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lbrunner.net · @lbrunner.net@bridge.neodb.net

Rated The Quantum Thief 10/10

This book is a modern, sci-fi take on Arsène Lupin and it's great.



The world-building is pretty deep and rarely exposition-dumped on you, which makes it both a challenging read but also really enjoyable. So many cool ideas around the different kind of trans-humanism which could be available if humans could just download their consciousness and memories to another body (zoku vs Sobornost vs Martians, etc)! I did struggle to understand the ending and some of the plot due to the mix of timelines, body copies, double-triple-quadruple crossing each others, etc to the point where I had to google to understand that <spoiler>Jean le Roi and Jean are the same person, just one is a copy with more memories than the other</spoiler>.



The change of POV between Isidore, Jean (who not only is the only first person narrator but also share his POV chapters with Mieli, which really help giving everyone a voice) and stories of <spoiler>Jean's past friends</spoiler> really keep the rhythm of the book high and the reader on-edge.



Being a French speaker and having just a tiny bit of awareness of Arsène Lupin's universe (not through reading the books but just through how much it has sipped into the French cultural landscape) does "spoil" a few things (<spoiler>Jean's Paul Sernine alias, the nature of his past with Pellegrini and their future conflict, his inevitable confrontation with Isidore, the past nature of the Oubliette</spoiler>). It's a shame but not really a deal breaker.



Due to how transhumanist the book is (which is more implied than in-your-face), I was expecting more trans or non-binary characters or general gender discussion. Maybe if body modification and swapping is so easy, transitioning might be so acceptable that it's not worth mentioning? However the lack of non-binary people and the usage of "his or her" instead of "they" did hurt a bit more, hopefully it's something that might get addressed in later books where we get to see other human cultures apart from Mars. I was left a bit grossed out by the interaction between Isidore and the <spoiler>watch shopkeeper</spoiler>, which was probably intentional but when that's one of your only explicitly queer characters and they are a bit pushy (to the point of <spoiler>basically harassment?</spoiler>) it's not great, especially when another character waves it away by saying "you know we get lonely in this line of work".



It's a shame that the book starts with <spoiler>Mieli asking Jean to steal something for her</spoiler> but it is never resolved in the book and is instead used as a cliffhanger for the sequel. It's effective because I really want to know what will happen but I was a bit disappointed! In any case, I will definitely read the sequel.

#book

Published 2019-11-06 11:50 UTC · bridged from Atmosphere