The Quantum Thief

It's a very good story and obviously very imaginative, the only problem is it suffers from WTF syndrome. This is clearly due to Rajaniemi's attempt to create a whole new world and use of language; a small glossary or some side text to explain what certain things are or the meaning of certain words would have been very helpful. The story starts off quick paced and confusing, at its middle you start to understand whats going on, but it does slow down a bit. By the end the pace has picked back up and youre on board with all the terms and the world so its a great finisher.

This book is brilliant. Many of the concepts addressed within it's pages seem more like educated guesses about a distant future than sci-fi make-believe. Of course, the timelines in play do leave a lot of room for creativity with regards to science, but the author avoids name dropping every technology that hasn't been invented yet. Though it loses a star for being too short, I really enjoyed reading this novel. Hopefully some lengthier titles will revisit this unique reality... and Jean le Flambeur.

Really enjoyed this one. A kaleidoscope view of a deep but not too deep post AI future. Wondrous in they pure imagination - harking back to the speculative fiction origins of the genre, but with out the bad prose that seems to somehow be the price you pay for really imaginative work. Reminiscent of Zelazny short stories in both the sometimes near poetic writing and in avoiding the temptation to explain itself... The reader is dropped into the middle of a story where half of fun is figuring out past.