. I made sure that I selected a couple of non-SF works, but a couple of days before leaving I went to see Gollancz and left laden down with new titles. So, after a bit of fantasy action with Pierre Pevel, I decided to try a bit of high-concept sci-fi, and this seemed to fit the bill. Another of Gollancz's debut novelists (although most of them seem to be fantasy, there have been a fair few SF titles as wel
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Jun 06, 2011
Caleb
rated it:
Ow, my brain.
This is an excellent (and properly mind-bending) debut novel, although not one without its problems. Here we have the Oubliette, a privacy paradise on Mars*, as the central character; everything else in the novel is secondary to the sheer surreality of its technology and society. The novel deploys its phantasmagoric quantum-tech gewgaws rapid-fire and spends nearly half the book laying out the landscape.
The fact that it takes so long to effectively start the plot More...
This is an excellent (and properly mind-bending) debut novel, although not one without its problems. Here we have the Oubliette, a privacy paradise on Mars*, as the central character; everything else in the novel is secondary to the sheer surreality of its technology and society. The novel deploys its phantasmagoric quantum-tech gewgaws rapid-fire and spends nearly half the book laying out the landscape.
The fact that it takes so long to effectively start the plot More...
Mar 30, 2011
Mike
rated it:
The Quantum Thief opens with the thief Jean le Flambeur trapped inside a prison, his personality fractured into its component parts and forced to endlessly take part in a game of Prisoner’s Dilemma. It isn’t long before he released by a beautiful woman. Of course that freedom comes at a price. He has a job to do but in order to do it he needs to recover the memories he stashed on Mars. What follows is a twisting tale that offers a strong foundation of classic thriller/mystery fare wrapped in the
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Jun 21, 2011
Efseine
rated it:
Wow. I am not smart enough for this book - well, better to say that I am not scientific-minded enough for this book.
This is hard SF at its hardest, with worldbuilding deeply rooted in scientific facts and theories. And what fascinating worldbuilding it is; each concept could power an entire book of its own. What I appreciate most about the whole thing is how Rajaniemi deftly introduces us to the universe he's crafted, setting out ideas and expecting us to figure them out from context More...
This is hard SF at its hardest, with worldbuilding deeply rooted in scientific facts and theories. And what fascinating worldbuilding it is; each concept could power an entire book of its own. What I appreciate most about the whole thing is how Rajaniemi deftly introduces us to the universe he's crafted, setting out ideas and expecting us to figure them out from context More...
Sep 28, 2011
zxvasdf
rated it:
I honestly don't see what is mind-blowing about this book. For any seasoned weird SF reader out there, this is regular fare... but what Rajaniemi has done differently is turn quantum science into an identity crisis.
This book holds nothing back and plunges you into A city walks across the red plains of mars, tended to by the Quiet. It is the Oubilette. Its currency is Time, and once your time runs out you become Quiet, one of the myriad mechanical forms that upkeep the Oubilette. Priva More...
This book holds nothing back and plunges you into A city walks across the red plains of mars, tended to by the Quiet. It is the Oubilette. Its currency is Time, and once your time runs out you become Quiet, one of the myriad mechanical forms that upkeep the Oubilette. Priva More...
Apr 15, 2011
Will
rated it:
First off I should say that I really enjoyed this book, when I had to fight myself away from reading it at times just to take care of other things I needed to, I do not know of a high compliment one could provide to a book.
While the story is engrossing and the characters have life to them, there is a negative side to the book. It proves to be a confusing read early on. You are dropped into a new universe with little explanation of anything at first, and only discover things at a lat More...
While the story is engrossing and the characters have life to them, there is a negative side to the book. It proves to be a confusing read early on. You are dropped into a new universe with little explanation of anything at first, and only discover things at a lat More...
Mar 19, 2011
Paul
rated it:
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
"Time is what we make of it; relative, absolute, finite, infinite. I choose to let this moment last forever so that when I toil to clean your sewers and protect you from phoboi and carry your city on my back - I can remember what it is like to have such friends."
--Christian Unruh at his carpe diem party.
Hannu Rajaniemi and his debut novel The Quantum Thief are something I've heard about for a while, mainly through the agency of the More...
"Time is what we make of it; relative, absolute, finite, infinite. I choose to let this moment last forever so that when I toil to clean your sewers and protect you from phoboi and carry your city on my back - I can remember what it is like to have such friends."
--Christian Unruh at his carpe diem party.
Hannu Rajaniemi and his debut novel The Quantum Thief are something I've heard about for a while, mainly through the agency of the More...
