The Quantum Thief

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

By: Hannu Rajaniemi

Narrated by: Rupert Degas

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.

Read by Rupert Degas

(p) 2011 Orion Publishing Group©2010 Hannu Rajaniemi

Voice effects destroys the experience

The chorus like talk is nearly impossible to hear. Did not manage to understand even a fragment of what they said with electronically distorted voices, thereby missing a lot of key information. So sad to destroy a novel with such a performance effect.

Great narration and voices

Nice sci-fi story, and great audio narration. Recommended for hard science fiction fans, works well as an audio book

good story, horrible quality of sound

Who would you have cast as narrator instead of Rupert Degas?

There is a problem with the quality of recording: the different voices are played with so much difference on volume, that listening the book in car is impossible.

Fast Paced Innovative Sci Fi

Good Novel. Really really interesting - but the first 1/3rd of the novel wasn't quite as much fun as the rest of it. I kept thinking - if the author would focus on the human elements more than the sci fi bit - the novel would become so much better. That first one third did very little scene setting and context/character development.

To his credit, the novel started developing characters more after the first 1/3, but to me, it left some dissatisfaction for me towards the end of the book (hence the lower overall score of 4 rather than 5).


The book itself is about a thief who is in a jail, escapes with help to do another heist. However, instead of heading towards the final heist, it goes on to do a sidequest on a futuristic Mars colony which forms the remaining 2/3rd of the book. It has to do with games, memories, technological manipulation, etc. all done in a very cool way. The author's key writing gift is to continually shift one gear up in the storyline right to the end.

The novel is part of the trilogy and I will definitely look forward to the next book. My only point is that I hope the author doesn't make the start so obscure and without any scene setting the next time.

A Perfect Story! A magnificent Performance!!

If you could sum up The Quantum Thief in three words, what would they be?

Thinking Out of the BOX!

Very Creative; Something like 'The Matrix' or 'Inception'

What other book might you compare The Quantum Thief to and why?

'The Matrix' or 'Inception'

What about Rupert Degas’s performance did you like?

It connects to you .... Especially during '1st person' lines...

Multiple [believable] voices!!

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

Made me say: