The Fractal Prince

The second in Rajaniemi's Flambeau trilogy. I read the three as one story. And my comments about #1, The Quantum Thief, also apply here.

The first line of the book: "That night, Matjek sneaks out of his dream to visit the thief again." Once again it begins with a 'what on earth does that mean?' line, and continues the same throughout.

The first one was carried by its really cool concepts but this one doesn't have that so it's way less interesting. I think it also suffers from being the second book in a trilogy, with too much content for two books but not enough for three you often end up with that sort of shallow second book. Not terrible to read though.

Like the first one, I started out annoyed by all the unexplained nomenclature. And then like the first, about halfway through I caught myself fully invested in the story and not noticing the strange words. Finally, like the first one, the ending doesn't feel as resonant as it should because when everything comes to a head I drown in the made up words which take over. Still quite enjoyable.

WooHoo! Another high tech slalom ride. The plot thickens. An excellent continuation of the first novel.

Hannu Rajaniemi continues writing strong novels. The text flies high and getting it all is a bit of a challenge; but it is a good ride nevertheless. There's a cool, subtle XKCD reference in the book; I found that hilarious.