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The Quantum Thief
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
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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.
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As royal assassin for the Faerie Queen, Claire is used to moving between the mortal world and the Winter Kingdom. When the queen commands her to kill, Claire does the job and doesn't ask questions. Her deadly skills and loyalty are soon tested when Claire is sent to the Immortal Circus. It is one of the many places where Dream is harvested from the imaginings of mortals, and someone is causing it to mysteriously disappear.
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Loved it so much
- By Dandelioness on 11-08-18
By: A. R. Kahler
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Soon I Will Be Invincible
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Doctor Impossible, evil genius and diabolical scientist, has tried to take over the world in every way imaginable, but this time is going to be different. He'll have to contend with Fatale, however, a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. She's a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built for the next generation of warfare.
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Now that I have you at my mercy. . .
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By: Austin Grossman
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The Ninth Rain
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Jen Williams, acclaimed author of The Copper Cat trilogy, featuring The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide, returns with the first in a blistering new trilogy. The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces - talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine.
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Couldn’t put it down!
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Firstborn
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Jake Ramsey - an unassuming yet talented archaeologist - has been given the chance of a lifetime. Hired to investigate a recently unearthed Xel'Naga temple, he knows this latest assignment will open up whole new possibilities for his career. Yet when Jake discovers the remains of a long-dead protoss mystic, his hopes and dreams are irrevocably drowned in a flood of alien memories. Bonded to the spirit of the dead protoss, Jake has become the sole inheritor of the protoss' total history - every event, every thought - every feeling.
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Christie Golden doesn't have a wide enough range
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By: Christie Golden
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The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
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Something Different
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Ink and Bone
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Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly - but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market.
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don't give up too soon.
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The Alchemy of Stone
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Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets - secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. This doesn't sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart - literally.
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Steam Punk with a fizzle
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How Long 'Til Black Future Month?
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N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.
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Great! One quibble with the audiobook editing
- By L on 03-05-19
By: N. K. Jemisin
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Angelmaker
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Joe Spork repairs clocks, a far cry from his late father, a flashy London gangster. But when Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. Joe's client, Edie Banister, is more than just a kindly old lady - she's a former superspy. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis.
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A cure for the modern cynic
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Three Parts Dead
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A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, a first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethras, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring him back to life before his city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without him, the metropolis’ steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in.
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Great story, but the narrator was off
- By John on 07-27-14
By: Max Gladstone
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What listeners say about The Quantum Thief
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Anonymous User
- 02-03-20
What a ride!
I struggled with the beginning chapters; then it started to make sense, then I struggled once more.
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- Andrew
- 01-23-13
Narrator did a Wonderful Job
Would you consider the audio edition of The Quantum Thief to be better than the print version?
Yes, Scott Brick did a magnificent job. His voice and presentation fit perfectly with this world. It sounded as if Dr. Manhattan was reading it, his voice was just what I would expect from this world of the Oubliette.
What other book might you compare The Quantum Thief to and why?
This book has some similarities to the Commonwealth Saga (Pandora's Star is the first, by Peter F. Hamilton). In that it has very high technology, post-human scheming using thoughts and abilities beyond 'normal' humans.
What about Scott Brick’s performance did you like?
The way he read made it sound like Jean Le Flambeur was actually talking to me.
Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
I never laughed or cried, but it did make me pause the audiobook at times to reflect on what had just been said, and attempt to decipher the small clues thrown in.
Any additional comments?
Can't speak higher on Scott Brick's performance, get the book to hear his narration!
