The Quantum Thief
Failed to add items
Add to Cart failed.
Add to Wish List failed.
Remove from wishlist failed.
Adding to library failed
Follow podcast failed
Unfollow podcast failed
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Buy for $20.24
No default payment method selected.
We are sorry. We are not allowed to sell this product with the selected payment method
-
Narrated by:
-
Scott Brick
-
By:
-
Hannu Rajaniemi
About this listen
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-turned-singularity 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....
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.
©2010 Hanni Rajaniemi (P)2011 Macmillan AudioListeners also enjoyed...
-
Blindsight
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold. After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.
-
-
Gothic Horror Hard Science Fiction
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-24-15
By: Peter Watts
-
Summerland
- By: Hannu Rajaniemi
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning. In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased. Yet Britain isn’t the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god. When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk.
-
-
Was just too boring for me.
- By Wade Dowden on 07-29-18
By: Hannu Rajaniemi
-
Accelerando
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
-
-
Hardest of hard SF...
- By DLee on 11-24-14
By: Charles Stross
-
The Quantum Magician
- By: Derek Kunsken
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Belisarius is a quantum man, an engineered Homo quantus who fled the powerful insight of dangerously addictive quantum senses. He found a precarious balance as a con man, but when a client offers him untold wealth to move a squadron of warships across an enemy wormhole, he must embrace his birthright to even try. In fact, the job is so big that he'll need a crew built from all the new sub-branches of humanity. If he succeeds, he might trigger an interstellar war, but success might also point the way to the next step of Homo quantus evolution.
-
-
Just when I had given up.... jack pot!
- By Zach on 11-08-18
By: Derek Kunsken
-
Consider Phlebas
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it....
-
-
Visionary but half-cooked intro to Culture 'verse
- By Ryan on 07-20-13
By: Iain M. Banks
-
A Memory Called Empire
- Teixcalaan, Book 1
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
-
-
Story is great, weird editing, not great narration
- By Nadia on 06-10-19
By: Arkady Martine
-
Blindsight
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold. After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.
-
-
Gothic Horror Hard Science Fiction
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-24-15
By: Peter Watts
-
Summerland
- By: Hannu Rajaniemi
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning. In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased. Yet Britain isn’t the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god. When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk.
-
-
Was just too boring for me.
- By Wade Dowden on 07-29-18
By: Hannu Rajaniemi
-
Accelerando
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
-
-
Hardest of hard SF...
- By DLee on 11-24-14
By: Charles Stross
-
The Quantum Magician
- By: Derek Kunsken
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Belisarius is a quantum man, an engineered Homo quantus who fled the powerful insight of dangerously addictive quantum senses. He found a precarious balance as a con man, but when a client offers him untold wealth to move a squadron of warships across an enemy wormhole, he must embrace his birthright to even try. In fact, the job is so big that he'll need a crew built from all the new sub-branches of humanity. If he succeeds, he might trigger an interstellar war, but success might also point the way to the next step of Homo quantus evolution.
-
-
Just when I had given up.... jack pot!
- By Zach on 11-08-18
By: Derek Kunsken
-
Consider Phlebas
- By: Iain M. Banks
- Narrated by: Peter Kenny
- Length: 16 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The war raged across the galaxy. Billions had died, billions more were doomed. Moons, planets, the very stars themselves, faced destruction, cold-blooded, brutal, and worse, random. The Idirans fought for their Faith; the Culture for its moral right to exist. Principles were at stake. There could be no surrender. Within the cosmic conflict, an individual crusade. Deep within a fabled labyrinth on a barren world, a Planet of the Dead proscribed to mortals, lay a fugitive Mind. Both the Culture and the Idirans sought it....
-
-
Visionary but half-cooked intro to Culture 'verse
- By Ryan on 07-20-13
By: Iain M. Banks
-
A Memory Called Empire
- Teixcalaan, Book 1
- By: Arkady Martine
- Narrated by: Amy Landon
- Length: 15 hrs and 42 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ambassador Mahit Dzmare arrives in the center of the multi-system Teixcalaanli Empire only to discover that her predecessor, the previous ambassador from their small but fiercely independent mining station, has died. But no one will admit that his death wasn't an accident - or that Mahit might be next to die, during a time of political instability in the highest echelons of the imperial court. Now, Mahit must discover who is behind the murder, rescue herself, and save her station from Teixcalaan's unceasing expansion.
-
-
Story is great, weird editing, not great narration
- By Nadia on 06-10-19
By: Arkady Martine
-
Anathem
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman, Tavia Gilbert, William Dufris, and others
- Length: 32 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Fraa Erasmus is a young avout living in the Concent of Saunt Edhar, a sanctuary for mathematicians, scientists, and philosophers, protected from the corrupting influences of the "Saecular" world by ancient stone, honored traditions, and complex rituals. Over the centuries, cities, and governments have risen and fallen beyond the concent's walls. Three times during history's darkest epochs, bloody violence born of superstition and ignorance has invaded and devastated the cloistered mathic community.
-
-
I love Neal, but Good lord... ugh!
