The Quantum Thief

By: Hannu Rajaniemi

Narrated by: Scott Brick

Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins

Publisher's summary

The Quantum Thief is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Science Fiction & Fantasy title. One of Library Journal's Best SF/Fantasy Books of 2011.

Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist, and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of Mars. Now he’s confined inside the Dilemma Prison, where every day he has to get up and kill himself before his other self can kill him. Rescued by the mysterious Mieli and her flirtatious spacecraft, Jean is taken to the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, where time is currency, memories are treasures, and a moon-turned-singularity lights the night.

What Mieli offers is the chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed. As Jean undertakes a series of capers on behalf of Mieli and her mysterious masters, elsewhere in the Oubliette, investigator Isidore Beautrelet is called in to investigate the murder of a chocolatier, and finds himself on the trail of an arch-criminal, a man named le Flambeur....

The Quantum Thief is a crazy joyride through the solar system several centuries hence, a world of marching cities, ubiquitous public-key encryption, people communicating by sharing memories, and a race of hyper-advanced humans who originated as MMORPG guild members. But for all its wonders, it is also a story powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge, and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

©2010 Hanni Rajaniemi (P)2011 Macmillan Audio

Critic reviews

"He's spectacularly delivered on the promise that this is likely the more important debut SF novel we'll see this year." ( LOCUS)

No context

The characters were interesting and most of the high science is very intriguing, but all narrative elements are completely without context. Several outside forces are mentioned but no information or even brief description is provided. This issue is found in all but the development of the protagonists. Parts of the book made it worth finishing and the voice recording was very good but overall I'm not interested enough to pursue anymore books in this collection

Idea-heavy, requires an attentive listen

The Quantum Thief is a brilliant novel, but I'm only giving it three stars. My rating is slightly unfair, so let me explain.

I generally rate books according to how good I thought they were (inasmuch as "good" can be objectively evaluated), and how much I enjoyed them; these two factors are usually closely related, but not always. The Quantum Thief, as many other reviews make clear, is an idea-dense novel. Right from the first chapter, you get terms flung at you without explanation: oubliette, Gevulot, gogol, Tzaddikim, Sobornost, etc. This is a transhumanist sci-fi novel where people and Artificial Intelligences coexist in a solar system where the human mind has been engineered and colonized as thoroughly as the inner planets. The plot involves all sorts of wheels-within-wheels conspiracies going back to the origins of the post-human societies presented here, and Rajaniemi doesn't do a lot of exposition.

I listened to The Quantum Thief as an audiobook. I usually listen to audiobooks while I am driving or working out. In other words, my mind is not always 100% on the narration, and I can miss a bit here and there. So books where you have to pay attention to every single sentence or you might miss something important really aren't a good choice for me as an audiobook, and The Quantum Thief is such a book. I had to go back and Wikipedia it to figure out half the story I missed.

So there it is — I'd probably have liked it a lot more if I'd read it in print form. But what I did get out of it was brilliant, full of awesome tech and plots. The protagonist, Jean le Flambeur, begins the first chapter in a Dilemma Prison, which is the ultimate application of Game Theory. He's broken out by a beautiful winged warrior named Mieli with a sentient ship named Perhonen. Mieli needs Jean to do a little job for her. She doesn't trust him, with good reason, and the banter and the tension between them kept things interesting throughout the book. Jean le Flambeur, of course, is one of those master criminals with a sense of honor that you just know is going to end up being his undoing, as does he.

The second protagonist is Isidore Beautrelet, who begins the book investigating the murder of a chocolatier. Isidore is one of those obsessive Javert-like detectives who just can't let things go, though he's got his own personal problems.

Everything eventually weaves together in a way that probably made sense to someone who was more focused on the story than I was. There were certainly some awesome moments, though, and the writing is stylish and hip hard SF with a cyberpunk edge. Someday I may try this book again at more leisure and see if I am more captivated. So, 4 stars for being a cool setting and story in a universe that will appeal to fans of Alastair Reynolds or Charles Stross, 3 stars for not giving the lazy reader(listener) any breaks.

top of the list for 2014

What made the experience of listening to The Quantum Thief the most enjoyable?

Loved it!

Flavored like old school Cyber punk, Neat character interaction with romantic tension between the protagonists. I hoped they would hook-up if she doesn't kill him. If he could level with her. ....spoiler cut.... But like all men he blows it and by _______ and other plot points that tie his hands. - but thats looks like it won't happen.

