The Fractal Prince

By Hannu Rajaniemi

Book 2 of the Jean le Flambeur series

Review

★★★☆☆

The Fractal Prince is the second book in the Jean le Flambeur series. While the first book, The Quantum Thief, left me underwhelmed, the second book more than lived up to the hype.

In The Quantum Thief, le Flambeur went to Mars to recover his memories. In The Fractal Prince, he heads to Earth to gather tools for his heist. Earth has its own unique culture, technology, and characters, just like Mars. And again, Rajaniemi throws the reader into the deep end to figure things out, but this time he gives us a little help. Some characters ask questions the reader likely has, providing small bits of exposition missing from the first book.

Earth’s culture is loosely based on One Thousand and One Nights—tales within tales have power, minds without bodies are called Jinn, and the desert of wildcode is a constant threat.

The Fractal Prince expanded the universe and filled in details: characters developed more personality, faction goals were revealed, and the stakes felt higher.

After almost not finishing the first book, I’m glad I powered through to The Fractal Prince. I look forward to the next book, The Causal Angel.