The Quantum Thief is the upcoming hard SF novel from Edinburgh-based Finnish author Hannu Rajaniemi. The reason I am mentioning this novel is because it got Rajaniemi a three-book deal with Gollancz based only on the first chapter.
I see the buzz building about this novel. From what I've seen, the sum of what it's based on is the article about the deal and the product description on Amazon. Beyond that, readers with advance review copies are dropping tantalizing hints about how good it is.
I thought it might be useful and interesting for us as writers to study the Amazon product description. Here it is:
What are your thoughts and reactions?
I see the buzz building about this novel. From what I've seen, the sum of what it's based on is the article about the deal and the product description on Amazon. Beyond that, readers with advance review copies are dropping tantalizing hints about how good it is.
I thought it might be useful and interesting for us as writers to study the Amazon product description. Here it is:
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. She offers him a chance to win back his freedom and the powers of his old self - in exchange for finishing the one heist he never quite managed . . . 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.
This blurb works well for me. Although it feels very complex and has a lot of unfamiliar terms, they're described just enough to imagine them. There's a sense of a vast fictional universe to explore, and of a character who is never passive. He's not a 'good guy', and although that would normally put me off a little, the mention of unknown origins and making a mistake suggest someone who is fallible (a good, humanizing quality, to me) and whose past choices could potentially be explained in a way that will satisfy me. The initial story premise is clear and simple, which I think will allow the reader to gain a footing in the story easily and also allow the incredible world-building to be used to best effect as the story deepens.
What are your thoughts and reactions?
