The Fractal Prince

Hannu Rajaniemi

Sep 2012 · Jean le Flambeur Book 2 · Macmillan + ORM

About this ebook

The Quantum Thief sequel is “stupefyingly entertaining, like a heist movie for post-singularity, AI-boosted string theoreticians from beyond spacetime” (Charles Stross).

“The good thing is, no one will ever die again. The bad thing is, everyone will want to.”

A physicist receives a mysterious paper. The ideas in it are far, far ahead of current thinking and quite, quite terrifying. In a city of “fast ones,” shadow players, and jinni, two sisters contemplate a revolution.

And on the edges of reality a thief, helped by a sardonic ship, is trying to break into a Schrödinger box for his patron. In the box is his freedom. Or not.

Jean de Flambeur is back. And he’s running out of time.

In Hannu Rajaniemi’s sparkling follow-up to the critically acclaimed international sensation The Quantum Thief, he returns to his awe-inspiring vision of the universe . . . and we discover what the future held for Earth.

“Stories within stories, mind-boggling scientific extrapolations, and flamboyant characters mark the author as a rising star of the genre.” —Library Journal

“Rajaniemi’s witty language and charmingly wry hero will make the read well worth the effort for the first installment’s fans.” —Publishers Weekly

“Fans of the author’s popular debut novel, which mixed hard science with wild fantasy, will probably be lining up for this follow-up, which resolves some of the questions posed in The Quantum Thief but, on the other hand, asks several more, for which there are, as yet, no answers.” —Booklist

Ratings and reviews

I really enjoyed The Quantum Thief and was rather looking forward to this book but it still took me a few dozen pages to really get hooked on this second book. The story didn't feel quite as tight, but the new sets and the development of the overarching storyline made up for that. I can't wait for the third chapter in this series!

Had I not read The Quantum Thief before this work, I would have found it tough going. As it were, I thoroughly enjoyed revisiting Mieli amd her ship, the pellegrini and the Sobornost. I look forward to reading more novels by Hannu Rajaniemi.

Quantum Thief was much better.

About the author

Born and raised in Finland, HANNU RAJANIEMI lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is a founding director of a financial consultancy, ThinkTank Maths. He is the holder of several advanced degrees in mathematics and physics. Multilingual from an early age, he writes his science fiction in English. He is the author of The Quantum Thief, The Fractal Prince and The Causal Angel.