With his infectious love of storytelling in all its forms, his rich characterisation and his unrivalled grasp of thrillingly bizarre cutting-edge science, Hannu Rajaniemi has swiftly set a new benchmark for SF in the 21st century. And now with his third novel he completes the tale of his gentleman rogue, the many lives and minds of Jean de Flambeur.
Influenced as much by the fin de siecle novels of Maurice leBlanc as he is by the greats of SF, Rajaniemi weaves intricate, warm capers through dazzling science, extraordinary visions of wild future and deep conjecture on the nature of reality and story.
And now we find out what will happen to Jean, his employer Miele, the independently minded ship Perhonnen and the rest of a fractured and diverse humanity flung through the solar system.
Influenced as much by the fin de siecle novels of Maurice leBlanc as he is by the greats of SF, Rajaniemi weaves intricate, warm capers through dazzling science, extraordinary visions of wild future and deep conjecture on the nature of reality and story.
And now we find out what will happen to Jean, his employer Miele, the independently minded ship Perhonnen and the rest of a fractured and diverse humanity flung through the solar system.
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Reviews
A widescreen-baroque grandeur... A maddening, dizzying and dazzling novel
It's all things to all people, opening up to deliver whatever you want from it - action and adventure, memorable characters, rich stories and weighty themes. This is what Science Fiction should aspire to.
The bottom line for The Causal Angel and the Jean Le Flambeur series: it's evocative and can be mind-bogglingly at times but this creates a highly addictive air around it, and once you get through to the fine details you will be amazed. This is must read science fiction.
The author, who has a PhD in string theory, uses the tropes of the genre to present cutting-edge explorations of post-humanism, quantum physics and cybernetics. The plot is pell-mell, the theory intellectually challenging, and Flambeur appears as a fully rounded human being, with hopes and desires, strengths and flaws.
With The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi set a new standard for science fiction that dared to imagine a post-human future. With its sequel, The Fractal Prince, he successfully built on his narrative foundations to add a greater depth to his characters - not least the gentleman thief Jean le Flambeur - and an added strength to his ideas. So it's something of a relief to report that the trilogy's conclusion, The Causal Angel, doesn't disappoint.
Hannu Rajaniemi is without question one of the smartest and most exciting writers working in science fiction as we speak, and I can't wait to see what he does next.