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A review by pinahuiztle
The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
adventurous
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.0
Very strange book. The first couple chapters are rough (there's one especially boring chase in outer space that felt like it took forever). The characters, even though they are in a fairly cohesive far-future sci-fi setting, feel like they're ultimately derived from a mix of fantasy and pulp mystery archetypes which isn't always flattering; Mieli, one of the main characters, is an absolute dead ringer for sword-and-sorcery "barbarian" characters except she's from the Oorts rather than Cimmeria, and there's elements of the noir femme fatale thrown in the mix. Jean le Flambeur, the thief from the title, is a self-conscious homage to Arsene Lupin except his thefts are described to have a mythical scale; he steals minds, memories, posthuman artifacts, astronomical objects etc.
One of this novel's major inspirations according to the author is Zelazny's Lord of Light, which I read a few months ago. The setup of le Flambeur's arc here (former legendary trickster having his mind retrieved from impenetrable conceptual "prison", with hints that the imprisonment did actually reform him to some extent) is extremely similar to that of the protagonist of Lord of Light, except that I think Lord of Light pulled it off considerably better. And I didn't love it there either, mind you. I'm actually going to have to go back and bump my Lord of Light review from 2 to 3 stars since having it rated lower than this doesn't feel right. Jean le Flambeur mostly comes across as a creep.
There's another issue: none of the characters really act as you would expect from immortals with the vast skillsets and experiences they're meant to have. Most of le Flambeur's thievery happens offscreen, and the job he actually does in the present doesn't come across as particularly clever - matter of fact, he mostly pulls THAT off because he has access to posthuman supertech more advanced than anyone else's in the planet he's in. Mieli, likewise, is supposed to be an exceedingly competent warrior but when we see her fight she mostly seems to win on account of her posthuman supertech. Isidore, a sort of detective that for much of the book has a plotline parallel lo le Flambeur, doesn't actually do much sleuthing other than using his one piece of posthuman supertech to find him the relevant clues and doing the local equivalent of Google searches. And he still needs to be rescued a few times. That pattern holds.
All the romance and drama is very strongly cliched. There is one sex scene early on and it isn't pretty.
I'm bumping it about half a star because of some seriously good worldbuilding on the very last chapter. It seems to be a cliffhanger for the sequel, which I don't think I'm going to read.
One of this novel's major inspirations according to the author is Zelazny's Lord of Light, which I read a few months ago. The setup of le Flambeur's arc here (former legendary trickster having his mind retrieved from impenetrable conceptual "prison", with hints that the imprisonment did actually reform him to some extent) is extremely similar to that of the protagonist of Lord of Light, except that I think Lord of Light pulled it off considerably better. And I didn't love it there either, mind you. I'm actually going to have to go back and bump my Lord of Light review from 2 to 3 stars since having it rated lower than this doesn't feel right. Jean le Flambeur mostly comes across as a creep.
There's another issue: none of the characters really act as you would expect from immortals with the vast skillsets and experiences they're meant to have. Most of le Flambeur's thievery happens offscreen, and the job he actually does in the present doesn't come across as particularly clever - matter of fact, he mostly pulls THAT off because he has access to posthuman supertech more advanced than anyone else's in the planet he's in. Mieli, likewise, is supposed to be an exceedingly competent warrior but when we see her fight she mostly seems to win on account of her posthuman supertech. Isidore, a sort of detective that for much of the book has a plotline parallel lo le Flambeur, doesn't actually do much sleuthing other than using his one piece of posthuman supertech to find him the relevant clues and doing the local equivalent of Google searches. And he still needs to be rescued a few times. That pattern holds.
All the romance and drama is very strongly cliched. There is one sex scene early on and it isn't pretty.
I'm bumping it about half a star because of some seriously good worldbuilding on the very last chapter. It seems to be a cliffhanger for the sequel, which I don't think I'm going to read.