How Hannu Rajaniemi turned a single chapter into a three-book deal

It is n’t every day that a brand - new generator lands a three - playscript , five - figure book deal on the back of a single chapter . SciFiNow ’s Sam Bandah lecture to Finnish writer Hannu Rajaniemi about how it happen .

The response to Hannu Rajaniemi ’s debut , futuristic cyberpunk heist novel The Quantum Thief has been phenomenal , with a wave of decisive praise draw Rajaniemi comparisons to the the like of Greg Egan , Charlie Stross and Richard Morgan . And all before the Holy Scripture has even made its way into the hands of an heavy world .

But while the Finnish born PhD is grateful for the appreciation his book has received , he is n’t quite quick to see himself as the ‘ impudent new voice ’ of sci - fi . “ I ’m probably still not in a place where I can see myself as such ; I personally find I ’m still learning the craft , ” he say demurely . But talking to him about his rapid life history , it ’s quickly apparent he ’s no stranger to being compared to other sci - fi rising stars , having first badly begun writing in 2002 while meditate his Ph.D. as part of committal to writing mathematical group call Writers Bloc – which let in author Charles Stross and Alan Campbell .

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“ It is , and always has been a position with quite a abrasive story of criticism , ” he says . “ But in a sizeable and professional path , of form , so it was a good group of mass and environs in which to develop . ” And being capable to approach writing as more of a technical drill because he was doing it in a second language was just as important . “ There was n’t such a tremendous emotional connection to thing ; I could maltreat back and expect at it a little more distantly , making it somehow easier trying to determine the basics of plotting , theatrical role and dialogue . I retrieve it was Nabokov , ” he say , refer to the polyglot Russian author of Lolita , “ who identify writing in another language as this ‘ new bent of toys you’re able to take on with ’ , so I think it was very much like that . Not that I ’m comparing myself to Nabokov . ”

His early composition tenure included several tending - garnering short stories , including ‘ Shibuya No Love ’ in 2003 , but it was his cellular inclusion in Nova Scotia ( a collection of Scottish bad fable ) with ‘ Deus Ex Homine ’ that led to his coming together with literary factor John Jarrold in 2005 . An rabid spam filter would delay their collaborationism until 2008 , when Jarrold asked if he had any novel ideas . Like most writers , Rajaniemi had spent three class or so tinkering with a novel that he turn back to .

At the sentence , Rajaniemi was stop his Ph.D. and co - founding Think Tank Maths , a consultancy company that solve with organisations like the Ministry of Defence , and authorship had been put on the back burner . He returned to it with gusto , but found it was n’t gentle . “ I kept poke my head on an old ms for a while and then got eat up with it . ” It prompted him to take an old idea “ out of a draftsman ” , which became the first written chapter of The Quantum Thief , which Jarrold presented to publisher Simon Spanton of Gollancz as the basis of his three - book deal .

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“ Of course getting the book deal was a lilliputian intimidate at first , ” he admits . “ I guess one answer to getting the book deal was to come up with an outline that had every single idea I could cram into it , because I wanted to be worthy of what had happened . ” The result was to expand the outline into three part , the first of which became The Quantum Thief .

There are sure as shooting a great issue of stratum in The Quantum Thief , but they make sense after blab out about Rajaniemi ’s sci - fi inspirations . “ I had a period before I discovered Isaac Asimov , Arthur C Clarke and the classic sci - fi writers , ” he tells us , “ where I study a lot of puritanical fiction . multitude like Jules Verne , HG Wells and then detective stories like Sherlock Holmes and especially Maurice Leblanc , whose tarradiddle have a very unmediated influence on The Quantum Thief . ”

Some of those writer and his own work as a scientist strongly influenced his prospect of the use of the genre – which he believes is changing . “ What ’s pass off at the moment is that we ’re living in a menstruum of dead unbelievable speedy technological variety , so I think it ’s hard for a sci - fi writer these years to be a fantast in the fashion that people like Arthur C Clarke perhaps were , because the horizon of technological modification is so close , however the techniques of the craft are still valid . ”

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Another function of sci - fi , he believe , is to comment on the yesteryear , not by betoken the future , but shew alternate potential futures or reflecting upon the nowadays as a kind of funhouse mirror – taking tendency , and ideas from the present day and then amplify to the extreme or following to its logical last . It ’s an approach , he points out , that has been used by writer like William Gibson or Neal Stephenson , who are address the past using the same puppet sci - fi commonly applies to the hereafter to produce alternative past or presents .

“ One matter I tried in Quantum Thief along those lines was with the Oubliette – expand the idea that we live in an surroundings where we are generating enormous sum of money of data that can be garner and perhaps used for villainous purpose , so could there be a social club where concealment was the centrepiece of technical purpose ? ”

Talking to Rajaniemi , it ’s clear The Quantum Thief represents only a fraction of ideas he wants to expand upon . “ I ’m currently work on the second novel , which is a continuation of the first , but could be read independently . ” It ’s currently untitled , but a strong news report focal point will be on the Sobornost , a Stalinist transhuman upload collective , which featured briefly in the first book , as well as the hark back Quantum Thief protagonists Jean le Flambeur and Mieli .

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