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3.76 AVERAGE
3.76 AVERAGE
Nothing but heart eyes for this book, even for someone whose knowledge of science goes only so far as the science fiction they read. I understood enough of the science behind The Quantum Thief to make me keep on reading, but it also made me want to learn more so I can fully grasp its genius.
Quantum Thief presents a view of the future that is as as ambitious, foreign and believable to a person in 2013 as Neuromancer did in the 1984. I was able to understand the narrative about as well too, so if the metaphor is consistent I'd need to read it about two more times to actually understand the whole thing. I particularly enjoyed the proposed evolution of privacy technology and its importance and incorporation into daily life. Minus one star for the smug über mensch portrait/bio of the author.
Definitely a good read and I am totally drawn in and will be reading the rest of his books, but I gave it a four stars because I am just so unaccustomed to a book that barely explains the setting. I felt too confused about things at points and I think that took away from a greater understanding and appreciation of the book.
Alright so I had intended to read this something else from this author for a couple of years now, and finally this year I've done so. This first book has gained a strong and respected reputation and so I was expecting quite something from it.
It may be that I started thinking that it was simply some new slant on space opera SF but it actually mixes that up with post-cyberpunk and a fair bit of surreal imagery and ideas. This goes along with some hard SF but it is all written together well enough to keep you enjoying the story and characters.
It does have some very good, original touches and fun characters and it is actually not the absolutely huge narrative you may expect. It focuses around just a mostly small group of characters in a SF thriller tale.
A good read and something different and unusual in modern science fiction.
It may be that I started thinking that it was simply some new slant on space opera SF but it actually mixes that up with post-cyberpunk and a fair bit of surreal imagery and ideas. This goes along with some hard SF but it is all written together well enough to keep you enjoying the story and characters.
It does have some very good, original touches and fun characters and it is actually not the absolutely huge narrative you may expect. It focuses around just a mostly small group of characters in a SF thriller tale.
A good read and something different and unusual in modern science fiction.
I like this little thied-detectuve story, but I really don't know what happened in the last interlude...
Quite enteraining and novel world-setting. The "no infodump" approach was initially hard to follow but explanations of what the background was came frequently enough to answer my questions.
Some of these type of books - like the Culture series - suffer from deus ex machina syndrome: one character is so crazily equipped with magical devices that resolution to the story depends on a fantastic escape using far-fetched tech. "Oh look: wings that come out of your body".
Here, though, the author's approach is more one of highly advanced technology that is very unevenly distributed, so one does not know who might possess what. And the mechanics of block-chains and public key encryption were intriguing.
Some of these type of books - like the Culture series - suffer from deus ex machina syndrome: one character is so crazily equipped with magical devices that resolution to the story depends on a fantastic escape using far-fetched tech. "Oh look: wings that come out of your body".
Here, though, the author's approach is more one of highly advanced technology that is very unevenly distributed, so one does not know who might possess what. And the mechanics of block-chains and public key encryption were intriguing.
A smart-dumb book that really wants you to think it is a dumb-smart book.
The first two chapters are spectacularly bad: a sci-fi prison that is literally the Prisoner's Dilemma (wait for it, there's a literal Memory Palace later), then the naked woman with wings shows up, and then we go to Mars (where the rest of the book is set--there's no space romp here) which is one giant cultural appropriation of Hebrew and Judaism without the slightest awareness of the meanings of the "borrowed" elements. Some Russian and some physics get randomly borrowed as well, but without much tie to real quantum. There's a little bit of reasonable game theory sprinkled around. For a book with so many female characters, it is impressive that it still fails the Bechdel test.
I point this out because the middle section has some enjoyable ideas. It is readable despite the inauspicious opening. The augmented reality privacy screens, exomemory, time-based economy, phoboi, mind pirates, and even the memory/history twist at the end are all interesting ideas. And, albeit in a very modern pulpy and horny adolescent way, Mieli the battle angel is cool.
The last parts of the book tumble downhill quickly and turn into [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)|Ernest Cline|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500930947l/9969571._SY75_.jpg|14863741]. I understand the larger world history in the le Flambeur universe and it is OK, but more of a good short story concept than a trilogy-making scenario.
I was left wanting to just re-read an [a:Iain Banks|7628|Iain Banks|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1374456581p2/7628.jpg], [a:Iain Banks|7628|Iain Banks|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1374456581p2/7628.jpg], or [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg] book for a more intelligent world-building than to continue with Rajaniemi's slapdash work. The Quantum Thief is the palest possible shadow of [b:Consider Phlebas|8935689|Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327951890l/8935689._SY75_.jpg|14366].
