One of the many things that makes me love epic fantasy is being invited to learn and decipher a new world. I haven't read much science fiction, and apparently I've picked a hard scifi book to be one of my first. Between google and the practiced patience of an epic fantasy reader, I thought I had a handle on things. Also, this story has the charming affectations of a thief and detective story - again, familiar landscape. But at the end, I think I need to reread this in order to understand the full implications of that climax. I don't know this world enough to understand how it changed, exactly. But I enjoy such puzzles, and boy was the story fun.

Vividly imagined, charming characters and an utterly fascinating world.

Here it is, my 100th book of the year. Just in time for New Year's eve. This was definitely an ambitious book, but one that fell short. Rajaniemi should take lessons from Gibson and Vinge in restraining his experiments and ideas from leaving the reader too far behind. The climactic final act reads like a garbled mess of terms collected on the way. Unlike Gibson's Neuromancer, which held the reader somewhere close to the edge of meaning, but well enough inside to keep you interested, Rajaniemi dives straight off the edge leaving the reader wondering just what the hell he's talking about anyway.

At least it's not as alienating as Finnegan's Wake, but it could've used a little reworking to make it a more comprehensible, since the story did seem fairly interesting. The fact that I read that last 200 pages in a sitting despite my ongoing confusions is testament to its narrative appeal. The blurbs in the book say it was THE scifi debut of 2010. I only found it by browsing the shelves at the bookstore. Ultimately, feels like a debut scifi writer trying too hard to impress. Don't know that I'll want to go on to the Fractal Prince, not without some kind of glossary to help me brush up on all the terms.

"The Quantum Thief" was one of the best debut works of sci fi that i have read in many years. it took me back to when i was a kid reading Robert Heinlein and Frank Herbert...the concepts in this book are so far beyond what i have read in anything else contemporary or classic that it revived the child-like sense of wonder that i enjoy so much. little surprise as Rajaniemi has a PhD in Mathematical Physics...the future world he imagines takes everything we have today and extrapolates it far beyond it's reasonable end to a fantastic world where reality and data are impossible to distinguish. while the science was cool, what is even better is that the fiction was excellent. it is most gratifying to come across a nerd who can turn a great English phrase, even though his native language is Finnish. can't wait to see what Rajaniemi does next...highly recommended for all sci fi lovers, but you will have to be prepared to read through some pretty dense stuff. enjoy!

Original Post: http://thefoundingfields.com/2012/01/the-quantum-thief-bane-of-kings/

On The Founding Fields, I mentioned about The Quantum Thief being one of the novels that I missed in 2011 that I wanted to pick up and read. Well, I did pick up and read it eventually, and found myself enthralled, despite being a bit confused, by Rajaniemi’s first journey into the realm of the published authors.

The Quantum Thief itself stands just over three hundred pages long, so is by no means a long, gruelling read like some other novels that I’ve read recently. What it is though, is a whole lot of fun. The novel introduces us to the super-thief Jean Le Flambeur, who has made a mistake and ended up in the endless, looping reality of the Dilemma Prison. However, a chance of salvation comes from Mieli and her spidership, named Perhonen. She offers the thief a chance to win back his freedom, with one condition. He must find claim back the identity that he once was, and to do this – he must journey to the city of Oubliette, but he’s not going to get there easily. He has the young detective Isidore on his tail, as well as several local law enforcers – so getting back his identity isn’t going to be as easy as it first looked.

No matter how many Sci-Fi novels that you’ve read, I believe you will find yourself confused somewhat towards the beginning of The Quantum Thief. You won’t know what things are, why they’re there, and what they do. However, as the novel goes on, you start to get used to it. You start to sit back, and you start to enjoy it.

This is not just hardcore science fiction, for The Quantum Thief manages to include a heist as well, and I’ve really enjoyed heist fiction across a multitude of genres ever since I watched the classic Italian Job movie as a kid. Since then, I’ve gone onto see and read stuff like Inception, and others of the subgenre that hardly ever fail to disappoint. The Quantum Thief is no different, and whilst there is a whole lot going on in Rajaniemi’s first novel, (yes, this is his first novel), I really enjoyed it once I got used to it. It was a fun read, and one that has managed to make me look forward to more by this author.

