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The Quantum Thief

About the Book

Tähtivaeltaja Award 2012, Locus Award nominee 2011.

The most exciting SF debut of the last 5 years – a star to stand alongside Reynolds and Morgan.

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. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self – in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed...

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.

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Booknan the Bookuser10 / 10

“It's kinda like Ocean's Eleven, only in space! Rajaniemi holds nothing back and pushes the reader into a fully fleshed world and story, and the reader just has to buckle up and enjoy the ride. And boy, what a ride! I loved every confusing twist and turn of it!”

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Jean le Flambeur

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Hannu Rajaniemi

Hannu Rajaniemi is a name that echoes through the corridors of modern science fiction, his stories weaving intricate plots with mind-bending ideas that challenge the very fabric of reality. Born in Finland, Rajaniemi’s deep love for speculative fiction was nurtured from an early age. As a child, he was captivated by…

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