Andrew Robins did a “proper” review of Hannu Rajaniemi’s The Fractal Prince recently, so this is going to be a very brief reading report, not a reiteration of that review.

But you’ll also recall that I read and enjoyed Rajaniemi’s The Quantum Thief last year, so I was very keen to read the second book in the series for myself. Like The Quantum Thief it is set in a future solar system in which human beings and the societies they inhabit have become as much virtual as real. There also appears to be a war going on between those who wish to see society fully uploaded into a virtual existence (think Matrix here) and those who have other objectives—although I remain unclear as to what those objectives are at this point in the series.  Just to add in further layers, there is also an internal conflict going on within the uploader faction.

Like Andrew, I did enjoy The Fractal Prince, mostly for one of the reasons I mentioned in relation to The Quantum Thief last year: “it’s not only definitely space opera, but a richly baroque variant distinguished by the sheer imagination of the world building.” I not only like the whole ‘verse Rajaniemi has created, but also enjoyed the specific world of Sirr (on the last remnant of Earth) in this book—effectively the counterpart of the Oubliette in the first book.

I also liked that readers get to learn more about several of the characters, particularly Mieli and Perhonen and the backstory to their mission.

Overall, I still enjoyed the book a lot—in terms of sheer imagination, I think it’s a series that would be hard to beat over the past few years. But although the ethos of this story is what Andrew Robins described as “a story with layers, as well as plenty of smoke-and-mirrors”, I did not feel that the twists and turns hung together quite as well as they did in the earlier book.  In fact there were elements where at the end I thought: “What on earth was that all about? Why was it in the book?” As well as: “How the heck did that happen at all?”

Now it may be that these apparent disconnections are simply a failure of perception on my part. Or it may be that they will resolve in the third book—I do hope so. But even if they don’t, I will still hold to my view that overall I enjoyed the book, liking many of the characters a great deal and loving the extravagant imagination of the world building.

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So how about you—what are you  reading and enjoying this weekend?