The positive reviews on Goodreads seem to largely be from readers who thought Rajaniemi was engaging the concepts that he namechecks in some meaningful way and are in awe of that. Ignorance is bliss in this case; it is easy to say q-dot, Gogol, Schrodinger, game theory, tzadikim, entanglement, etc. in a vacuous way and invoke something much more interesting than is actually present in the book.
I point this out because the middle section has some enjoyable ideas. It is readable despite the inauspicious opening. The augmented reality privacy screens, exomemory, time-based economy, phoboi, mind pirates, and even the memory/history twist at the end are all interesting ideas. And, albeit in a very modern pulpy and horny adolescent way, Mieli the battle angel is cool.
The last parts of the book tumble downhill quickly and turn into [b:Ready Player One|9969571|Ready Player One (Ready Player One, #1)|Ernest Cline|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1500930947l/9969571._SY75_.jpg|14863741]. I understand the larger world history in the le Flambeur universe and it is OK, but more of a good short story concept than a trilogy-making scenario.
I was left wanting to just re-read an [a:Iain Banks|7628|Iain Banks|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1374456581p2/7628.jpg], [a:Iain Banks|7628|Iain Banks|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1374456581p2/7628.jpg], or [a:William Gibson|9226|William Gibson|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1373826214p2/9226.jpg] book for a more intelligent world-building than to continue with Rajaniemi's slapdash work. The Quantum Thief is the palest possible shadow of [b:Consider Phlebas|8935689|Consider Phlebas (Culture, #1)|Iain M. Banks|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327951890l/8935689._SY75_.jpg|14366].
The positive reviews on Goodreads seem to largely be from readers who thought Rajaniemi was engaging the concepts that he namechecks in some meaningful way and are in awe of that. Ignorance is bliss in this case; it is easy to say q-dot, Gogol, Schrodinger, game theory, tzadikim, entanglement, etc. in a vacuous way and invoke something much more interesting than is actually present in the book.
I adore this book.
But I'm aware that it's not an easy book, and assumes a lot from the reader in terms of their prior sci-fi knowledge. But it's a great book because it takes everything so much further than almost all other sci-fi novels do, even though, in order to build on top of those previous works, it has to assume that you've also read some number of them already. That you are already aware and have thought about a lot of the wild concepts and ideas. And even then it is still challenging at times, but that challenge and all those questions that I was juggling in my head as I read it was also why I loved it, it made things interesting and kept me hungry for answers.
I also loved the prose, and how it paints the scenes. Sci-fi as a genre can often get rather dry, when it just tries to explain things. This book doesn't explain things, it tells a story.
But I'm aware that it's not an easy book, and assumes a lot from the reader in terms of their prior sci-fi knowledge. But it's a great book because it takes everything so much further than almost all other sci-fi novels do, even though, in order to build on top of those previous works, it has to assume that you've also read some number of them already. That you are already aware and have thought about a lot of the wild concepts and ideas. And even then it is still challenging at times, but that challenge and all those questions that I was juggling in my head as I read it was also why I loved it, it made things interesting and kept me hungry for answers.
I also loved the prose, and how it paints the scenes. Sci-fi as a genre can often get rather dry, when it just tries to explain things. This book doesn't explain things, it tells a story.
What did I just read? I felt like I just crammed for a test in quantum physics and string theory (which Mr. Rajaniemi has a Ph.D in). As someone that actually stays current with various theories in these fields, I thought I would be able to follow this book a little better than most. I was wrong. I did more homework while reading this book than I did for most of my high school exams. While this might be a major deterrent to some I would strongly urge those to get through half of the book. The dense vocabulary will begin to click and the story really picks up speed.
If I had one complaint it would be that I felt like the book tried to end a few times until Mr. Rajaniemi remembered he forgot to put in another point. (the whole 'Return of the King' syndrome)
For those of you that are enjoying the book but having a difficult time following the nomenclature, I would suggest searching for 'Quantum Thief wiki' it was a major help.
If I had one complaint it would be that I felt like the book tried to end a few times until Mr. Rajaniemi remembered he forgot to put in another point. (the whole 'Return of the King' syndrome)
For those of you that are enjoying the book but having a difficult time following the nomenclature, I would suggest searching for 'Quantum Thief wiki' it was a major help.