- By SpiderGrrl on 10-08-19
By: Neal Stephenson
-
Neuromancer
- By: William Gibson
- Narrated by: Robertson Dean
- Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Twenty years ago, it was as if someone turned on a light. The future blazed into existence with each deliberate word that William Gibson laid down. The winner of Hugo, Nebula, and Philip K. Dick Awards, Neuromancer didn't just explode onto the science fiction scene - it permeated into the collective consciousness, culture, science, and technology.Today, there is only one science fiction masterpiece to thank for the term "cyberpunk," for easing the way into the information age and Internet society.
-
-
Story? Classic. Narrator? Ugh.
- By Sage on 11-11-14
By: William Gibson
-
Atlas Shrugged
- By: Ayn Rand
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 62 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a scrap heap within an abandoned factory, the greatest invention in history lies dormant and unused. By what fatal error of judgment has its value gone unrecognized, its brilliant inventor punished rather than rewarded for his efforts? In defense of those greatest of human qualities that have made civilization possible, one man sets out to show what would happen to the world if all the heroes of innovation and industry went on strike.
-
-
Hurt version decidedly superior
- By Mica on 03-24-09
By: Ayn Rand
-
Pandora's Star
- By: Peter F. Hamilton
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 37 hrs and 21 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The year is 2380. The Intersolar Commonwealth, a sphere of stars some 400 light-years in diameter, contains more than 600 worlds, interconnected by a web of transport "tunnels" known as wormholes. At the farthest edge of the Commonwealth, astronomer Dudley Bose observes the impossible: Over 1,000 light-years away, a star...vanishes. It does not go supernova. It does not collapse into a black hole. It simply disappears.
-
-
Great Epic Scifi
- By Devin on 10-17-09
-
House of Suns
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 18 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Six million years ago, at the very dawn of the starfaring era, Abigail Gentian fractured herself into a thousand male and female clones: the shatterlings. Sent out into the galaxy, these shatterlings have stood aloof as they document the rise and fall of countless human empires. They meet every 200,000 years to exchange news and memories of their travels with their siblings.
-
-
Science fiction in Deep time
- By A reader on 05-12-10
-
Schild's Ladder
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Death ended countless millennia ago. No longer burdened by limited lifespans, the immortal humans who populate inhabited space now have the luxury to travel vast distances effortlessly and to tinker with the intricate mechanics of space time. But one such experiment in quantum physics has had a catastrophic and unanticipated result, creating an enormous, rapidly expanding vacuum - a region of new physics - with the frightening potential to devour countless inhabited solar systems.
-
-
Hard science fiction - no kiddin'
- By Michael Linehan on 01-06-14
By: Greg Egan
-
Revelation Space
- By: Alastair Reynolds
- Narrated by: John Lee
- Length: 22 hrs and 12 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Nine hundred thousand years ago, something annihilated the Amarantin civilization just as it was on the verge of discovering space flight. Now one scientist, Dan Sylveste, will stop at nothing to solve the Amarantin riddle before ancient history repeats itself. With no other resources at his disposal, Sylveste forges a dangerous alliance with the cyborg crew of the starship Nostalgia for Infinity. But as he closes in on the secret, a killer closes in on him because the Amarantin were destroyed for a reason.
-
-
Defeated
- By Eoin on 07-15-12
-
Paul of Dune
- Book One of the Heroes of Dune
- By: Brian Herbert, Kevin J. Anderson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 18 hrs and 36 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Muad'Dib's jihad is in full swing. His warrior legions march from victory to victory. But beneath the joy of victory there are dangerous undercurrents. Paul, like nearly every great conqueror, has enemies - those who would betray him to steal the awesome power he commands. Paul himself begins to have doubts: Is the jihad getting out of his control? Has he created anarchy? Has he been betrayed by those he loves and trusts the most? And most of all, he wonders: Am I going mad?
-
-
Great Listen but...
- By lee on 09-17-08
By: Brian Herbert, and others
-
Echopraxia
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: Adam J Rough
- Length: 12 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
It's the eve of the 22nd century: a world where the dearly departed send postcards back from Heaven and evangelicals make scientific breakthroughs by speaking in tongues; where genetically engineered vampires solve problems intractable to baseline humans. And it's all under surveillance by an alien presence. Daniel Bruks is a field biologist in a world where biology has turned computational.
-
-
A Must Read
- By Taylor Lewis on 12-21-15
By: Peter Watts
-
Memento
- An Illuminae Files Novella
- By: Amie Kaufman, Jay Kristoff
- Narrated by: India Dupré, James Fouhey, Lincoln Hoppe, and others
- Length: 1 hr and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
AIDAN is the AI you'll love to hate. The advanced AI system was supposed to protect a fleet of survivors who'd escaped the deadly attack on Kerenza IV. AIDAN was supposed to be infallible. But in the chaotic weeks and months that followed, it became clear that something was terribly, terribly wrong with AIDAN....
-
-
Wow
- By Iniysa on 02-04-21
By: Amie Kaufman, and others
-
Ninefox Gambit
- By: Yoon Ha Lee
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 10 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
To win an impossible war, Captain Kel Cheris must awaken an ancient weapon and a despised traitor general.
