Book Review: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Originally published at Grasping for the Wind. Please leave any comments there.
Genre: Cyberpunk, Hard SF
Hardcover: 336 pages
Publisher: Tor Books; First Edition edition
Publication Date: May 10, 2011
ISBN-10: 0765329492
ISBN-13: 978-0765329493
Author Website: Hannu Rajaniemi
Post-Earth cyberpunk finds a new voice in Hannu Rajaniemi’s debut novel The Quantum Thief. Rajaniemi, a Ph. D. in quantum physics, think tank director and second language English writer, details a complex story that gets off to a rocky start but pays off big in the end.
Jean le Flambeur is the greatest thief of all time. Yet even great thieves get caught occasionally, and as the novel opens, le Flambeur is caught in a quantum Dilemma Prison. Forced to kill the other prisoners and war machines with archaic projectile guns or die and be resurrected, le Flambeur is not even sure if he actually is himself, or merely a construct. Then le Flambeur is rescued by the beautiful post-human Mieli, a member of some vague group from the far reaches of the solar system. Mieli has a job for le Flambeur, but before he can work for her, he first has to regain the memory of who he was on the Reconstruction-era Mars. Upon the vast moving city that serves as the planet’s capital, le Flambeur must rediscover his identity on a planet where time is currency, privacy is highly valued and easily obtained and the exomemory stores consciousness so that no one ever really dies. Le Flambeur and Mieli are thrust into a political quagmire which only a celebrated thief could escape.
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