The Quantum Thief [Hardcover]

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi is one of this year's most celebrated debuts - a complex science fiction mystery set on a far-future Mars. Part crime, part espionage, part action thriller and all jam-packed with imaginative technology, The Quantum Thief is a daring and intricately-constructed adventure.

The plot follows, mostly, the thief Jean le Flambeur. Jean is freed from his infinite, game-theory -riddled space prison by Mieli a winged-cyber-ninja. Mieli is on a mission and needs Jean's help. Unfortunately, Jean is only a mere shadow of his former self. Before he can help out Mieli and steal something, he needs to sort himself out. His foxy robo-angel reluctantly in tow, Jean heads to Mars to find fragments of his own memory.

Meanwhile, Mars is a proper SF wonderland, with more shiny baubles than a Christmas tree. Martians (such as they are, being human) live on time - bought, borrowed or earned. When they're out of time, they go Quiet, and are put to work terraforming or doing some other form of manual labour in a temporary monstrous form. The entire Martian society is based on a system of gevulot - shared memories. You don't tell people things as much as politely agree to mutually recall a something they hadn't experienced yet. There's no history, just "exo-memory" that exists outside of individual perspective and recall.

The whole culture is so bizarre that the Sobornost, the super-technical beings that have already taken over pretty much everything, aren't even bothering to conquer Mars. It basically isn't worth the effort of figuring out what they're on about. Not to say that Mars is only for Martians: there's also an exiled colony of "zoku", post-human gamer geeks and the mysterious phoboi, strange emotional critters that skirt the edge of the city, looking for prey.

Into this mess plummet Jean and Mieli. He refuses to do anything in a straightforward way when he could set six nesting plots up to do (almost) the same thing. And she really just doesn't give a flying damn about the entire thing, as long as she gets to punch something occasionally. Mieli is caught between a strange fascination for the hyperactive Jean and a desperate frustration that he takes so long to do anything. Her lover is caught somewhere, and until she finishes her mission, she can't save her.

All of this would be infinitely more interesting if the reader was allowed to care about any of the characters. Instead, the very language of the text prevents any sort of connection from taking place. Constantly I would be brought to the very brink of tension, only to learn that there are flashes in the spimescape or that, god forbid, the q-dots have failed or there's gogol-piracy going on. All of which, to give the author credit, are somehow internally consistent and meticulously planned. Jean is constantly doing something that we're told is criminal genius, but, since I don't understand the how, why or what of it, I have only the author's extensive vocabulary as evidence.

Overall, I can genuinely understand the praise that Mr Rajaniemi has gathered for his impressive debut novel. It is flamboyantly intelligent, wildly intricate and clearly imaginative in ten thousand ways that I will never fully be able to appreciate. I also found it incredibly hard-going - there was neither a clear plot nor an empathetic character to which my reading could be anchored. Instead, every passage was an barrage of scientific vocabulary. Once deciphered, I could appreciate the author's intellect, but that got me no closer to actually enjoying the book.

Posthuman acolyte Mieli springs notorious thief Jean le Flambeur from prison to complete a job with shifting goals and faceless enemies. But detective Isidore Beautrelet knows Jean's coming, and has every tool in his arsenal ready. If only the two of them knew how much they need each other, perhaps both could drop the shackles of life in Mars's moving city, the Oubliette, and recognize the truth daily life conceals.

Debut author Hannu Rajaniemi blends science fiction with Russian and French literature, Hebrew myth, and modern game theory to create a dreamscape that tests its characters (and readers) through constant frustration. The cityscape in which the characters fight shifts as fast as their goals and alliances. And their principal coin of exchange is deception, so every action rests on a foundation of half-truths and chicanery.

The story runs on questions of identity. If I can erase my past, who am I? Does life mean very much if death is only temporary? When people trade hours of life like stock certificates, does life mean you've spent time wisely, while death implies moral failure? If we make our own worlds, including our own morality, do we have a moral obligation to die? Does my existence matter if everything I know is a lie?

Everything gets called into question. Machines provide people artificially long lives, and the world is governed by shadowy agents like an Ayn Rand nightmare. But I can't tell of Rajaniemi advocates a viewpoint. Because hours of life are cash, accomplishment and wealth mean long life, while wastrels face early death--the ultimate libertarian paradise. We create value, and we live; we sponge off others, and we die.

But does that make this book a snow job? Maybe not. The climactic reveal (which I won't spoil) implies that this attitude is a collapse of civic order. Everyone in the Oubliette lives or dies by their willingness to follow the rules of an invisible panopticon. Maybe the rich live because they're broken, while the poor die because they're free. This could be a cautionary tale. Perhaps later volumes will explain.

This book wheels out complex ethical considerations of life in the ultimate zero-sum game. Marxist critics will have a field day. Beneath a surface of playful sci-fi, this book asks important questions about survival, work, meaning, life, and death. Rajaniemi asks: do we matter because we exist, or do we exist because we matter? And he offers no easy solutions. He just challenges us to join him in the discovery.

I will call a spade a spade and tell you this is overhyped rubbish. I read a lot of sci-fi and saw much gushing and praise about this debut on the sci-fi blogs. So let me describe to you what this book is...... imagine Morgan or Gibson at their most futuristic craziest, writing a bugs bunny cartoon, while everybody is on acid. You think I am joking? Think again.

Hannu Rajaniemi is kind of like Sheldon Cooper from the Big Bang Theory tv show. Apparently in real life he was a quantum physicist or something like that, and he displays all the storytelling and thinking skills of the fictional Sheldon Cooper.

It's all about being very clever, very intelligent, dazzling concepts one after the other, with complex language. It is not hard science, but more like a cartoon in an alternate fantasy reality. This is not grounded at all. There is a complete lack of any story or coherence or even interest in what is going on with the characters.

After reading the other reviews on Amazon I noticed nobody really enjoyed the book, they are just giving it 4-5 stars for zanyness and originality. So that is why I am giving this harsh review, to let people know what they are really in for. This sort of writing would work better as a short story, and that is all this book really is, multiple high concept short story ideas stitched together and called a novel. In fairness I will say that Hanni Rajaniemi has the most brilliant and creative mind probably ever seen in sci-fi, but that does not translate into an enjoyable book. This is just too over the top.

I recommend you go read Kevin J Anderson if you want good sci-fi......just kidding. So you know where I am coming from my respected and favourite sci-fi authors are Alastair Reynolds and Richard Morgan.

› Go to Amazon.com to see all 64 reviews  3.7 out of 5 stars