Captain Kel Cheris of the Hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics. Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics. Cheris' career isn't the only thing at stake. If the fortress falls, the Hexarchate itself might be next.
-
-
Just too confusing with enough context
- By Jose Alvarez on 04-02-17
By: Yoon Ha Lee
-
Reamde
- By: Neal Stephenson
- Narrated by: Malcolm Hillgartner
- Length: 38 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Anathem, Neal Stephenson is continually rocking the literary world with his brazen and brilliant fictional creations - whether he’s reimagining the past (The Baroque Cycle), inventing the future (Snow Crash), or both (Cryptonomicon).
-
-
Not perfect, but worth a listen.
- By ShySusan on 10-01-11
By: Neal Stephenson
Critic reviews
Related to this topic
-
Stations of the Tide
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.
-
-
Hard to categorize, hard to put down
- By Robert L. on 03-25-12
By: Michael Swanwick
-
Zodiac: Zodiac, Book 1
- By: Romina Russell
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars. While her classmates use measurements to make accurate astrological predictions, she looks up at the night sky and makes up stories.
-
-
Beware the 13th sign!
- By Krista Lemoine on 09-22-16
By: Romina Russell
-
Metrophage
- By: Richard Kadrey
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Los Angeles - where anger, hunger and disease run rampant. Jonny is a black-market dealer in drugs that heal the body and cool the mind. All he cares about is his own survival. Until a strange new plague turns L.A. into a city of death, and Jonny is forced to put everything on the line to find the cure... if it can be found on Earth.
-
-
This is how Cyberpunk should be done!
- By Cliff on 09-09-13
By: Richard Kadrey
-
Exquisite Captive
- Dark Caravan Cycle, Book 1
- By: Heather Demetrios
- Narrated by: Erin Mallon
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jinni. Empress. Warrior. Slave. Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. Stuffed into a bottle and sold by a slave trader, she's now in hiding on the dark caravan, the lucrative jinni slave trade between Arjinna and Earth, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey their human masters' every command. She'd give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to Malek, her cruel master, and his lavish Hollywood lifestyle.
-
-
Interesting Story
- By Ess Bee on 11-09-14
-
The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination
- Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius
- By: John Joseph Adams - editor
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Mary Robinette Kowal, Justine Eyre
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mad scientists have never had it so tough. In super-hero comics, graphic novels, films, TV series, video games, and even works of what may be fiction, they are besieged by those who stand against them, devoid of sympathy for their irrational, megalomaniacal impulses to rule, destroy, or otherwise dominate the world as we know it. It’s just not fair. So those of us who are so twisted and sick that we love mad scientists have created this guide.
-
-
HAND DANCING
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-30-15
-
Crewel
- Crewel World, Book 1
- By: Gennifer Albin
- Narrated by: Amanda Dolan
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, girls known as Spinsters have been called by Arras' Manipulation Services to work the looms and control what people eat, where they live, how many children they have, and even when they die. Gifted with the unusual ability to weave time with matter, 16-year-old Adelice Lewys is exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. But Adelice isn’t interested.
-
-
Good story
- By abacuscode on 01-12-15
By: Gennifer Albin
-
Stations of the Tide
- By: Michael Swanwick
- Narrated by: Oliver Wyman
- Length: 8 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Jubilee Tides will drown the continents of the planet Miranda beneath the weight of her own oceans. But as the once-in-two-centuries cataclysm approaches, an even greater catastrophe threatens this dark and dangerous planet of tale-spinners, conjurers, and shapechangers. From author Michael Swanwick—one of the most brilliantly assured and darkly inventive writers of contemporary fiction—comes a masterwork of radically altered realities and world-shattering seductions.
-
-
Hard to categorize, hard to put down
- By Robert L. on 03-25-12
By: Michael Swanwick
-
Zodiac: Zodiac, Book 1
- By: Romina Russell
- Narrated by: Rebecca Gibel
- Length: 13 hrs
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Rhoma Grace is a 16-year-old student from House Cancer with an unusual way of reading the stars. While her classmates use measurements to make accurate astrological predictions, she looks up at the night sky and makes up stories.
-
-
Beware the 13th sign!
- By Krista Lemoine on 09-22-16
By: Romina Russell
-
Metrophage
- By: Richard Kadrey
- Narrated by: Peter Ganim
- Length: 11 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Welcome to Los Angeles - where anger, hunger and disease run rampant. Jonny is a black-market dealer in drugs that heal the body and cool the mind. All he cares about is his own survival. Until a strange new plague turns L.A. into a city of death, and Jonny is forced to put everything on the line to find the cure... if it can be found on Earth.
-
-
This is how Cyberpunk should be done!
- By Cliff on 09-09-13
By: Richard Kadrey
-
Exquisite Captive
- Dark Caravan Cycle, Book 1
- By: Heather Demetrios
- Narrated by: Erin Mallon
- Length: 13 hrs and 43 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jinni. Empress. Warrior. Slave. Nalia is a jinni of tremendous ancient power, the only survivor of a coup that killed nearly everyone she loved. Stuffed into a bottle and sold by a slave trader, she's now in hiding on the dark caravan, the lucrative jinni slave trade between Arjinna and Earth, where jinn are forced to grant wishes and obey their human masters' every command. She'd give almost anything to be free of the golden shackles that bind her to Malek, her cruel master, and his lavish Hollywood lifestyle.
