Malazan Empire: The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi - Malazan Empire

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The Quantum Thief by Hannu Rajaniemi Guest review by Phil (AKA Yellow)

#1 QuickTidal

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Posted 11 January 2011 - 01:57 PM

Phil (AKA Yellow) takes a moment to write a guest review over at Iceberg Ink. Great stuff, check it out!

http://icebergink.bl...ntum-thief.html

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#2 stone monkey

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Posted 11 January 2011 - 10:13 PM

You can find out what I thought of it here and here

Short version: I loved it. By far and away the best debut novel I've read for quite some time. I disagree with the reviewer's comment on the cover art. I actually prefer the UK art; the US cover is quite painfully generic.

Rajaniemi has had a couple of short stories appear in Gardner Dozois yearly sf collections over the past few years, they're very worth checking out.

This post has been edited by stone monkey: 11 January 2011 - 10:22 PM

If an opinion contrary to your own makes you angry, that is a sign that you are subconsciously aware of having no good reason for thinking as you do. If some one maintains that two and two are five, or that Iceland is on the equator, you feel pity rather than anger, unless you know so little of arithmetic or geography that his opinion shakes your own contrary conviction. … So whenever you find yourself getting angry about a difference of opinion, be on your guard; you will probably find, on examination, that your belief is going beyond what the evidence warrants. Bertrand Russell

#3 amphibian

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Posted 12 January 2011 - 05:39 AM

The U.S. cover is far superior. The butterfly does not appeal to me and is wishy-washy.

I could have sworn I wrote a post here about this book - loved it, perhaps not as much as Stone Monkey - but it does not seem to exist on this forum.

Anyways, glad this is getting more mentions. The author put a ton of work in this and it pays off very, very well for us readers.

I survived the Permian and all I got was this t-shirt.

#4 Yellow

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Posted 12 January 2011 - 07:24 AM

stone monkey, on 11 January 2011 - 10:13 PM, said:

I disagree with the reviewer's comment on the cover art. I actually prefer the UK art; the US cover is quite painfully generic.

That was generally what I was trying to get across... although I thought the UK art was crap, the US art was worse

I really enjoyed the book, although it didn't completely blow me away like it seemed to do with most.

This post has been edited by Yellow: 12 January 2011 - 07:24 AM

Don't fuck with the Culture.

#5 Use Of Weapons

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Posted 12 January 2011 - 10:06 AM

Yellow, on 12 January 2011 - 07:24 AM, said:

stone monkey, on 11 January 2011 - 10:13 PM, said:

I disagree with the reviewer's comment on the cover art. I actually prefer the UK art; the US cover is quite painfully generic.

That was generally what I was trying to get across... although I thought the UK art was crap, the US art was worse

I really enjoyed the book, although it didn't completely blow me away like it seemed to do with most.

I'm with Yellow. I liked it, but I think Stross is a better writer, though the freshness of Rajaniemi's ideas make them seem cooler in the short term. But I'm certainly sticking around to see what happens to Jean -- great character. I also liked the little snippet at the end.

Is it just me, or did a lot of the neologisms in the book seem slightly Jewish, or at least Hebrew?

It is perfectly monstrous the way people go about nowadays saying things against one, behind one's back, that are absolutely and entirely true.
-- Oscar Wilde

#6 stone monkey

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Posted 12 January 2011 - 07:51 PM

jitsukerr, on 12 January 2011 - 10:06 AM, said:

Is it just me, or did a lot of the neologisms in the book seem slightly Jewish, or at least Hebrew?

That's because a lot of them are.... http://en.wikipedia....e_Quantum_Thief

#7 amphibian

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Posted 10 October 2012 - 03:11 PM

Reviving this to talk about the Fractal Prince.

Some of this bent my mind pretty severely. I would say a re-read of the Quantum Thief is mandatory to fully pick up on everything. Rajaniemi is a ridiculously agile writer and unless you're warmed up and ready to go with the first book under your belt, the Fractal Prince is a tough read to jump into after a two year gap.

I'm going to re-read QT and then re-read FP soon. Right now, I really liked FP and thought it upped the stakes well and brought in some much-needed fleshing out of character motives - along with a healthy dose of "WTF is going on???".

Hannu might be the single most important author to support right now. His brand of agile writing is as if he decided to write an artistic European heist film in the style of William Gibson (specifically Count Zero) and Alistair Reynolds (Chasm City) mashed up with John Clute's Appleseed. It may not hit best seller lists, but damn, it's good writing. Buy, buy, buy, please!

I survived the Permian and all I got was this t-shirt.

#8 stone monkey

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Posted 10 October 2012 - 07:27 PM

Reading it now. I'm fairly sure I have no idea what is going on yet. But I may have the odd inkling; my past experience shows that my subconscious knew way more about what was going on in The Quantum Thief than my conscious mind did.. The flashback to how Jean ended up in the Dilemma Prison is interesting; it's nice to see him in his pomp.