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Whenever a publisher declares a new author has crafted the debut novel of the decade, I grow suspicious. Three have come to my attention recently: Charles Yu's How to Live Safely in a Science Fictional Universe, Simon Morden's Equations of Life, and now Icelander Hannu Rajaniemi's Quantum Thief. From the Yu review: "Like Jamil Nasir, Yu is an accomplished literary writer and his prose flows easily. Some readers will love this debut novel, while others may regard it as pretentious and boring…" the same applies to the Quantum Thief. I thoroughly enjoyed the Equations of Life and expect the two follow-on volumes to fulfill the promise of the first. However, I cannot say the same for the Quantum Thief.

Rajaniemi, the owner of a PhD in string theory and director of a think tank on advanced math and artificial intelligence, brings that knowledge to the fore in the Quantum Thief. The novel follows several characters: a thief, an augmented agent/warrior, and a detective as they struggle to accomplish complex tasks, not the least of which is to uncover conspiracies and the nature of memory. Plenty of action and surprises await the persistent readers, provided they make it through the almost mind-numbing confusion of information overload in the initial chapters.

The world Rajaniemi has crafted is complicated and nested with many layers and linkages. Memories and mental constructs predominate sprinkled or enhanced with machine technology. Individual units, whether human, machine, or memory are readily obliterated or replaced. Among the more interesting constructs is the mentally aware starship Perhonen. Like Yu's computer controller, it grows more human as the novel progresses. The moving Martian city with its cycle of life, service, and hibernation provides food for thought.

The author uses words with a history of meanings and antecedents to create a rich tapestry. Symbolism plays a major role, and he uses Proust's sense of smell effectively in evoking memories. The characters struggle for meaning and for relationships as the thief seeks something he hid more than twenty years ago. One factor about the thief is unexpected by the forces employing him and causes significant consequences, his innate sense of honor.

The chapter on the murder of the chocolatier could easily be a stand-alone short story. It introduces the concept of crystalline structures related to tastes and provides an important clue to solving the murder. It also introduces Isidore Beautrelet, the detective.

Heroes with lost or faulty memories have been used by many authors including Isaac Asimov in his Robot City series and featured in movies such as Conspiracy Theory. Human adaptation to the outer planets is also a common theme as is the hive mind and use of gaming techniques.

One hopes the sequels will flesh out the stories and the motivations left unclear in the current novel. The late Jack Chalker excelled at raising questions in the reader's mind, but he also answered them. It remains for the future to show whether Rajaniemi intends to do the same.