-
-
Interesting Story
- By Ess Bee on 11-09-14
-
The Mad Scientist's Guide to World Domination
- Original Short Fiction for the Modern Evil Genius
- By: John Joseph Adams - editor
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki, Mary Robinette Kowal, Justine Eyre
- Length: 15 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mad scientists have never had it so tough. In super-hero comics, graphic novels, films, TV series, video games, and even works of what may be fiction, they are besieged by those who stand against them, devoid of sympathy for their irrational, megalomaniacal impulses to rule, destroy, or otherwise dominate the world as we know it. It’s just not fair. So those of us who are so twisted and sick that we love mad scientists have created this guide.
-
-
HAND DANCING
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 05-30-15
-
Crewel
- Crewel World, Book 1
- By: Gennifer Albin
- Narrated by: Amanda Dolan
- Length: 9 hrs and 14 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
For generations, girls known as Spinsters have been called by Arras' Manipulation Services to work the looms and control what people eat, where they live, how many children they have, and even when they die. Gifted with the unusual ability to weave time with matter, 16-year-old Adelice Lewys is exactly what the Guild is looking for, and in the world of Arras, being chosen as a Spinster is everything a girl could want. It means privilege, eternal beauty, and being something other than a secretary. But Adelice isn’t interested.
-
-
Good story
- By abacuscode on 01-12-15
By: Gennifer Albin
-
Void Star
- By: Zachary Mason
- Narrated by: Cassandra Campbell, Tristan Morris, Sean Pratt, and others
- Length: 15 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Not far in the future, the seas have risen, and the central latitudes are emptying. But it's still a good time to be rich in San Francisco, where weapons drones patrol the skies to keep out the multitudinous poor.
-
-
if you're That Guy
- By Zachary on 06-18-17
By: Zachary Mason
-
The Cerulean
- By: Amy Ewing
- Narrated by: Kim Mai Guest
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Sera Lighthaven has always felt as if she didn’t quite belong among her people, the Cerulean, who live in the city above the sky. She is curious about everything - especially the planet her city is magically tethered to - and can’t stop questioning things. Sera has always longed for the day when the tether will finally break and the Cerulean can move to a new planet. But when Sera is chosen as the sacrifice to break the tether, she feels betrayed by everything in which she’d been taught to trust. In order to save her city, Sera must end her own life.
-
-
It was ok
- By Kim on 12-16-20
By: Amy Ewing
-
Pale Queen Rising
- Pale Queen Series #1
- By: A. R. Kahler
- Narrated by: Amy McFadden
- Length: 8 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
As royal assassin for the Faerie Queen, Claire is used to moving between the mortal world and the Winter Kingdom. When the queen commands her to kill, Claire does the job and doesn't ask questions. Her deadly skills and loyalty are soon tested when Claire is sent to the Immortal Circus. It is one of the many places where Dream is harvested from the imaginings of mortals, and someone is causing it to mysteriously disappear.
-
-
Loved it so much
- By Dandelioness on 11-08-18
By: A. R. Kahler
-
Soon I Will Be Invincible
- A Novel
- By: Austin Grossman
- Narrated by: Coleen Marlo, Paul Boehmer
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Doctor Impossible, evil genius and diabolical scientist, has tried to take over the world in every way imaginable, but this time is going to be different. He'll have to contend with Fatale, however, a rookie superhero on her first day with the Champions, the world's most famous superteam. She's a patchwork woman of skin and chrome, a gleaming technological marvel built for the next generation of warfare.
-
-
Now that I have you at my mercy. . .
- By Brad W. on 07-02-07
By: Austin Grossman
-
The Ninth Rain
- The Winnowing Flame Trilogy, Book 1
- By: Jen Williams
- Narrated by: Jot Davies
- Length: 20 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jen Williams, acclaimed author of The Copper Cat trilogy, featuring The Copper Promise, The Iron Ghost and The Silver Tide, returns with the first in a blistering new trilogy. The great city of Ebora once glittered with gold. Now its streets are stalked by wolves. Tormalin the Oathless has no taste for sitting around waiting to die while the realm of his storied ancestors falls to pieces - talk about a guilt trip. Better to be amongst the living, where there are taverns full of women and wine.
-
-
Couldn’t put it down!
- By Renae on 09-09-22
By: Jen Williams
-
Firstborn
- StarCraft: The Dark Templar Saga, Book 1
- By: Christie Golden
- Narrated by: Christie Golden
- Length: 10 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Jake Ramsey - an unassuming yet talented archaeologist - has been given the chance of a lifetime. Hired to investigate a recently unearthed Xel'Naga temple, he knows this latest assignment will open up whole new possibilities for his career. Yet when Jake discovers the remains of a long-dead protoss mystic, his hopes and dreams are irrevocably drowned in a flood of alien memories. Bonded to the spirit of the dead protoss, Jake has become the sole inheritor of the protoss' total history - every event, every thought - every feeling.
