The Quantum Thief: The epic hard SF heist thriller for fans of THE MATRIX and NEUROMANCER

Hannu Rajaniemi

Sep 2010 · Hachette UK

About this ebook

The solar system's greatest thief is wanted for murder. To prove his innocence, he needs to pull off a heist even he thought was impossible . . .

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. 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 . . .

Readers have been gripped by THE QUANTUM THIEF:

'I am very surprised and delighted by this novel . . . this monolith of story, this dire-light, this cutting of an epic gordian knot has got to be one of the classics of literature'- Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'I enjoyed the hell out of this and am eating up the rest of the series without hesitation' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'I cannot emphasize how much I love and appreciate the depth and complexity that [The Quantum Thief] realizes. Rajaniemi has crafted a hard science masterpiece that sets up a wonderful series' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'This really is one of my all time favourite High Concept SciFi novels. It's an unrelenting stream of far out tech and cultural experimentation taken to extremes.' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'Complex & yet compulsively readable . . . The Quantum Thief is one of the most innovative debut novels I've ever read!' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

'I really don't remember last time when I was excited in such way by a book . . . surely the best debut in this genre for a long time' - Goodreads reviewer, ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐ ⭐

Ratings and reviews

I love that I can take the sci-fi seriously while the shenanigans taking place are still fun and chaotic. Super appreciate the cybernetics/cryptography themes that underpin the universe.

Incomprehensible nonsense. There's probably a half decent story in here somewhere, but introducing a concept and then giving it name thereafter is not the same as introducing made up terms and hoping the reader is prepared to read on and try to decipher a meaning.

The setting is somewhat difficult to get into and the author doesn't necessarily make it easy, but coming to grips with it is a satisfying experience and I definitely look forward to more adventures of the titular thief.

About the author

Hannu Rajaniemi was born in Finland. At the age of eight he approached the European Space Agency with a fusion-powered spaceship design, which was received with a polite "thank you" note. Hannu studied mathematics and theoretical physics at University of Oulu and Cambridge and holds a PhD in string theory from the University of Edinburgh. He co-founded a mathematics consultancy whose clients included UK Ministry of Defence and the European Space Agency.

Hannu is the author of four novels including The Quantum Thief (winner of 2012 Tähtivaeltaja Award for the best science fiction novel published in Finland and translated into more than 20 languages). His most recent book is Summerland (June 2018), an alternate history spy thriller in a world where the afterlife is real. His other works include Invisible Planets: Collected Fiction, a short story collection.

Hannu lives in the San Francisco Bay Area. He is a co-founder and CEO of HelixNano, a venture- and Y Combinator backed biotech startup.