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Books by Greg Egan
Quarantine
by Greg Egan
· published 1992 · read 2018-03-26
★★★★★
This was lots of fun. The story is told in a four-star way, but it has so fucking many great concepts: Having a fuckton of software for your brain, and the implications of loyalty software, of cours. But mostly the idea that humans are unique in collapsing the wave functions of possibilities, and the implications of xenocide that come with it. Wow. And the implications of learning to suppress that reflex, and having human made quantum computing in the brain. ♥
Distress
by Greg Egan
· published 1995 · read 2018-07-20
★★★★☆
Distress is another really enjoyable book by Greg Egan, part of his very loosely connected Subjective Cosmology trilogy. It's less "weird" than the other two parts, and might make a better starting point for interested readers. We accompany our protagonist, a scientific journalist, to a phyics conference on an anarchist island – less happens than in th other books, but that just finally leaves room for better characters and characterisations. The whole book, especially its increasingly twisty story arch, is very recommendable scifi.
Permutation City
by Greg Egan
· published 1994 · read 2018-04-24
★★★★☆
3.5 stars, weird one. Greg continues to play with the rules of perception and what perceiving a thing implies, only this time we go on a trippy trip to parallel universe central, launching of parallel universes as we go, dropping through thousands of years and more, and "failing" (in one universe, and what's one universe) in the end because the aliens we created have a more solid and cohesive perception of reality than we do. I just felt the whole time that Greg made all the rules arbitrarily and could change them whatever way he wanted at any time. Which may have been due to me not understanding the premise deeply enough (and is a feeling shared by Maria, one of the two protagonists, at least).
Axiomatic
by Greg Egan
· published 1990 · read 2017-03-10
★★★★☆
Hard to rate collections of stories. There was really cool stuff in there, and I like how he works off similar themes (such as the jewel) repeatedly, but some stories felt too close thematically or in the way they were structured. Really enjoyed it though!
Diaspora
by Greg Egan
· published 1997 · read 2018-08-25
★★☆☆☆
While I liked Greg Egan's other novels, Diaspora didn't grip me at all and was very hard to get through. The fact that it revolves around an advanced species that can change itself to any degree it wants to made it hard to feel sypathy with any of the characters. The beginning was really strong, describing how their civilizations and personalities are formed. But after that, to my feeling the book consisted only of excalating physicsbabble and arbitrary personality changes, and this escalation continued right upon the not quite satisfying end.
Reasons To Be Cheerful
by Greg Egan
· published 1999 · read 2022-12-30
★★☆☆☆
Creepy af story (constant happiness, constant depression, self-directed brain rewiring, etc), as always when Gregan starts thinking about brains. Available online, and I liked reading it in the end. Distinctly early 2000s though, and not just because it lives on utilitarianism.com. Very HPMOR vibes (not the main work, maybe, but definitely the basilisk one), in how it's kinda preachy. Archived PDF, in case the link above doesn't work. This book is part of the 2022 Backlog Incident.