-
-
Christie Golden doesn't have a wide enough range
- By Chad Dye on 04-30-19
By: Christie Golden
-
City of Stairs
- By: Robert Jackson Bennett
- Narrated by: Alma Cuervo
- Length: 17 hrs and 50 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The city of Bulikov once wielded the powers of the gods to conquer the world, enslaving and brutalizing millions - until its divine protectors were killed. Now Bulikov has become just another colonial outpost of the world's new geopolitical power, but the surreal landscape of the city itself - first shaped, now shattered, by the thousands of miracles its guardians once worked upon it - stands as a constant, haunting reminder of its former supremacy. Into this broken city steps Shara Thivani.
-
-
Something Different
- By Scott S. on 10-17-14
-
Ink and Bone
- The Great Library
- By: Rachel Caine
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Ruthless and supremely powerful, the Great Library is now a presence in every major city, governing the flow of knowledge to the masses. Alchemy allows the library to deliver the content of the greatest works of history instantly - but the personal ownership of books is expressly forbidden. Jess Brightwell believes in the value of the library, but the majority of his knowledge comes from illegal books obtained by his family, who are involved in the thriving black market.
-
-
don't give up too soon.
- By Janel on 09-11-15
By: Rachel Caine
-
The Alchemy of Stone
- By: Ekaterina Sedia
- Narrated by: Eileen Stevens
- Length: 9 hrs and 9 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Mattie, an intelligent automaton skilled in the use of alchemy, finds herself caught in the middle of a conflict between gargoyles, the Mechanics, and the Alchemists. With the old order quickly giving way to the new, Mattie discovers powerful and dangerous secrets - secrets that can completely alter the balance of power in the city of Ayona. This doesn't sit well with Loharri, the Mechanic who created Mattie and still has the key to her heart - literally.
-
-
Steam Punk with a fizzle
- By Janice Budd on 12-29-11
By: Ekaterina Sedia
-
How Long 'Til Black Future Month?
- Stories
- By: N. K. Jemisin
- Narrated by: Shayna Small, Gail Nelson-Holgate, Robin Ray Eller, and others
- Length: 14 hrs and 10 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
N. K. Jemisin is one of the most powerful and acclaimed speculative fiction authors of our time. In the first collection of her evocative short fiction, Jemisin equally challenges and delights listeners with thought-provoking narratives of destruction, rebirth, and redemption.
-
-
Great! One quibble with the audiobook editing
- By L on 03-05-19
By: N. K. Jemisin
-
Angelmaker
- By: Nick Harkaway
- Narrated by: Daniel Weyman
- Length: 18 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Spork repairs clocks, a far cry from his late father, a flashy London gangster. But when Joe fixes one particularly unusual device, his life is suddenly upended. Joe's client, Edie Banister, is more than just a kindly old lady - she's a former superspy. And the device? It's a 1950s doomsday machine. And having triggered it, Joe now faces the wrath of both the government and a diabolical South Asian dictator, Edie's old arch-nemesis.
-
-
A cure for the modern cynic
- By Maine Colonial 🌲 on 08-28-12
By: Nick Harkaway
-
Three Parts Dead
- By: Max Gladstone
- Narrated by: Claudia Alick
- Length: 13 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A god has died, and it’s up to Tara, a first-year associate in the international necromantic firm of Kelethras, Albrecht, and Ao, to bring him back to life before his city falls apart. Her client is Kos, recently deceased fire god of the city of Alt Coulumb. Without him, the metropolis’ steam generators will shut down, its trains will cease running, and its four million citizens will riot. Tara’s job: resurrect Kos before chaos sets in.
-
-
Great story, but the narrator was off
- By John on 07-27-14
By: Max Gladstone
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
Accelerando
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
-
-
Hardest of hard SF...
- By DLee on 11-24-14
By: Charles Stross
-
Diaspora
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behold the orphan. Born into a world that is not a world. A digital being grown from a mind seed, a genderless cybernetic citizen in a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the Solar System into one scape, from the outer planets to the fiery surface of the Sun. Since the Introdus in the 21st century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software.
-
-
Fabulous Story, Disappointing Performance
- By Ben on 12-08-13
By: Greg Egan
-
Permutation City
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The good news is that you have just awakened into Eternal Life. You are going to live forever. Immortality is a reality. A medical miracle? Not exactly. The bad news is that you are a scrap of electronic code. The world you see around you, the you that is seeing it, has been digitized, scanned, and downloaded into a virtual reality program. You are a Copy that knows it is a copy. The good news is that there is a way out.
-
-
Amazing book. Amazingly bad narrator.
- By Treasure on 01-28-15
By: Greg Egan
-
Summerland
- By: Hannu Rajaniemi
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning. In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased. Yet Britain isn’t the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god. When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk.
-
-
Was just too boring for me.
- By Wade Dowden on 07-29-18
By: Hannu Rajaniemi
-
Blood Music
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vergil's innovative experiment restructuring the cells of a common virus becomes a nightmare when, in order to save his research, Vergil injects the entire culture into his bloodstream.
