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The Quantum Thief

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The Quantum Thief

By: Hannu Rajaniemi
Narrated by: Rupert Degas
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About this listen

The Quantum Thief is a dazzling hard SF novel set in the solar system of the far future - a heist novel peopled by bizarre post-humans but powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge and jealousy. It is a stunning debut. Jean le Flambeur is a post-human criminal, mind burglar, confidence artist and trickster. His origins are shrouded in mystery, but his exploits are known throughout the Heterarchy - from breaking into the vast Zeusbrains of the Inner System to steal their thoughts, to stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of the Moving Cities of Mars. Except that Jean made one mistake. Now he is condemned to play endless variations of a game-theoretic riddle in the vast virtual jail of the Axelrod Archons - the Dilemma Prison - against countless copies of himself. Jean's routine of death, defection and cooperation is upset by the arrival of Mieli and her spidership, Perhonen.

2011, John W. Campbell Memorial Award, Short-listed

©2010 Hannu Rajaniemi (P)2011 Orion Publishing Group Ltd Adventure Genetic Engineering Science Fiction Space Exploration Fiction Thief Solar System City

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All stars
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A wonderful multilayered adventure with little to no exposition in the best of ways. Really recommended for any sci-fi lovers.

Excellent heist book

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Great narration and production and the story is great too, shame there are not audiobook versions of the two sequels (which I will now being buying)

Great narration and production!

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Where does The Quantum Thief rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I've listened to a couple of hundred audiobooks so far, and this one easily falls into my favourite top ten percent.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Quantum Thief?

With an author so conversant with string theory it's hardly surprising that The Quantum Thief presents a series of memorable moments, each building on the other until a satisfyingly symmetrical conclusion is reached

What about Rupert Degas’s performance did you like?

Presenting Jean le Flambeur with a supercilious and hyper-intelligent persona, Degas's performance reflects the 'otherness' of Jean le Flambeur's entire existence, thereby enhancing the story itself

If you made a film of this book, what would be the tag line be?

Reflecting the trickiness of humankind's susceptibility to game theory, love and romance, this scientifically satisfying story has post-human Jean le Flambeur co-opted into chasing memories he has deliberately hidden himself

Any additional comments?

A hard sci-fi story that has twists within twists, a warped view of romance, satisfyingly consistently believable theoretical background and a protagonist battling against near-godlike post-humans, the strongest of which is (or was) himself.

Narration-style enhances this story's 'otherness'

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2 types of oddness to the book.

1st is the strange words and names thrown at you early on. You eventually get used to it all and it's OK.

2nd is the narration, gain is seems strange at first, but you get used to it - In the end I think I like the effects used on voices (although it was a bit off putting at first) and I'm still not sure about the 'jingle' between chapters...

At the end of the day, there is a good story in there, but I feel it was a little lost due to the odd nouns - (was the book translated to English?). It would get 4 stars if I didn't struggle at times.

Odd on a couple of levels, but turned out OK

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This is a story full of ideas and brilliantly imagined technologies but unfortunately the characters lacked life, and their earnest humourlessness left me feeling irritated that their adventures were getting in the way of the view. And, though the audiobook was excellently narrated and produced, it couldn't compensate for this lack of humanity at the heart of the story.

Great ideas; no characters ...

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This is probably one of the best audio books I've listened to. The story is complex and we'll told. The narration is the truely excellent.
Its a real shame the other two books in the series haven't received audiobook adaptations.

Complex, interesting story excellently narrated

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A riveting listen, one I'd highly recommend to SF fans in particular. Except that this is only start- there's two more books in the whole tale which, although they've now been published and available in print for some time, Audible are inexplicably not converting to Audio books. Any chance fans (like myself) can "turn up the heat" on these guys and see if stuff happens? It would be great to listen to the whole series dealt with in the same high standards as this first book.

So it's really a very enjoyable listen, but I'd add the proviso that parts two and three have still not appeared.

Great audiobook... but when will you bother with the rest of the series?

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The world-building here is magnificent. The author very obviously has a rare, but potent combination of a very sharply scientific mind and a powerful imagination. The characters are great and the audiobook performance is excellent, despite the sometimes the challenging prose. That said, this book is dense and confusing, and makes no attempt to hold your hand and it leads you through it's labyrinth. It is surely meant to be confusing. I'm certainly someone that enjoys being lost in strange, immersive alien cultures. But it's also second-order confusing - I found it difficult to keep tabs on what I was meant to be confused about (because it hadn't been revealed yet) and what I was confused about because I'd missed something important during a momentary lapse of concentration. As a result, I spent so long thinking I'd missed something important when I hadn't that I later failed to spot when I had.

I would definitely recommend this book. I'm going to give this another listen or a read at some point, because I suspect it may be a masterpiece, and I really think it deserves more appreciation than I can currently give it. Just be prepared to work for it!

Brilliant but confusing

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A great story that requires some concentration because the world is detailed, complicated and beautifully described. A pinch of detective mystery and political thriller thrown into the sci-fi mix, a really interesting story that romps along . I love books that stand up to repeat listening/reading and this fits the bill (I'm a Hamilton, Banks, Stephenson, Gibson fan, if that helps.) As always, having a first-class reader makes a world of difference and Rupert Degas' performance is brilliant. Highly recommended.

Rich, complex sci-fi. Great Story. Great Narrator.

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beautiful read. read it for the second time. the narration style different to others, but got used to it quickly. very well narrated with different accents.

totally transporting

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