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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Gave this a 4 star although it's really not my cup of tea. I've no doubt the author understands his world and characters intimately - it comes through as he's consistent - but, given that I'm not immersed in that world, it was a bit too foreign to make it an easy read (the characters bodies, different races, construction of the worlds, histories...). Ended up skimming the world bits and just focusing on the story line.
There are folks out there who love sci-fi with detailed world building and many alien characters - this is for you. The plot line itself is creative and well told.
There are folks out there who love sci-fi with detailed world building and many alien characters - this is for you. The plot line itself is creative and well told.
The Quantum thief is a story about managing privacy, about forgetting, about the relationship between memories - real or imagined - and identity. A renowned thief is sprung from prison to help a super-race in performing a super-heist on Mars. Among his opponents are a clever detective, a variety of criminal groups, and himself.
We all found this a difficult read, in spite of the many rave reviews it received as a first novel. The author is young, with a Phd. in string theory. This shows in a style that jumps quickly from scene to scene, changing location and even time period just as we get settled in. It also results in a vocabulary laced with quantum science terms - some real, many imaginary - introduced often with no explanation and little context. We were never sure if a character or setting would appear again, or if a term would eventually make sense. This is supposedly the first part of a trilogy, but I don't think any of us will be waiting for the next one.
We all found this a difficult read, in spite of the many rave reviews it received as a first novel. The author is young, with a Phd. in string theory. This shows in a style that jumps quickly from scene to scene, changing location and even time period just as we get settled in. It also results in a vocabulary laced with quantum science terms - some real, many imaginary - introduced often with no explanation and little context. We were never sure if a character or setting would appear again, or if a term would eventually make sense. This is supposedly the first part of a trilogy, but I don't think any of us will be waiting for the next one.
actual rating: 2.5
Definitely struggled with whether to round this up or down, but upon seeing that many other people were just as confused as I was I decided on a technical two stars. With sci-fi novels like this I am never really sure if my confusion is on me or the author, but I feel like I REALLY tried with this one and I still have next to no idea what happened here. There were some good scenes throughout, but I could not for the life of me explain the over arching plot to anyone who asked. I know some people will praise this because the author doesn't 'hold your hand' or do a bunch of a exposition dumps, but there is a happy medium between over-explaining and explaining absolutely NOTHING and this book is far from it. I guess if you are very into hard sci-fi and don't mind reading [and re-reading] VERY slowly then you may be able to enjoy this, but it's definitely not for me.
Definitely struggled with whether to round this up or down, but upon seeing that many other people were just as confused as I was I decided on a technical two stars. With sci-fi novels like this I am never really sure if my confusion is on me or the author, but I feel like I REALLY tried with this one and I still have next to no idea what happened here. There were some good scenes throughout, but I could not for the life of me explain the over arching plot to anyone who asked. I know some people will praise this because the author doesn't 'hold your hand' or do a bunch of a exposition dumps, but there is a happy medium between over-explaining and explaining absolutely NOTHING and this book is far from it. I guess if you are very into hard sci-fi and don't mind reading [and re-reading] VERY slowly then you may be able to enjoy this, but it's definitely not for me.
I've had the sequel to this sitting on my TBR pile for a looong time, but I knew I had to reread this first hence the procrastinating. I wasn't delaying because I was worried, just that rereading sometimes feels so decadent...
Anyway I've done it now and if anything this book has improved with a second reading. I did love it the first time but remember feeling hopelessly and helplessly lost a few times. That was largely gone on this reading not because I remembered things - I didn't because I basically never do - but because I remembered it making sense so I had confidence in it and myself. I did also remember just a few things after my memory was jolted which certainly helped.
So there's a thief, and someone who needs help; there's a colony in Mars where everyone has extreme privacy measures and you get to choose who sees what - plus Time is currency. There's been serious inter-solar-system issues with humanity splitting into many different factions and there are some very serious questions about what is real and whether you can even ask that question my god you're so baseline human urgh. Brains can be hacked and bodies can be hacked and sometimes bodies are just a costume. But seriously there's something that needs to be stolen and that's what matters.
Memory, reality, time, love, death. All the good bits.
Anyway I've done it now and if anything this book has improved with a second reading. I did love it the first time but remember feeling hopelessly and helplessly lost a few times. That was largely gone on this reading not because I remembered things - I didn't because I basically never do - but because I remembered it making sense so I had confidence in it and myself. I did also remember just a few things after my memory was jolted which certainly helped.
So there's a thief, and someone who needs help; there's a colony in Mars where everyone has extreme privacy measures and you get to choose who sees what - plus Time is currency. There's been serious inter-solar-system issues with humanity splitting into many different factions and there are some very serious questions about what is real and whether you can even ask that question my god you're so baseline human urgh. Brains can be hacked and bodies can be hacked and sometimes bodies are just a costume. But seriously there's something that needs to be stolen and that's what matters.
Memory, reality, time, love, death. All the good bits.
