Comments on: The Big Idea: Greg Egan

By: Petar Belic

Petar Belic — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 22:21:51 +0000

Fantastic read, but even I (who has studied some of the science at university level) found the story a bit hard going at times… or should I say ‘the science’. Having said this, the whole premise is exciting, and I loved reading it and look forwards to a new Egan book. I found myself making comparisons to earlier Vernor Vinge at times, and that is a good thing!

By: Xan López

Xan López — Sat, 24 Jan 2009 01:35:51 +0000

@Philippe D: Well, I have to disagree there. In my opinion Diaspora´s end is one of the most mind-boggling endings I have ever read.

** Spoiler **

Speaking of which, if Mr. Egan is still reading these comments, I’ve always wondered this: are the Transmuters, in their ‘one fixed state per universe’ state, still supposed to be computed and thus still conscious? Perhaps in a similar way than the protagonists of Permutation City were alive and well, their data scattered in time and space but that making no difference to them. I ask this because my initial reaction was that we were supposed to assume that they were somehow ‘dead’, but on further reflection I don’t think that’s consistent with a strict interpretation of your other ideas about the nature of consciousness.

By: Philippe D

Philippe D — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 16:14:51 +0000

I got this book as a Christmas present, and though I don’t read much these days, I read it in a couple of days, chuckling to myself as I understood at least part of what was going on (I don’t know enough relativity theory to understand the details, but I did catch the “we’re not really agreeing with Newton’s physics” part).

Now, don’t get me wrong: Egan’s work is highly enjoyable, and I absolutely recommend it to anyone who’s interested in “Hard SF”, but, as happened with some of his previous books, the end left me a bit frustrated. He’s absolutely great at imagining weird situations and making them understandable (at least to someone with moderate-to-high scientific background), but not so good at finishing books, I’d say.

By: tyler k rauman

tyler k rauman — Sat, 18 Oct 2008 12:02:50 +0000

I had almost given up on waiting for a new book from Egan, and then randomly I found the Youtube “trailers” for Incandescence. This story sounds just as compelling as any other he’s written, and I can’t describe how excited I am to get a chance to read it. I wonder if I’ll be able to find it here in Canada?

PS. I love the description “Diamond-Hard Sci-Fi”. But are diamonds really hard enough? Surely we can do better.

Polyyne-Hard?

By: Fred Kiesche

Fred Kiesche — Thu, 24 Jul 2008 18:11:59 +0000

I noticed that the Egan backlist is out in print again in the UK…but not the US. Boo, hiss, US publishers! We want our diamond-hard SF!

By: Lurky

Lurky — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 19:10:37 +0000

Being a UK-er, I have had the great pleasure of reading Incandescence already, and I just wanted to point out that this Big Idea piece doesn’t even tell the half of it. The “alien renaissance where they work out GR” story (which does a wonderful job of both celebrating and subverting the “loner who has worked out the truth” cliche) is amazing, but we get another perspective on the civilisation involved from the Amalgam protagonists in another plot strand that’s full of its own brilliant ideas, and the two are very cleverly woven together in a way that wonderfully undercuts another huge SFnal cliche (I shall avoid detail because it might be considered spoilery).

If hard SF is even slightly the sort of thing you like, you will love Incandescence. Buy it now.

By: shane

shane — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 05:04:10 +0000

A six year hiatus from novels? I knew it had been a while but… If Incandescence is half as good as “The Big Idea” implies it will be worth the wait. Welcome back Greg. Now if we could convince Terry Dowling and Sean McMullen to be more prolific too…

By: anthony

anthony — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 01:30:31 +0000

I’m really glad I saw this, I had forgotten Incandescence was coming out.
i loves me some greg egan.

By: htom

htom — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:56:42 +0000

I love physics, so these sound great. (Plus, his name is easy to remember, as I live in Eagan, MN!)

By: mimbles

mimbles — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 23:30:11 +0000

Well, this is timely. I was planning on heading out to my favourite bookshop today, now I have one more book to add to my list. I LOVE me some headache inducing hard sci-fi :)