I love the villains and in fact all the minor characters. All the characters are compelling. Even the AI ship conscious the heroin has at her side, the ship is snarky and devoted to the mysterious, beautiful, and scary powerful heroin.

There much more to this series than I can't fit into a brief review. Brilliant writing with just the right of Noir - Mystery fog. On top of juicy the mind bending speculative science that comes fast and rich.

He draws from literary references. Some are fictitious. More cheers for that writing innovation. Fun, creative, well made world that needs to be filled up with a long series like The Culture series by Iain Banks (16 February 1954 – 9 June 2013) Scottish author... God rest his soul. He will be sorrily missed.

I love the new generation of European SI-Fi writers, to name another visionary Alastair Reynolds, of the many.

I say thank to Hannu Rajaniemi
Can't wait for this author to grow.

p.s.
I'll bye the books on sight, as long as he keeps writing novels and doesn't cave into pressure from publishers to write serials, cliff hanger trash. I'm not that worried though, with this author, he's gifted

Too confusing to pay off

The author falls prey to the extreme of show don’t tell. It takes several chapters for there to be enough information for any of the characters’ actions to make sense. On the one hand, that does make it something of a mystery for the reader; you play detective.

However, the climax rests on you caring about three questions, two of which might not occur to you. There are so many gaps in your understanding of the world that it’s impossible to get really invested in the answers to any particular one. As such, the big reveals in the final chapters are more “oh okay” than “oh shit” and the whole thing just peters out.

The ending could have been saved by focusing on the action-y stuff that we’re told is happening, but it all happens off stage. Which makes all of the most flavorful parts of the world more or less inconsequential.

Still, it’s not a bad read. It’s one that’s more fun to occupy than finish.

Thought Provoking but not perfect

Would you listen to The Quantum Thief again? Why?

I probably would not listen to it again. There are so many new concepts, groups and ideas in it that where I to read it again it would be to try to understand what they all are and how they fit together.

What other book might you compare The Quantum Thief to and why?

Probably surprisingly, I'd compare it to Elric of Melibone. This is NOT a "hard "Sci-Fi book. It is fantasy in a future setting. Like Elric, it is deus ex machina in the extreme. Just when it looks grim our protagonist is saved from nowhere. In this book it's by q-dots, quantum foam or whatever instead of in Elric where it's his black blade or some new spell.

Like Elric, it has a lot of good points but you feel as though the author put the characters in situations without a lot of thought of how to get them out again and then has to resort to outside items that go beyond the ability of belief suspension.

Which character – as performed by Scott Brick – was your favorite?

Many of his characters were wonderful. I like the ship the best.

If you were to make a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

The future beyond your imagination.

Any additional comments?

Really well written overall and the kind of book that lingers with you. Some have portrayed it as a "detective" story, but it really isn't. In a detective story you have some hope of figuring out the solution based on the clues. Here lack of context about the society and the technology mean the solution will be something you've never even heard of before so you couldn't possible figure it out.

That said, part of the joy of the book is that the author does seem to have a coherent idea of his universe and by following the characters you unravel it piece by piece.

non-stop semi-hard sf heist novel & plenty of fun

Rajaniemi throws a jumbled world at you and it sticks. Brick has never been one of my true favorites, but his competence and clarity help make a little sense, and his slower pace keep you from falling behind. I still might quibble on the casting, but The Quantum Thief does a lot of things well: non-stop action; semi-hard sf (it's hard sf but without the explanation, if that makes sense; as a security software engineer by day, I found the descriptions quite plausible for future privacy software and avatar interaction); but at its heart this is a heist novel. A strange (almost surreal) wall of new technology permeates the story, and we don't really stop for a breath or explanation. In the audio, character POV jumps are just one step too confusing for comfort without a few more clues -- still, as challenges go, The Quantum Thief is worth stepping up to consider and take on. Either way -- confused or exhilarated -- there's something to get out of this book.

Worst reader ever

The book is pretty good, but this is the worst reader I have ever heard. Why does someone with such a cloying voice get hired to read a book? Painful. If there were negative stars I would give them. Almost unbearable. I will never buy another book read by Scott Brick. Sorry not to say more about the actual story, but it is just impossible to get past the terrible reading.

Better read with eyes

I think this is the kind of book that works best when accompanied by a glossary for the jargon. It's not necessary or even bad but it does require more active listening skills than many other books out there.

Well done. This author/narrator combo is aces.

really enjoyed this plot, some nice elements of steam punk and Victorian without overdressing things. great characters and great double crosses.

Great!

Exciting and well read! One of the readers best performances. I look forward to the next book I get by this author.