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A review by amblygon_writes
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
3.0
Being a fellow Finn, I had to read this and see what all the hype was about. To put it simply: my opinion of it is that it was good, but it did not deserve the hype.
I began the book carefully, trying to avoid any expectations. To be honest, I think it was a very good book in the beginning - it had so much potential. The characters seemed mysterious and exciting, the setting had the familiarity of a sci-fi book but was still unique and intriguing, and the plot definitely had sunk a few hooks into me. I even enjoyed his writing style; although not perfect, it was a great achievement for a first novel.
However, before I even reached the middle of the book, I felt that the story had started to wilt, and by the end, it fallen flat on its face. I just don't understand what happened to those animated characters and the explosive setting that they were exploring. After getting bogged down on that one planet (which was an interesting planet granted), the plot starts to crumble and the characters are forced into narrower and narrower plot twists that end up flattening them. I think he had a great story (the whole wide universe was brimming with plots that I would've loved to hear more about), but some strange decisions were made that ultimately disappointed me.
To keep it short, I'll mention only one specifically. I felt that one of the biggest disappointments was all the family drama at the end. The relationships and characters seemed artificial, and for me it had too much of a Skywalker-family feel to it.
A last quick comment on his use of science. Some reviewers said that they felt that the book had too much science jargon, but I personally found it to be at a perfect level. Even though I didn't understand everything completley (physics is definitely not one of my strongest or most favoured subjects), I did not feel hopelessly lost. There was just enough technicalities to remind me of the complexity of physics, but not too much to make me feel like an idiot.
All in all, an interesting read; I definitely don't regret reading it. I would give the beginning 4 stars, maybe even 4.5, but the end barely deserves 2 stars. Right now, I'm eager to read more of his work in which he hopefully will let his characters bloom and explode and develop in vivid and wonderful ways.
I began the book carefully, trying to avoid any expectations. To be honest, I think it was a very good book in the beginning - it had so much potential. The characters seemed mysterious and exciting, the setting had the familiarity of a sci-fi book but was still unique and intriguing, and the plot definitely had sunk a few hooks into me. I even enjoyed his writing style; although not perfect, it was a great achievement for a first novel.
However, before I even reached the middle of the book, I felt that the story had started to wilt, and by the end, it fallen flat on its face. I just don't understand what happened to those animated characters and the explosive setting that they were exploring. After getting bogged down on that one planet (which was an interesting planet granted), the plot starts to crumble and the characters are forced into narrower and narrower plot twists that end up flattening them. I think he had a great story (the whole wide universe was brimming with plots that I would've loved to hear more about), but some strange decisions were made that ultimately disappointed me.
To keep it short, I'll mention only one specifically. I felt that one of the biggest disappointments was all the family drama at the end. The relationships and characters seemed artificial, and for me it had too much of a Skywalker-family feel to it.
A last quick comment on his use of science. Some reviewers said that they felt that the book had too much science jargon, but I personally found it to be at a perfect level. Even though I didn't understand everything completley (physics is definitely not one of my strongest or most favoured subjects), I did not feel hopelessly lost. There was just enough technicalities to remind me of the complexity of physics, but not too much to make me feel like an idiot.
All in all, an interesting read; I definitely don't regret reading it. I would give the beginning 4 stars, maybe even 4.5, but the end barely deserves 2 stars. Right now, I'm eager to read more of his work in which he hopefully will let his characters bloom and explode and develop in vivid and wonderful ways.