The characters themselves are well developed and a joy to behold. Isidore, Mieli, Jean Le Flambeur, even Perhonen, the spider ship, are well created and well thought out. I can tell that Rajaniemi’s certainly put a lot of thought into this novel, and has executed it brilliantly.

Told through a mixture of perspectives, from the first person point of view of Jean Le Flambeur, to the third person point of view of everybody else, The Quantum Thief manages to keep you hooked as soon as you’ve understood what was going on.

That was the only major problem that I had with this dazzling debut. Sure, I really enjoyed it, but I can’t help feel that the author could perhaps have taken the time to explain to the reader more about the universe that The Quantum Thief was set in. I know this would probably slow down the tremendously fast pace, though.

If you’re a fan of science fiction though, despite what I’ve just mentioned, I believe you’ll enjoy this novel. It’s a superbly written tale where the pro’s far outweigh the con’s, and I believe what I just mentioned is the only flaw that I had with Rajaniemi’s creation.

Jean Le Flambeur is the main character in this novel, as one would expect from the blurb. He is an enjoyable character, easy to like and easy to root for. In fact, most of the characters in this novel are likeable, particularly the ones who I like to call, “the big three”, of Jean, Mieli and Isidore.

Fast paced for most of the novel, it will be a joy to read If you just allow yourself to breeze through it, and not stop to wonder what on earth (or elsewhere) is going on, and because of this - I believe that there are going to be two groups of readers in this novel, the ones who really, really loved it - and the ones who were left wondering what the heck was going on. Or, those who are like me - somewhere in between.

The Quantum Thief itself is very hard-core sci-fi, and if you read little science fiction, you’ll be perhaps even more lost in this novel than I was. This is for fans, and those who enjoy the creations of Iain M. Banks, Peter F. Hamilton, Neal Asher, Charles Stross, Alistair Reynolds and company should find this novel as enjoyable as they found those.

Verdict: 4.5/5

Reading a second time definitely helps with the information overload. Rajaniemi machine-guns concepts at you as you struggle to keep your head above water. I wished plenty of times he would just tell instead of show, but it's part of the fun trying to puzzle out exactly what is going on as worlds are exploding left, right and center. The narrative of the thief trying to recover his own memories sort of mirrors this, except even when he finds them, he tends to keep them to himself.

I think I caught a glimpse of the larger struggle, but I'm not sure. I'm just sure I'm interested. Can't wait to finish the trilogy (reading this the first time, prior to books 2 and 3 being complete, was a gigantic mistake) this whole thing needs to be marathoned, else there's just no hope of keeping up. Is anywhere left in this post-Singularity mess a decent place to live? My prediction is no...but that at the very end the thief will make such a place.

Hoping the other books can match the sense of delirious overload, but doubt it can be replicated, especially after fighting for the hard-won knowledge this book does reveal. Loved the Oubliette, sad to leave it - such a cool concept.

A low 4 on the re-read. Probably because I gave it the attention it deserved.

A fun heist book, using a few current technology notions to inform a future world -- it felt a little like Cory Doctorow took speed and wrote Oceans 11. Fun!

There are a lot of sci-fi terms in the beginning, but this novel is well-written overall. The two storylines converge in an interesting way and there are a lot of interesting references (i.e. Russian mathematics).

Also, here’s a useful, spoiler-free glossary. https://www.karangill.com/glossary-quantum-thief-fractal-prince-jean-le-flambeur/

Another stunning debut, almost impossible to describe part space opera, part mystery and with large thanks to cyberpunk and Iain M Banks! looking forward to his next book alread.

4.25 ⭐️

TLDR; not sure what happened, but it fucking rocked.

This book isn't for everyone, but it sure as fuck was for me. The plot was complex, unraveling until the very end and leaving you with many questions. The world building was excellent and evolved throughout the book. I would compare it to Steven Erikson's Malazan series in this respect. You are always left with the bare minimum so you have wonder and awe for what the rest of this world holds, but you know enough to have the foggiest idea of what's going on.
This book does immersion very well, in the sense that you'd have to be a citizen to know exactly what's going on from page 1. It got frustrating to say the least and the back end of the book had references (and some call backs) that were not landing as they probably should have. If you often get frustrated in sci-fi and fantasy books where they make references to the world's history and context, you'll definitely want to skip this one. However, I found it tolerable because everything else about it was so engaging.
Having completed the first book, I'm dying to read the second and re-read the first. I think I'll get a lot out of a second reading.