So, I thought this was pretty fun. High octane, manly, philosophical in the extreme but also...fun. It wasn't trying to be more, it wasn't preaching at me, and it didn't quite go so far as to see all women as blow up dolls that pushed back. They did have their own agendas, even if part of that invariably included sex with the MC.
CONTENT WARNING:
Things to love:
-Mystery heist explosion! Prison breaks! Mystery solving! Serial kleptomania! Cabals! Heists! All in one orgiastic whodunnit!
-Worldbuilding. This is so funky. It reminds me of many things, with groups colonizing different places and imbuing it with the social ideals of the colonizers. Mars has 2 quirks: privacy is paramount, and the cities move at random so that attackers can't predict where the city will be at any given time. There are games-crazy folk who theory craft their physical construction for min-max capabilities. There are cults who worship game devs. Essentially, this universe is built on the theory that all of us are simulations, and then expands that to extremes, and I think that was extremely well done.
-Broken boy. We've got a thief who's literally lost his mind and is also literally dominated by a war priestess. I mean. Am I meant to be immune to that?
-Just the right pace. Super impressed as the author is Finnish and this is in English. There's no fat here. It's fast without intrusive writing gimmicks. Is EVERYTHING spelled out for me? No, I still don't understand many things. But I understood everything I needed to make this particular drama dramatic without cringing at info dumps, rants, or leaps of faith.
Things I didn't love:
-Boys will be boys. This was still for boys. Where the dick went was terribly important in this book, and was only omitted when someone yanked our hound dog's leash. At certain points, to reference Family Guy, le Flambeur did conduct with his penis.
-A lot I don't understand. There are cultures here with orders of magnitude more post-human ability than others. I don't follow the power spike and how it works for this society.
I'm gonna read on, so it's definitely less obnoxious than many I've read with these literary motifs, but I would not encourage to read this with much in the way of expectation other than "a fun ride," double entendre intended.
CONTENT WARNING:
Spoiler
patricide, slavery, coercion of will, use of someone else's body for sex, gore, religion.Things to love:
-Mystery heist explosion! Prison breaks! Mystery solving! Serial kleptomania! Cabals! Heists! All in one orgiastic whodunnit!
-Worldbuilding. This is so funky. It reminds me of many things, with groups colonizing different places and imbuing it with the social ideals of the colonizers. Mars has 2 quirks: privacy is paramount, and the cities move at random so that attackers can't predict where the city will be at any given time. There are games-crazy folk who theory craft their physical construction for min-max capabilities. There are cults who worship game devs. Essentially, this universe is built on the theory that all of us are simulations, and then expands that to extremes, and I think that was extremely well done.
-Broken boy. We've got a thief who's literally lost his mind and is also literally dominated by a war priestess. I mean. Am I meant to be immune to that?
-Just the right pace. Super impressed as the author is Finnish and this is in English. There's no fat here. It's fast without intrusive writing gimmicks. Is EVERYTHING spelled out for me? No, I still don't understand many things. But I understood everything I needed to make this particular drama dramatic without cringing at info dumps, rants, or leaps of faith.
Things I didn't love:
-Boys will be boys. This was still for boys. Where the dick went was terribly important in this book, and was only omitted when someone yanked our hound dog's leash. At certain points, to reference Family Guy, le Flambeur did conduct with his penis.
-A lot I don't understand. There are cultures here with orders of magnitude more post-human ability than others. I don't follow the power spike and how it works for this society.
I'm gonna read on, so it's definitely less obnoxious than many I've read with these literary motifs, but I would not encourage to read this with much in the way of expectation other than "a fun ride," double entendre intended.
adventurous
challenging
funny
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I can see that this is probably akin to this generation's Neuromancer. It's full of fantastic neural-computer extrapolation, much of it described with made-up words that often make no sense. This is the biggest challenge with this book; trying to imagine exactly what Rajaniemi has in mind takes the reader out of the story in many cases. Rajaniemi also mixes up the first- and third-person narratives, depending on which character is central to the story at any particular moment. So this is not necessarily a casual read or one that the reader can take long breaks from. I think Rajaniemi has a lot of potential, but I think I'd like to see this as a movie or comic to more fully understand the environment. One other thing, the book basically ends and then Rajaniemi tacks on what is essentially the first chapter of a sequel; an unnecessary tease in my opinion.
Interesting and engaging, although a little hard to get into. I probably rushed through it, and missed some of what was going on.
Are you disappointed that SF books are just normal books with spaceships and maybe robots? Then this one is for you. Does my review contain spoilers? Not even if I wanted to. The book started to make sense when I was half through it and then completely lost me at the end. I guess it ended well, I will never know.
Later edit (couple of hours later): I just presented the world described in this book to my 7 year old daughter and I started to understand the book. I am going to give you a little hint, no spoilers, the world is like Google Photos but with your memories. Added an extra star.
Later edit (couple of hours later): I just presented the world described in this book to my 7 year old daughter and I started to understand the book. I am going to give you a little hint, no spoilers, the world is like Google Photos but with your memories. Added an extra star.