The Quantum Thief

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Tor Publishing Group, May 10, 2011 - Fiction - 336 pages

The Quantum Thief is a Kirkus Reviews Best of 2011 Science Fiction & Fantasy title. One of Library Journal's Best SF/Fantasy Books of 2011

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 stealing rare Earth antiques from the aristocrats of Mars. Now he's confined inside the Dilemma Prison, where every day he has to get up and kill himself before his other self can kill him.

Rescued by the mysterious Mieli and her flirtatious spacecraft, Jean is taken to the Oubliette, the Moving City of Mars, where time is currency, memories are treasures, and a moon-turnedsingularity lights the night. What Mieli offers is the chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self-in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed.

As Jean undertakes a series of capers on behalf of Mieli and her mysterious masters, elsewhere in the Oubliette investigator Isidore Beautrelet is called in to investigate the murder of a chocolatier, and finds himself on the trail of an arch-criminal, a man named le Flambeur....

Hannu Rajaniemi's The Quantum Thief is a crazy joyride through the solar system several centuries hence, a world of marching cities, ubiquitous public-key encryption, people communicating by sharing memories, and a race of hyper-advanced humans who originated as MMORPG guild members. But for all its wonders, it is also a story powered by very human motives of betrayal, revenge, and jealousy. It is a stunning debut.

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

 

Selected pages

Contents

THE THIEF AND THE PRISONERS DILEMMA
THE THIEF AND THE ARCHONS
THE DETECTIVE AND THE CHOCOLATE DRESS
THE KING
THE THIEF AND THE BEGGAR
THE DETECTIVE AND THE ZOKU
GOODNESS
THE THIEF AND PAUL SERNINE
THE THIEF AND THE PIRATES
THE DETECTIVE AND THE LETTER
THE THIEF AND THE SECOND FIRST DATE
WISDOM
THE THIEF AND THE TZADDIKIM
THE DETECTIVE AND CARPE DIEM
TRUTH
THE THIEF IN THE UNDERWORLD

THE DETECTIVE AND HIS FATHER
WILL
THE DETECTIVE AND THE ARCHITECT
THE THIEF AND THE GODDESS

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About the author (2011)

Thirty-year-old HANNU RAJANIEMI is from Finland and lives in Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is a director of a think tank providing business services based on advanced math and artificial intelligence. He holds a Ph.D. in string theory and is a member of the same writing group that produced Hal Duncan. He wrote The Quantum Thief in English.

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