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6 people found this helpful
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- JTF
- 03-26-15
A fantastic, if challenging, listen
In this series, we have The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince, and The Causal Angel. There is so much to love in Hannu Rajaniemi’s books. It is almost an embarrassment of riches. It would’ve been enough if he could tell a good tale, and he does. It would be enough if he had rich, vibrant, palpable detail in his books and he does. It would be geeky cool if he could toss off some references to quantum theory and, oh, does he. It would be coolly retro if he could loosely base a character on a 19th century French gentleman thief (Maurice Leblanc’s Arsène Lupin), and he does. It would be amazing if he could have a spaceship that has more personality than its captain, and he does. The truly stunning accomplishment of this series is that he melds all of this together as a seamless whole that makes sense. I could thoroughly enjoy the descriptions of Game Theory puzzles without ever knowing anything about Game Theory, Hawking drives without knowing anything about blackhole event horizons, and gentlemen thieves without ever having read M. LeBlanc. Knowledge of those things certainly adds layers of enrichment, but it is not essential to enjoying the story. I fear that a number of people might be intimidated by Hannu Rajaniemi’s series due to the sheer volume and esoteric nature of Mr. Rajaniemi’s references. You really do have everything here, whether it’s a an aside to Sherlockian quote or references to particle physics, string theory, game theory, quantum mechanics and logic puzzles. It is a geek’s paradise, but not reserved strictly for geeks. In other words, you do not need to get every reference to enjoy this book. Does it add some to the experience? Absolutely. May the book be thoroughly enjoyed without it? By all means.
As I indicated above, I listened to the audiobook. Because it’s dense material, I don’t recommend that be your only way of taking in the content, despite it being an excellent recording. Scott Brick does his usual fabulous job narrating. Mr. Brick is up there in the pantheon of favorite narrators and hits all the right notes on this one. His pacing, emphasis, and enunciation are nearly flawless, which is a particularly challenging feat since it’s loaded with technical material and new terms. The good news is that he also narrates The Fractal Prince. The bad (and, quite frankly, puzzling) news is that he does not narrate A Causal Angel.
For full review: wp.me/p2XCwQ-16A
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- Kamala
- 06-15-15
It's heavy-handed, but has its merits.
The worldbuilding was quite good, but the way it was presented made it seem like the author was trying too hard to make the setting different from ours. The scarcity of non-humanoid aliens is kind of strange because of this. There was some queer representation, which is nice, and some diversity, though not as much as I would have liked. The abundance of French in names and whatnot added to the "trying too hard" feel of it. The hero is a major Mary Sue of the rugged variety, but I liked the heroine a lot. You have to infer nearly all aspects of the world through context, which leads to a lot of confusion, but becomes interesting once you've figured out what everything is and what's going on. The plot is complex, but interesting.
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- jacob
- 10-24-17
an elequant acid trip into the depths of adventure
easily one of the most provocative pieces if SF I have read in a great while. truly expansive is the world spun up in this tech-heavy universe. it reads like poetry, leaving the impression of a delicate toiling, a beautifully resolved surface.
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- Satisfied Customer
- 11-23-17
Very solid
Stumbled on this very solid a little wet behind the ears but shows all the signs of an author worth reading!
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- Kindle Customer
- 07-17-23
Needs two listens I think
I lot of new concepts/words and factions with strange names and I was only able to partially understand it on the first listen. But I conclude from my first listen that a second listen is worthwhile.
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- TQ White II
- 09-16-14
B-O-R-I-N-G
If I had a book group, I suspect we could pull a lot out of this book. I did Torah study for many years and, given time and intelligent friends, you can have a lot of good thoughts based on obscure prose. But, as with the Torah, it's not very much fun to simply read.
If you are not going to study this book, read, re-read and think long and hard about the themes, characters, etc (hint, the color blue definitely means something; I don't know what, but it's mentioned very significantly), then don't bother.
That said, inch by endless inch, it's a pretty cool book. I'm pretty sure that he has fabricated a really interesting world. It's just that it's too hard to figure out.
And too long. And completely unsatisfying. GAK!!
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8 people found this helpful
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- randy
- 05-27-15
quantum comics
I listened to this book on the hope that technical inventiveness and well plotted intrigue would overcome the plot entanglements warned against by previous reviewers. Fortunately the initially annoying entanglements became palatable, and intrigue eventually creeped in. The level of quantum inventiveness, though driven by a consistent view of quantum computing, was narrowly focussed, and far less inventive and entertaining than say Lian Banks in the Culture Series. But more damning, the characters were juvenile, shallow, and unconvincing, their emotions as boring and simple and as their schemes were supernaturally complex. In the end, the characters seemed straight from a Saturday morning kids cartoon. Maybe the author is a real scientist with a level 3 case of Aspergers.
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- Tyler Harper
- 08-30-17
amazing story.
wow this book wad interesting. a little hard to fallow but what a great story and the characters were awesome.
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