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zazzeaux 's review for:

The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi
3.0

This is the first time that I've ever seen a reference to the research work I did at Emory in a work of fiction. (The thief uses EPR states to transfer information store in the quantum spider to communicate with Perhonen.) For which I'd have to give it a solid 'meh'.

The main problem with this book is that if a book is a promise, then the author overpromised and underdelivered. You can't just dazzle us with brilliant ideas, you have to insinuate them into us, via our connection to your prose. I did love the idea of the gevulot. I think the exploration of a world with this facet would have made an interesting novel in itself. I felt this and many other concepts were underdeveloped, as if the author said, if I just skim this idea I can add a bunch of other cool stuff, too. I found I never really connected with the characters, so all there untied loose ends didn't end up bothering me.

Big ideas, good prose, poor characterization, unrealized story potential.