-
-
THOUGHT UNIVERSE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 08-01-15
By: Greg Bear
-
Dragon's Egg
- Cheela, Book 1
- By: Robert L. Forward
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms - the cheela-living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers.
-
-
Classic Hard Science Fiction
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 01-12-18
-
Accelerando
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 16 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Singularity. It is the era of the posthuman. Artificial intelligences have surpassed the limits of human intellect. Biotechnological beings have rendered people all but extinct. Molecular nanotechnology runs rampant, replicating and reprogramming at will. Contact with extraterrestrial life grows more imminent with each new day.
-
-
Hardest of hard SF...
- By DLee on 11-24-14
By: Charles Stross
-
Diaspora
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 11 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Behold the orphan. Born into a world that is not a world. A digital being grown from a mind seed, a genderless cybernetic citizen in a vast network of probes, satellites, and servers knitting the Solar System into one scape, from the outer planets to the fiery surface of the Sun. Since the Introdus in the 21st century, humanity has reconfigured itself drastically. Most chose immortality, joining the polises to become conscious software.
-
-
Fabulous Story, Disappointing Performance
- By Ben on 12-08-13
By: Greg Egan
-
Permutation City
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 12 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The good news is that you have just awakened into Eternal Life. You are going to live forever. Immortality is a reality. A medical miracle? Not exactly. The bad news is that you are a scrap of electronic code. The world you see around you, the you that is seeing it, has been digitized, scanned, and downloaded into a virtual reality program. You are a Copy that knows it is a copy. The good news is that there is a way out.
-
-
Amazing book. Amazingly bad narrator.
- By Treasure on 01-28-15
By: Greg Egan
-
Summerland
- By: Hannu Rajaniemi
- Narrated by: Antonia Beamish
- Length: 9 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Loss is a thing of the past. Murder is obsolete. Death is just the beginning. In 1938, death is no longer feared but exploited. Since the discovery of the afterlife, the British Empire has extended its reach into Summerland, a metropolis for the recently deceased. Yet Britain isn’t the only contender for power in this life and the next. The Soviets have spies in Summerland, and the technology to build their own god. When SIS agent Rachel White gets a lead on one of the Soviet moles, blowing the whistle puts her hard-earned career at risk.
-
-
Was just too boring for me.
- By Wade Dowden on 07-29-18
By: Hannu Rajaniemi
-
Blood Music
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Vergil's innovative experiment restructuring the cells of a common virus becomes a nightmare when, in order to save his research, Vergil injects the entire culture into his bloodstream.
-
-
THOUGHT UNIVERSE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 08-01-15
By: Greg Bear
-
Dragon's Egg
- Cheela, Book 1
- By: Robert L. Forward
- Narrated by: Todd McLaren
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In a moving story of sacrifice and triumph, human scientists establish a relationship with intelligent lifeforms - the cheela-living on Dragon's Egg, a neutron star where one Earth hour is equivalent to hundreds of their years. The cheela culturally evolve from savagery to the discovery of science, and for a brief time, men are their diligent teachers.
-
-
Classic Hard Science Fiction
- By Daniel Cascaddan on 01-12-18
-
Blindsight
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 11 hrs and 47 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set in 2082, Peter Watts' Blindsight is fast-moving, hard SF that pulls readers into a futuristic world where a mind-bending alien encounter is about to unfold. After the Firefall, all eyes are locked heavenward as a team of specialists aboard the self-piloted spaceship Theseus hurtles outbound to intercept an unknown intelligence.
-
-
Gothic Horror Hard Science Fiction
- By Doug D. Eigsti on 06-24-15
By: Peter Watts
-
The Windup Girl
- By: Paolo Bacigalupi
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 19 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Anderson Lake is a company man, AgriGen's Calorie Man in Thailand. Under cover as a factory manager, Anderson combs Bangkok's street markets in search of foodstuffs thought to be extinct, hoping to reap the bounty of history's lost calories. There, he encounters Emiko...Emiko is the Windup Girl, a strange and beautiful creature. One of the New People, Emiko is not human; instead, she is an engineered being, creche-grown and programmed to satisfy the decadent whims of a Kyoto businessman.
-
-
Good and also Frustrating
- By txkimmers on 11-16-09
By: Paolo Bacigalupi
-
The Quantum Magician
- By: Derek Kunsken
- Narrated by: T. Ryder Smith
- Length: 13 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Belisarius is a quantum man, an engineered Homo quantus who fled the powerful insight of dangerously addictive quantum senses. He found a precarious balance as a con man, but when a client offers him untold wealth to move a squadron of warships across an enemy wormhole, he must embrace his birthright to even try. In fact, the job is so big that he'll need a crew built from all the new sub-branches of humanity. If he succeeds, he might trigger an interstellar war, but success might also point the way to the next step of Homo quantus evolution.
-
-
Just when I had given up.... jack pot!
- By Zach on 11-08-18
By: Derek Kunsken
-
Autonomous
- A Novel
- By: Annalee Newitz
- Narrated by: Jennifer Ikeda
- Length: 10 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Earth, 2144. Jack is an anti-patent scientist turned drug pirate, traversing the world in a submarine as a pharmaceutical Robin Hood, fabricating cheap scrips for poor people who can't otherwise afford them. But her latest drug hack has left a trail of lethal overdoses as people become addicted to their work, doing repetitive tasks until they become unsafe or insane.
