The Quantum Magician introduces us to Belisarius Arjona, Homo Quantus. Engineered to calculate, find patterns, and understand. But in his case the quantum fugue state that accesses his higher quantitative functions doesn't work right, and he fears it will kill him. He has turned to elaborate cons to provide the stimulation his brain needs.
It's absolutely a fun story to read. The plot is very much Ocean's Eleven, from the assembly of his team to the twisty way the con plays out. But there's a whole lot of fascinating stuff going on in the book--it is idea- as well as action-driven.
Let's start with the variant humans--Belisarius, as noted, is Homo Quantus. He spends a lot of narrative time introspecting on the divided nature of his consciousness. He has come to view the quantum fugue state, where he can understand the most abstract concepts, as an inhuman state. But he brings in his former lover, another Homo Quantus, to go where he can't go.
He also brings in Stills, Homo Eridanus--the Mongrels, humans abusively genetically engineered to live under many atmospheres of pressure. Useful for piloting spaceships under high acceleration. Stills is classic hired muscle. He introspects, but it's all about embracing and fighting that oppression.
The third variant human on the team is Gates-15, Homo pupa--the Puppets, a race engineered by the Numen as slaves, who invert the relationship and hold the Numen captive. This is probably the most fascinating dynamic in the book, providing a lot of space for speculation on the nature of religion and divinity. This is where the book veers toward horror. The Numen built Homo Pupa to need them viscerally, so badly that the Puppets were forced to capture the Numen. The need is through the sense of smell, which brings in the body horror as another member of the team, Belisarius' mentor William (a standard human) volunteers to be engineered to be a Numen. The Numen are kept under very strange and brutal conditions. As Belisarius observes, the relationship to the divine is not moral. Gods do not have moral standing with their worshippers.
The other two members of the team are Marie, a cashiered military cutout with demolition expertise, and Del Casals, the genetic engineer who turns William into a fake Numen. Marie and Stills develop an interesting dynamic when they are forced to work together. It is never sexual, which makes it that much more interesting--they find a kind of kinship. Del Casals is hard to talk about without spoiling it--he's there mainly for a plot point.
The last member of the team is Saint Matthew, an advanced and autonomous AI. His visage is Carvaggio's painting of Saint Matthew. Saint Matthew is in the work to find new religious insights. He ends up as a part of Marie's triangle.
In the end, what motivates Belisarius isn't the money. The con is set up as a way to get twelve Union ships carrying a logarithmic leap in technology through the Puppet Axis, a gateway to other star systems and impossibly well defended. Belisarius starts out telling us that it's about the stimulation, but as we go we see that the con is on the reader as well--Belisarius is an unreliable narrator. He is playing almost everyone against everyone and the inevitable betrayals are part of the con. You can see what's coming but you don't mind.
The action is very well described. The second half of the book really picks up and it's hard to stop reading at bedtime. I definitely want to read the next one in the series.
