Critics have overlooked his tenderness, underestimated his intelligence, and denied his wisdom... The Porcupine is a superbly accomplished novella

A minor masterpiece of political satire: compelling, funny and frightening

The Porcupine is a new indisputable proof of Mr Barnes's creative power, yet what really astonished me, the Prosecutor, was the amazing precision of the intellectual's view of a socialist dictator, which so accorded with Zhivkov's true character

The neatness of the novel's structure is complemented by the rampageous energy of the characters for which it is the cage

"I have no problems raving about this book. A truly wild backdrop of space-opera with wormholes, big space-fleet conflict and empires.... What could go wrong?"

"This brainy sci-fi heist novel uses mathematics like magic to pull you through a caper worthy of Jean-Pierre Melville."

"The Quantum Magician is the type of book you go back to the beginning and read again once you know how everything pans out and have those 'why didn't I see that the first time?' moments."

"A delightfully engaging heist story."

"The Quantum Magician is a space adventure built on the scaffolding of a classic con job movie (think The Italian Job or Ocean's Eleven). It hits all the right beats at the right time, and part of the fun in reading it is wondering: what will go wrong? Who will betray who? What will be the reversals? When done well, as in the case of The Quantum Magician, it's a delight to read."

"The Quantum Magician feels like what would happen if Locke Lamora landed in Bank's Culture, and if Locke had a lot to say about depraved humans. And I do love me a con artist story! Also? The writing is brilliant, the pacing is damn near perfect, the dialog is fun and snarky, the characters are great, I couldn't put this book down!"

"Con games and heists are always hard to write - one like this, which comes out pitch perfect, wrapped in a nuanced and striking sci-fi narrative is, to say the least, a rarity."

"The Quantum Magician is a fabulous debut, it would make the most fantastic movie. It has everything and more, it seriously needs to be read by way more people. Highly, highly recommended."