-
-
Came For The Science, Bailed For The Porn
- By Becca Mellema on 08-05-19
By: Annalee Newitz
-
Schismatrix Plus
- By: Bruce Sterling
- Narrated by: Pavi Proczko
- Length: 17 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Acclaimed science fiction luminary and a godfather of the genre’s remarkable offspring - cyberpunk - Bruce Sterling carries readers to a far-future universe where stunning achievements in human development have been tainted by a virulent outbreak of prejudice and hatred.
-
-
Sci-fi should be weird but...
- By Ryan H. on 02-11-21
By: Bruce Sterling
-
Axis
- By: Robert Charles Wilson
- Narrated by: Scott Brick
- Length: 10 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Lise Adams is a young woman attempting to uncover the mystery of her father's disappearance ten years earlier. Turk Findley is an ex-sailor and sometimes-drifter. They come together when an infall of cometary dust seeds the planet with tiny remnant Hypothetical machines. Soon, this seemingly hospitable world will become very alien indeed--as the nature of time is once again twisted, by entities unknown.
-
-
From Hypothertical to Pathetic , let down!
- By Jason on 08-30-08
-
Quarantine
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 9 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In 2034, the stars went out. An unknown agency surrounded the solar system with an impenetrable barrier, concealing the universe from humanity’s gaze. In 2067, Nick Stavrianos is hired to investigate the disappearance of a mentally disabled woman, Laura Andrews, from the institution where she was being cared for. Aided by a skull full of neural modifications, he follows her trail to the Republic of New Hong Kong, where an organization known as the Ensemble has uncovered Laura’s extraordinary secret: An ability that could transform the world.
-
-
Fantastic Story Let Down by Narration
- By Julia Oberhardt on 12-09-13
By: Greg Egan
-
Aurora
- By: Kim Stanley Robinson
- Narrated by: Ali Ahn
- Length: 16 hrs and 56 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A major new novel from one of science fiction's most powerful voices, Aurora tells the incredible story of our first voyage beyond the solar system. Brilliantly imagined and beautifully told, it is the work of a writer at the height of his powers.
-
-
The Future is Limited, Get Used to It
- By Martin Lesser on 08-20-15
-
Starfish
- Rifters Trilogy Series, Book 1
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: Gabriel Vaughan
- Length: 11 hrs and 57 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A huge international corporation has developed a facility along the Juan de Fuca Ridge at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean to exploit geothermal power. They send a bio-engineered crew - people who have been altered to withstand the pressure and breathe the seawater - down to live and work in this weird, fertile undersea darkness.
-
-
An excellent story, but only half of it
- By Casey on 02-12-20
By: Peter Watts
-
Glasshouse
- By: Charles Stross
- Narrated by: Kevin R. Free
- Length: 13 hrs and 34 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
With Glasshouse, Stross pens a Kafkaesque tale set in a 27th-century of teleport gates and mind-attacking network worms. After Robin awakes in a clinic, he struggles to summon details of his life, but too many of his memories have been wiped clean. More troubling is the stark awareness of immediate danger: someone is trying to kill him. On the run, Robin makes a desperate gamble and volunteers for what he hopes is the sanctuary of an unusual study at the Glasshouse. Once there, however, he realizes the true terror has only begun.
-
-
Vintage Stross
- By Ken on 06-21-11
By: Charles Stross
-
Schild's Ladder
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
The Age of Death ended countless millennia ago. No longer burdened by limited lifespans, the immortal humans who populate inhabited space now have the luxury to travel vast distances effortlessly and to tinker with the intricate mechanics of space time. But one such experiment in quantum physics has had a catastrophic and unanticipated result, creating an enormous, rapidly expanding vacuum - a region of new physics - with the frightening potential to devour countless inhabited solar systems.
-
-
Hard science fiction - no kiddin'
- By Michael Linehan on 01-06-14
By: Greg Egan
-
The Freeze-Frame Revolution
- By: Peter Watts
- Narrated by: Emily Woo Zeller
- Length: 5 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
How do you stage a mutiny when you're only awake one day in a million? How do you conspire when your tiny handful of potential allies changes with each job shift? How do you engage an enemy that never sleeps, that sees through your eyes and hears through your ears, and relentlessly, honestly, only wants what's best for you? Trapped aboard the starship Eriophora, Sunday Ahzmundin is about to discover the components of any successful revolution: conspiracy, code - and unavoidable casualties.
-
-
Slow motion revolution
- By Michael G Kurilla on 11-04-20
By: Peter Watts
What listeners say about The Quantum Thief
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Connor
- 02-23-14
The Technology Rocks
This book was published four years ago, and while listening to Quantum Thief, I often felt 4 years old. I know that something important is being said, but I am not always able to understand the meaning. I was transfixed by the technology described in the book. To reduce the time it takes to communicate, characters often convey information by sending others a memory or thought. While not unique to this book, “time” is a form of currency and there is a pathetic scene where beggars plead for a few minutes of time to extend their life. The space craft used by the main characters is sentient and enjoys flirting with male passengers. But what did it all mean? Like a four year old, I do not have a clue. So, I clap my hands and squeal at the parts that I enjoyed.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
1 person found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Gabriel
- 03-24-16
Strange but good.
