
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
-
The Three-Body Problem
- By: Cixin Liu
- Narrated by: Luke Daniels
- Length: 13 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Set against the backdrop of China’s Cultural Revolution, a secret military project sends signals into space to establish contact with aliens. An alien civilization on the brink of destruction captures the signal and plans to invade Earth. Meanwhile, on Earth, different camps start forming, planning to either welcome the superior beings and help them take over a world seen as corrupt, or to fight against the invasion.
-
-
They create a computer using a 30 million man Army
- By Josh P on 12-07-14
By: Cixin Liu
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
Cast Under an Alien Sun
- Destiny's Crucible, Book 1
- By: Olan Thorensen
- Narrated by: Jonathan Davis
- Length: 15 hrs and 44 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Joe Colsco boarded a flight from San Francisco to Chicago to attend a national chemistry meeting. He would never set foot on Earth again. On planet Anyar, Joe is found unconscious on a beach of a large island inhabited by humans where the level of technology is similar to Earth circa 1700. He awakes amid strangers speaking an unintelligible language and struggles to accept losing his previous life and finding a place in a society with different customs, needing a way to support himself and not knowing a single soul.
-
-
Slowly we turn, step by step, inch by inch...
- By Ron on 09-18-17
By: Olan Thorensen
Critic reviews
People who viewed this also viewed...
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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
-
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 Clockwork Rocket
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Adam Epstein
- Length: 15 hrs and 2 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
In Yalda's universe, light has mass, no universal speed, and its creation generates energy. On Yalda's world, plants make food by emitting light into the dark night sky. And time is different: An astronaut might measure decades passing while visiting another star, only to return and find that just weeks have elapsed for her friends. On the farm where she lives, Yalda sees strange meteors that are entering the planetary system at an immense, unprecedented speed...
-
-
Good Egan Hard SF story near ruined by the narator
- By James on 09-08-16
By: Greg Egan
-
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
-
Blood Music
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: George Guidall
- Length: 10 hrs and 49 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
An amazing breakthrough in genetic engineering made by Vergil Ulam is considered too dangerous for further research, but rather than destroy his work, he injects himself with his creation and walks out of his lab, unaware of just how his actions will change the world.
-
-
THOUGHT UNIVERSE
- By Jim "The Impatient" on 08-01-15
By: Greg Bear
-
Embers of War
- By: Gareth L. Powell
- Narrated by: Nicol Zanzarella, Amy Landon, Greg Tremblay, and others
- Length: 10 hrs and 38 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
From BSFA award-winning author Gareth L. Powell comes the first in a new epic sci-fi trilogy exploring the legacies of war. The sentient warship Trouble Dog was built for violence, yet following a brutal war, she is disgusted by her role in a genocide. Stripped of her weaponry and seeking to atone, she joins the House of Reclamation, an organization dedicated to rescuing ships in distress. When a civilian ship goes missing in a disputed system, Trouble Dog and her new crew of loners, captained by Sal Konstanz, are sent on a rescue mission.
-
-
Narrator has an annoying cadence
- By Hilmi S Alkindy on 09-20-20
By: Gareth L. Powell
-
Incandescence
- By: Greg Egan
- Narrated by: Paul Boehmer
- Length: 11 hrs and 7 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
Hugo Award-winning author Egan returns to the field with Incandescence, a novel of hard SF. The Amalgam spans nearly the entire galaxy, and is composed of innumerable beings from a wild variety of races, some human or near it, some entirely other. The one place that they cannot go is the bulge, the bright, hot center of the galaxy. There dwell the Aloof, who for millions of years have deflected any and all attempts to communicate with or visit them.
-
-
Incandescence – Science / fiction
- By Don Gilbert on 02-06-14
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
-
A Fire Upon the Deep
- By: Vernor Vinge
- Narrated by: Peter Larkin
- Length: 21 hrs and 37 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
A Fire Upon the Deep is the big, breakout book that fulfills the promise of Vinge's career to date: a gripping tale of galactic war told on a cosmic scale. Thousands of years hence, many races inhabit a universe where a mind's potential is determined by its location in space, from superintelligent entities in the Transcend, to the limited minds of the Unthinking Depths, where only simple creatures and technology can function.
-
-
What a wild, wacky, awesome book!
- By Noah Smith on 06-20-10
By: Vernor Vinge
-
Last and First Men
- By: Olaf Stapledon
- Narrated by: Stephen Greif
- Length: 14 hrs and 48 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
One of the most extraordinary, imaginative and ambitious novels of the century: a history of the evolution of humankind over the next 2 billion years. Among all science fiction writers Olaf Stapledon stands alone for the sheer scope and ambition of his work. First published in 1930, Last and First Men is full of pioneering speculations about evolution, terraforming, genetic engineering and many other subjects.
-
-
Quite impressive for 1930
- By Michael G Kurilla on 07-28-13
By: Olaf Stapledon
-
The Forge of God
- By: Greg Bear
- Narrated by: Stephen Bel Davies
- Length: 16 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall
-
Performance
-
Story
On September 28th, a geologist working in Death Valley finds a mysterious new cinder cone in very well-mapped area. On October 1, the government of Australia announces the discovery of an enormous granite mountain. Like the cinder cone, it wasn't there six months ago.
Something is happening to planet Earth, and the truth is too terrifying to contemplate
-
-
Great Story, Wonderful Listening, But the Editor?
- By George Knight on 07-14-13
By: Greg Bear
-
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
-
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
-
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
The Technology Rocks
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
Strange but good.
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Made my head hurt in a good way
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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
good. not a casual read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Transhumanist essential advanced
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.Fabulous story with great performance
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Heavy read
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
Amazing journey
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
It took a bit
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.
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.
Starts Confusing, Gets Exciting, Ends Awesome
Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.