Book Review: Zendegi by Greg Egan

I’ve been following Greg Egan’s work since his short stories first appeared in ‘Interzone’ twenty years ago and I’ve been reading his novels as they appear ever since. His first novel ‘Quarantine’ was the first book I picked up because of recognising the author’s name from his short stories. That has happened very few times since.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Oceanic by Greg Egan

Greg Egan is well known for his high-concept stories that extrapolate the future of humanity to extremes of biology, technology and time. His ability to wield maths and physics as literary tools is unparalleled. In the collection ‘Oceanic’ he demonstrates both of these attributes while continuing to create interesting characters who help us to comprehend the incomprehensible. Twelve stories previously published in ‘Asimov’s’ and ‘Interzone’ among others make up this sturdy volume.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Diaspora by Greg Egan

Many of the themes and grand concepts from Egan’s earlier works come together in ‘Diaspora’, a book that left me dumbfounded with its astonishing scale. You’ve likely read other books that span millennia or even billions of year or that cross universes, but believe me this book will leave them all behind.


Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Teranesia by Greg Egan

Teranesia is the made up name of a remote Indonesian island that forms the backdrop of this novel. It is the island where Prabir grows up with his biologist parents and where he and his sister return years later to investigate strange new creatures that have been discovered. In this book Egan shows that he can talk biology as convincingly as he can discuss maths and physics.


Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Luminous by Greg Egan

The ten stories in this collection were first published in the mid nineties, where I remember reading many of them in ‘Interzone’. The themes are diverse but all have in common a rooting in hard science, taking concepts in use today and extrapolating them into the near future or imagining what they may lead to one day. The near-future tales are often set in times that we have since reached, yet they have not become outdated like many ideas have. Instead they still sound as though they could be fulfilled within the next twenty years. Many of the stories have one particular technological idea at their core, but the text is also peppered with references to other developments that remove the entire society and setting away from the familiar and into the fantastic.


Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Distress by Greg Egan

Yet again in this novel, Greg Egan mixes near-future prediction with dramatic speculation of what might conceivably come to pass, resulting in an entirely plausible picture of Earth that already shows signs of fulfilling his predictions thirteen years after its first publication.


Read the rest of my reveiew at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Incandescence by Greg Egan

If someone were to ask you to recommend a book for a first-time reader of science fiction, this would not be it. However if you love far-future mind-bending concepts then Greg Egan is your man. Like all of his other novels, ‘Incandescence’ is not short of fabulous ideas with cutting-edge physics to back them up.

Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Book Review: Permutation City by Greg Egan

I must say the new issue covers look rather smart, in a minimalist kind of way. Greyscale with yellow writing, you don’t really get the full effect unless you have the whole set. Which I do of course.


Read the rest of my review at SF Crowsnest.

Greg Egan Bonanza

The friendly neighbourhood postlady delivered another parcel of goodies for me yesterday: almost the entire Greg Egan back catalogue in their smart new re-issue matching covers.

• Permutation City
• Distress
• Diaspora
• Axiomatic
• Luminous
• Teranesia
• Quarantine


I already have Incandescence, so I’m only missing Schild’s Ladder. I’ll be producing reviews for five of these for SF Crowsnest. That should keep me busy.

So far this week

Books Received: The Last Theorem by Arthur C. Clarke and Frederick Pohl
Celebration – BSFA 50th Anniversary anthology

Just finished reading: Jupiter XXI – enjoyed the whole magazine as usual.

Waiting to be read: Interzone #217

Review submitted to SF Crowsnest: Incandescence by Greg Egan

Critiqued: 2 stories from my Orbiter writing group, and received 2 sets of comments on my latest short story.

Stories submitted: 1 English, 2 other languages

Stories written: None. Drat.

My First ARC

I took a detour via the Post Office on the way to work this morning to pick up a parcel of two books. It’s my first consignment from SF Crowsnest, where my reviews will be appearing in future and includes an ARC of Greg Egan’s Incandescence, along with Mat Coward’s short story collection So Far, So Near. My review of Pantechnicon #7 will also be appearing there soon.

SF Crowsnest is the most popular SF site in Europe and the 2nd most popular in the world, with 800,000 visitors each month. That’s a big audience.

As you may know, Whispers of Wickedness is closing down. My final review for them, of Interzone 216, should be up in the next few days.