The story was a little confusing at first, but you learn what all the strange names and terms mean in a sort of organic way as you progress through the story. I would recommend looking some of them up if you get lost.
The use of post-technological sigularity inventions is thrilling and creative, and the characters are interesting. Overall a solid 4/5, possibly 5/5 if you reread it with a better understanding of the background.
The narrator is decent, but doesn't distinguish between various characters very well in comparison to other books I've listened too. Still, an overall pleasurable experience.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Amazon Customer
- 04-07-18
Made my head hurt in a good way
loved this story although it was very hard for me to understand. left me wanting to read the next.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Rodolphe
- 09-04-11
good. not a casual read
unique book, a bit confusing
If u dont really like scott brick..dont read this..its hard enough to follow the story if you like him (I do)
not for everyone
very interesting nano-tech notions
and the quantum stuff is delicious
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
8 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- JP
- 04-20-15
Transhumanist essential advanced
Long after you've mastered kurzweil's transcendent man & delved into relevant NF in theory of language, mind, & nanotechnology... After you've meditated on these things & found yourself wanting more discussion. Then you might be ready for this book. I actually cannot even tell if i truly liked the story or if I was so entranced by the accoutrements. You don't actually have to enjoy where the story takes you if you're adequately prepared for the mindbends. This book finally fuses the fantasy & scifi genres. There's now no need to settle elsewhere for less eminently plausible or less sensational supernatural: this book will make you think so much, it might just leave you indifferent as to the story.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Morgan
- 06-04-13
Fabulous story with great performance
Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?
I highly recommend this book if you're into good writing, tons of well-developed speculation about the development of future tech, and fantastic imagery that feels right and isn't a distraction from the plot.
Expect that you won't have a rock-solid understanding of everything for the first third of the book. Once you get some familiarity and context for the dozens of concepts that he incorporates, it'll all come together.
I challenge you not to keep thinking about it long afterward.
What other book might you compare The Quantum Thief to and why?
Dune. The depth of the world, the character development, technology and evolution so far advanced it appears as magic, but which contains a thread of possibility. Both books are literature.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
3 people found this helpful
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- NorEaster
- 03-18-12
Heavy read
I was very confused in the beginning of this book but so satisfied by the end. In typical SF fashion it is full of abstract technology but still a very character driven story. I don't think this would be a good fit for anyone looking for an easy read. You definitely have to pay attention and figure out a few things along the way. I'm looking forward to the second book.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Joshua Howard
- 12-20-18
Amazing journey
Will have to listen again for greater comprehension however this was an amazi g journey to be taken over and over again.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Justenk
- 01-14-18
It took a bit
Very well written and a very good sci-fi setting. I honestly didn't like it at the beginning, wanted to stop listening, because nothing made sense to me. I kept listening and eventually it drew my attention more and more.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
- Matthew
- 10-21-11
Starts Confusing, Gets Exciting, Ends Awesome
The Quantum Thief is a post-singularity SF novel, meaning it takes place in a future where the line between man and machine has blurred and things like memory uploads, microcomputers in the brain, and functional immortality can exist. Rajaniemi starts out this book by showing more than he tells, presenting the world of Jean Le Flambeur as he would tell it with little consideration for how little we understand of that world. Consequently, the first two hours or so of the book were utterly confusing. I had no idea what was going on, and I had lots of problems just visualizing the scenes and the environment. I began to worry that the whole novel would be told as a series of sense impressions.
A bit later, however, the writing style moves away from that extreme show-don't-tell style and it presents itself itself with detailed, character-driven scenes that caught me by surprise and delighted me to the end. The amount of detail Rajaniemi applies to his fictional future is staggering, and it's all presented in a coherent and enjoyable ride filled with enough action, intrigue, and general sensawunada to keep any SF fan happy. After having read it, I'm kind of surprised it didn't make the cut for the Hugo, if that tells you anything about how much I liked it. It's smart, and once you get into it you find it's got some panache with the way it incorporates technology, bits from contemporary culture, symbolism and tropes from literature, and homages to SF.
Charles Stross, another favorite of mine (and who writes a praising blurb on the book jacket of Quantum Thief) described Rajaniemi as "if you dropped Greg Egan's hard physics chops into a rebooted Finnish version of Al[astair] Reynolds with the writing talent of a Ted Chiang you'd begin to get a rough approximation of the scale of his talent." I find myself whole-heartedly agreeing with this estimation. I started off confused and annoyed with this one, and ended feeling like I could listen to it again and chomping at the bit for the next book in the trilogy. This was my first experience listening to Scott Brick as a narrator, and I think he did a pretty great job with it. Although at times he reminds me of Jonathan Davis in that moody, cloudy-day speech style of his (which can get a little old after a while), he performed the book instead of just reading it.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
You voted on this review!
You reported this review!
21 people found this helpful