With his infectious love of storytelling in all its forms, his rich characterization, and his unrivalled grasp of cutting-edge science, Hannu Rajaniemi has swiftly set a new benchmark for SF in the twenty-first century. Rajaniemi's future is one in which quantum effects can be manipulated by the powerful to unknowable ends; an era in which some are gods and billions of others are enslaved for the processing power of their brains; where in the inner Solar System, the once-human Sobornost endlessly iterate themselves in vast, planet-sized guberniyas, while casually running experiments on the photosphere of the sun.



In this world, Jean le Flambeur has broken out of a virtual prison and, later, into the mind of a living god. Now his one-time rescuer, the warrior Mieli, is a prisoner herself. To get her back, Jean will need tools: A quantum pyramid scheme, a pair of physical bodies, a nugget of computronium, a bunch of entangled EPR pairs, and a few very special hydrogen bombs.



Jean le Flambeur, gentleman adventurer, is back. The solar system will tremble from one end to the other before he's done.