The Quantum Thief - (Jean Le Flambeur) by Hannu Rajaniemi (Paperback)

About the Book

A crazy joyride through the solar system several centuries hence--and the most exciting SF-adventure debut in years

Book Synopsis

A stunning debut novel and a rollicking cyberpunk romp, The Quantum Thief is a modern classic of science fiction.

Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Science Fiction & Fantasy
Library Journal's Best SF/Fantasy Books of 2011

Tor Essentials presents new editions of science fiction and fantasy titles of proven merit and lasting value, each volume introduced by an appropriate literary figure.

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-turnedsingularity 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.

This new Tor Essentials edition of The Quantum Thief includes a new introduction by Charles Stross, author of The Laundry Files.

Review Quotes

"The big ideas keep piling up as you dive deeper and deeper into this first novel: a city that marches across the Martian desert; a cloud of universally accessible data called 'exomemory' that floats in the air around people, places and things; a quantum-jail; interpersonal communication re-imagined as a dense network of negotiable privacy settings; the individual minutes of a person's life used as legal tender. But the accrued weight of all of these notions never slows The Quantum Thief's pace, because the engine Finnish author Hannu Rajaneimi uses to drive his narrative is a good, old-fashioned heist plot: A charming thief is rescued from prison by powerful, possibly sinister beings and forced to find a mysterious treasure he stole in one of his past lives. As he attempts to decipher the clues left by his past self, a young amateur detective stumbles on his trail. It's a thoughtful, stylish, wryly funny debut."--NPR

No precis does justice to Rajaniemi's unique, post-singularity vision...A brilliant debut. --The Guardian

"The Quantum Thief is many things at once: a brazen sound-and-light show of visionary ideas, a posthuman meditation on very human themes, an exercise in intricate worldbuilding, and a rollickingly good crime caper." --The New York Review of Science Fiction

"Spectacularly and convincingly inventive, assured and wholly spellbinding: one of the most impressive debuts in years." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"A stellar debut." --Publishers Weekly, starred review

"Outstanding...A storytelling skill rarely found from even the most experienced authors. Rajaniemi belongs in a class with Gene Wolfe and Samuel Delany."--Library Journal, starred review

"The Quantum Thief made the hair on the back of my neck stand up when I read it, and I think Hannu's going to revolutionize hard SF." --Charles Stross

"Many an anglophone author would kill to turn out prose half as good as this." --The Financial Times

"Great fun... In the end, it may not matter how much one actually gets out of any single predatory slamdunk eyekick...Their excellent profusion increasingly, as one continues to read, gives joy." --John Clute

"Beneath the science, you see, beneath the staggering speculative wonder of it all, Hannu Rajaniemi has a knack for spare, no-nonsense storytelling that approaches the poetic at times. The Quantum Thief is a revelation." --The Speculative Scotsman

"Rajaniemi has spectacularly delivered on the promise that this is likely to be the most important SF novel we'll see this year." --Locus

About the Author

HANNU RAJANIEMI is from Finland and lives in California. He served as director of a think tank providing business services based on advanced math and artificial intelligence. He holds a Ph.D. in string theory.