REVIEW: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
Publishing Information: Paperback; 336 pages
Publisher: Orion Publishing Co; 30 Sept 2010
ISBN 10: 0575088885
ISBN 13: 9780575088887
Standalone
Copy: Out of Pocket
Reviewer: Tyson

Back of Book: "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 steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed ...The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut."

A few months before The Quantum Thief was released much of the blogosphere was on fire about how great this book was. While not a huge Science Fiction reader (I mainly stick to fantasy), I decided to give him a shot. After all, it sounded like a similar concept to David Louis Edelman's Jump 225 series. I was wrong on all counts. Rajaniemi's debut is not like anything else I have ever read.

The first third of The Quantum Thief leaves you scratching your head. There are different races and factions, concepts and human history that is never explained. Rajaniemi could have taken a few minutes to pile on a large infodump or provided a history in the back of the novel so you would have something to help you. Instead he decides to throw you into the deep end of the ocean with some starving sharks and then continues his story.

By the time I reached the halfway point of the book I had no connection to anyone in story. Our thief, Jean La Flambeur, is in a pickle and I had no desire to see him worm his way out of it or see him get caught. I had no investment. The only character I found liking, yet still no connection was the young detective, Isadore. Although for all the complexity the author spun around his main characters I was able to deduce the connection between certain character well before I think I should have. The character development was lackluster and rather two dimensional. As I said before, with no emotional impact caused by the characters there was nothing to keep me reading other than to find out whether the book gets any better, which it never did. If anything it actually got worse.

While I think that The Quantum Thief will continue to get rave reviews, I will not be one of them. The book is front-loaded with a bunch of technobabble that will leave you cold and confused for a good portion of the book and the action and characters do not provide any payoff in the end. I can not recommend this book and if asked I would probably tell friends to stay clear of it.

Plot 6
Characters 5
Style 2

Overall 4/10